Top Poker Winners 2018

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1. Top Poker Winners 2018 Results
2. Top Poker Winners 2018 Winners
3. Biggest Poker Winners 2018
4. Top Poker Winners 2018 Announced
5. Biggest Online Poker Winners 2018

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• »Who Are The Biggest Live Poker MTT Winners From Arizona?

And last updated 2018-02-23 20:32:04-05 A guest at The D Las Vegas hit a $100,000 jackpot recently. The jackpot was on a poker machine at the downtown casino's Longbar where the player hit a royal. ABOUT CARDPLAYER, THE POKER AUTHORITY CardPlayer.com is the world's oldest and most well respected poker magazine and online poker guide.Since 1988, CardPlayer has provided poker players with. Throughout the summer, Tim Fiorvanti will report on the biggest stories, recap events and recognize all of the gold bracelet winners at the 2018 World Series of Poker in a series of daily dispatches. Before making a career in poker, Grospellier was one of the top Starcraft players in the world. He set the Guinness World Record for most Single Table Sit & Go’s in an hour (62). He was also the first to reach “ Supernova Elite ” on Pokerstars.

We continue our series into the biggest winning live poker tournament players by heading to Arizona. The Grand Canyon State is the sixth largest and 14th most populous of all 50 states.

Arizona is known around the US for its desert climate, its forests, and deep canyons. Yet we know the state for another reason: it’s fantastic poker players.

The five biggest live poker tournament winners from Arizona have $20,238,938 between them. Those same five players are feared and respected in equal measure, but who are they? Continue reading to find out.

David “ODB” Baker Top The Arizona All-Time Money List

Top Poker Winners 2018 Results

David “ODB” Baker tops the Arizona all-time money list with $5,924,009 in earnings. The “ODB” stands for Original David Baker so people can differentiate him from David “Bakes” Baker, another very talented grinder.

This Baker has 191 recorded live cashes dating back to 1993. It’s safe to say he’s withstood the test of time.

Baker has two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets to his name. The first came in 2012 in the $2,500 8-Game . The second came only a couple of months after his largest-ever score in June 2019. Baker won the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event straight after the $10,000 WPT L.A. Poker Classic. That $10,000 event yielded a $1,015,000 top prize.

Ninety-eight cashes and $3,375,820 of Baker’s wins stem from WSOP events.

Jake Balsiger Came Close to Winning the WSOP Main Event For Arizona

Jake Balsiger of Tempe, Arizona, burst onto the live poker scene in 2012. To say he arrived with a bang is an understatement. Balsiger headed to the 2012 WSOP, his first World Series. He cashed in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event and in a $235 Rio Daily Deepstack. Balsiger recorded a third cash that summer and it’s still the biggest of his career.

His impressive run in the 2012 WSOP Main Event ended in a third-place finish. That result banked a young Balsiger $3,799,073, which is the bulk of his $5,042,442 winnings.

Balsiger added three six-figure scores to his name in 2014, 2015, and 2017. The score in 2014 weighed in at $568,644, his reward for a third-place finish in the Aussie Millions Main Event.

He no longer plays poker judging by how he’s not cashed in a live event since October 2018.

Nick Pupillo Now Calls The State Home

Nick Pupillo was born in Addison, Illinois but calls Gilbert, Arizona home. Pupillo has $3,291,891 in live tournament winnings despite his largest cash being for $217,535. He won this much by grinding like crazy and racking up 223 recorded cashes.

Pupillo has 14 victories, including two six-figure hauls from the Heartland Poker Tour. He won in Chicago in 2015 for $120,537 and again in Colorado in 2017 for $194,478. He also secured a WSOPC ring in 2017 at Thunder Valley, which won Pupillo $170,286.

His largest cash of $217,535 came in 2017 when he finished second in a WPT Main Event in Atlantic City.

Mike Wattel The Mixed Game Specialist

Mike Wattel hails from Phoenix, Arizona and is a superb mixed game specialist. Wattel has won $3,161,166 in his career, $2,647,211 coming from the WSOP.

Wattel won the first of his two bracelets back in 1999. He finished first in a $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event for $134,865. Bracelet number two came in 2017 in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. That prize weighed in at $245,451.

Only two of Wattel’s other results are worth more than that last prize. He won $251,602 for a seventh-place finish in the 2013 Poker Players Championship. $309,405 is Wattel’s biggest prize, which he collected for sixth-place in the $25,500 WPT Five Star World Poker Classic.

Ryan Hughes the Double WSOP Bracelet Winner

Ryan Hughes is from Phoenix, Arizona, just like fellow WSOP-lover Mike Wattel. Almost half of Hughes’ 145 cashes come from the WSOP in Las Vegas. Some $1,451,110 of his $2,837,782 come from Hughes’ WSOP exploits.

He has two bracelets to his name, both coming in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo events. The first came in 2007 and netted him $176,358. Number two came in 2008 and was worth $183,368.

Hughes has come close to winning more bracelets over the years. A pair of runner-up finishes and nine other final tables show his poker prowess.

• »News
• »Who Are The Biggest Poker Tournament Winners Of All-Time?

The rise in popularity of High Roller and Super High Roller poker tournaments in recent years has had a dramatic affect on the all-time winnings rankings, as has the fact poker tournament players now have more opportunities than ever to grind away in major events around the world.

These days, you need almost $8.5 million in cashes just to break into the top 100 biggest poker winners of all-time, and a staggering $12.6 million to find yourself ranked in the top 50. The prize money some of the world’s best poker players have earned is astronomical, but who are the five biggest poker tournament winners of all time?

Justin Bonomo – $44,779,048

Justin Bonomo tops the charts with an almost unbelievable total of $44,779,048 in live poker tournament winnings. Bonomo already had more than $18 million in earning before he went on a massive heater during 2018 that saw the Fairfax, Virginia native get his hands on more than $25.4 million!

Part of that huge total stemmed from his victory in the Big One for One Drop event at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a $1 million buy-in event. Bonomo was the last man standing and locked up the largest cash of his career, namely $10 million.

Daniel Negreanu – $40,045,583

Daniel Negreanu

Former PokerStars Team ProDaniel Negreanu was the former number one in the biggest poker tournament winners of all time until Bonomo went on his epic run. Negreanu is currently sat in second-place with $40,045,583 in winnings.

The Canadian, who resides in Las Vegas is regarded as one of the best all-round poker players of all time, one who has amassed six WSOP bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles. Negreanu’s largest cash weighs in at $8,288,001, his reward for a second-place finish in the 2014 edition of the Big One for One Drop.

Erik Seidel – $35,373,831

Top Poker Winners 2018 Winners

Erik Seidel may not look like your stereotypical poker player, but do not let looks fool you because Seidel is an absolute beast, a beast who has earned $35,373,831 from poker tournaments. Among Seidel’s many achievements are eight WSOP bracelets, a WPT Main Event win and a victory in a Super High Roller event on the European Poker Tour (EPT) circuit.

Seidel was the runner-up in the 1988 WSOP Main Event, losing to Johnny Chan. This final hand made it into the famous 1998 movie Rounders.

Bryn Kenney – $34,908,320

Bryn Kenney

Born in Long Beach, New York, Bryn Kenney cut his teeth playing online poker where he gained a reputation for being a fearless opponent. It is a deserved reputation because Kenney fears nobody at the table, especially in No Limit Hold’em tournaments for any stakes.

Biggest Poker Winners 2018

There are still six months of 2019 remaining, yet Kenney is already guaranteed to have enjoyed his best year at the poker tables in terms of money won. Through June 20, 2019, Kenney has banked almost $9.3 million in winnings, an impressive figure helped by him winning back-to-back titles at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro that saw him return home with the equivalent of $3,605,235.

David Peters – $33,066,566

Ohio’s David Peters is probably the best poker player you have never heard of and it is not because of a lack of winnings as Peters currently sits in fifth-place in the biggest poker tournament winners of all-time listings with $33,066,566.

Top Poker Winners 2018 Announced

Peters tends to shun the limelight, not interested in the publicity that comes with winning poker tournament. Instead, Peters acts like a consummate professional, heads to casinos around the world and has an almost unnatural ability to build his stack.

Ten cashes of more than $1 million have helped Peters soar up the rankings, with his largest prize being worth $2,699,752 which he won for finishing second in a Super High Roller event in the Philippines that cost $200,000 to enter.

10 Biggest Poker Tournament Winners of All-Time

Biggest Online Poker Winners 2018