List of largest poker tournaments in history (by prize pool)

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For the last several years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play).

The first tournament to reach a million dollar prize pool was the 1983 WSOP Main Event. The WSOP Main Event of 2004 had the first prize pool of above $10,000,000.

The largest non Hold'em Tournament has been the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE with a prize pool of $7,104,000 and the first prize of $1,989,120 going to Scotty Nguyen.[1]

Below are the 30 largest poker tournaments with respect to the prize pool in United States dollars and not number of entrants. This list includes live and online poker.

Currently, 14 of the 15 largest prize pools in history have been WSOP Main Events. The second largest prize pool outside of the Main Event is the 2012 WSOP event known as The Big One for One Drop, held from July 1–3. It featured a buy-in of US$1 million, the largest in poker history. Of the buy-in, $111,111 was a charitable donation to the One Drop Foundation, and the WSOP took no rake. All 48 seats available for that event were filled, resulting in a prize pool of $42,666,672, with over 5 million dollars donated.[2] The second largest pool for any event outside of the WSOP was the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge, with a HK$2 million (US$260,000) buy-in plus a rebuy option. The event drew a field of 73, of which 21 made a rebuy, resulting in a prize pool of HK$182,360,000 (slightly over US$23.5 million).[3]

All of the 30 richest tournaments to date were played in No Limit Hold'em.

Event Prize pool (US$) Winner 1st prize Ref.
2023 WSOP Main Event $93,399,900 United States Daniel Weinman $12,100,000 [4]
2006 WSOP Main Event $82,512,162 United States Jamie Gold $12,000,000 [5][6]
2022 WSOP Main Event $80,782,475 Norway Espen Jørstad $10,000,000 [7]
2019 WSOP Main Event $80,548,600 Germany Hossein Ensan $10,000,000 [8]
2018 WSOP Main Event $74,015,600 United States John Cynn $8,800,000 [9]
2010 WSOP Main Event $68,799,059 Canada Jonathan Duhamel $8,944,310 [10]
2017 WSOP Main Event $67,877,400 United States Scott Blumstein $8,150,000 [11]
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) China Aaron Zang $16,775,820* (£13,779,491) [12]
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) United States Bryn Kenney* $20,563,324* (£16,775,820) (2nd place) [12]
2011 WSOP Main Event $64,531,000 Germany Pius Heinz $8,711,956 [13]
2008 WSOP Main Event $64,333,600 Denmark Peter Eastgate $9,152,416 [14]
2016 WSOP Main Event $63,327,800 Vietnam Qui Nguyen $8,005,310 [15]
2014 WSOP Main Event $62,820,200 Sweden Martin Jacobson $10,000,000 [16]
2012 WSOP Main Event $62,021,200 United States Greg Merson $8,527,982 [17]
2009 WSOP Main Event $61,043,600 United States Joe Cada $8,547,042 [18]
2015 WSOP Main Event $60,348,000 United States Joe McKeehen $7,680,021 [19]
2007 WSOP Main Event $59,784,954 Laos Jerry Yang $8,250,000 [20]
2013 WSOP Main Event $59,708,800 United States Ryan Riess $8,359,531 [21]
2005 WSOP Main Event $52,818,610 Australia Joe Hachem $7,500,000 [22]
2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop $42,666,672 United States Antonio Esfandiari $18,346,673 [23]
2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop $37,333,338 United States Dan Colman $15,306,668 [24]
2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza $27,437,564 Canada Elton Tsang $12,248,912 [25]
2019 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship $26,455,500 Spain Ramon Colillas $5,100,000 [26]
2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop $24,840,000 United States Justin Bonomo $10,000,000 [27]
2004 WSOP Main Event $24,224,400 United States Greg Raymer $5,000,000 [28]
2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller $23,511,128 China Stanley Choi $6,465,560 [29]
Super High Roller Bowl 2015 $21,500,000 United States Brian Rast $7,525,000 [30]
2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop $19,316,565 Germany Fedor Holz $4,981,775 [31]
Super High Roller Bowl China $18,542,370 United States Justin Bonomo $4,821,516 [32]
2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller $17,891,148 United States Anthony Gregg $4,830,619 [33]
Super High Roller Bowl 2017 $16,800,000 Germany Christoph Vogelsang $6,000,000 [34]
2007 WPT Championship $15,495,750 Ecuador Carlos Mortensen $3,970,415 [35]
2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event $15,376,897 Germany Niklas Heinecker $4,456,885 [36]
2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure $15,132,000 United States Galen Hall $2,300,000 [37]
* Due to a prize splitting deal Aaron Zang received £13,779,491 ($16,775,820) for 1st, original payout for 1st was £19,000,000 ($23,100,000). Bryn Kenney received a larger cash prize of £16,775,820 ($20,563,324) for 2nd place.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Hendon Mob
  2. ^ Dalla, Nolan (June 30, 2012). "The Biggest One—World's Most Spectacular Poker Extravaganza Starts Sunday". World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  3. ^ Peters, Donnie (August 31, 2012). "Stanley Choi Wins Macau High Stakes Challenge for US$6,465,746". PokerNews.com. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  4. ^ "54th World Series of Poker - WSOP 2023, $ 10,000 No Limit Hold'em - WSOP Main Event (Bracelet Event 76): Hendon Mob Poker Database".
  5. ^ "2006 WSOP Main Event payouts". WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  6. ^ Hendon Mob
  7. ^ "pgt-website". www.pgt.com. Retrieved 2022-07-09.
  8. ^ "50th World Series of Poker - WSOP 2019, No Limit Hold'em - WSOP Main Event: Hendon Mob Poker Database".
  9. ^ "49th World Series of Poker - WSOP 2018, No Limit Hold'em - Main Event Championship (Event #65): Hendon Mob Poker Database".
  10. ^ wsop.com
  11. ^ "WSOP | Tournaments | Payouts".
  12. ^ a b "Triton Super High Roller Series London 2019".
  13. ^ "PIUS HEINZ WINS 2011 WSOP MAIN EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP". WSOP. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  14. ^ Hendon Mob
  15. ^ "Level 4 concludes: officially the largest main event in the last five years". WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  16. ^ Poker News Daily
  17. ^ pokernews.com
  18. ^ "2009 WSOP main event prize pool". WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  19. ^ "Event #68: No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT". 2015 World Series op Poker Chip Counts. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  20. ^ Hendon Mob
  21. ^ "2013 44th Annual World Series of Poker, Event #62: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event". WSOP.com. Retrieved July 20, 2013. Click on the "Prizepool" tab for the first prize.
  22. ^ Hendon Mob
  23. ^ Dalla, Nolan (July 3, 2012). "Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Amazing Trick by Winning One Drop". WSOP.com. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  24. ^ Hendon Mob
  25. ^ "Elton Tsang Wins the Big One for One Drop Extravaganza for €11,111,111!".
  26. ^ "Poker Tours".
  27. ^ "49th World Series of Poker - WSOP 2018, No Limit Hold'em - the Big One for One Drop (Event #78): Hendon Mob Poker Database".
  28. ^ Hendon Mob
  29. ^ Hendon Mob
  30. ^ Hendon Mob
  31. ^ Hendon Mob
  32. ^ "Justin Bonomo Wins Super High Roller Bowl China for $4.8 Million". www.pokernews.com. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  33. ^ Hendon Mob
  34. ^ "2017 Super High Roller Bowl, No Limit Hold'em: Hendon Mob Poker Database".
  35. ^ Hendon Mob
  36. ^ Hendon Mob
  37. ^ pokerstarsblog.com
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