What Are The Biggest Poker Tournaments

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  1. 2006 WSOP Main Event
  2. Benzinga Via YahooWhy Poker Players Might Make Better Investors2 Years Ago
Jonathan Duhamel

Oct 27, 2020 World Series of Poker, popularly referred to as WSOP, is undoubtedly one of the world’s biggest and most well-known poker tournaments. Every professional poker player has a desire to be invited to play in this tournament, which has a total prize money of nearly $10 million. The PokerStars Sunday Million. Organized: Every Sunday. Poker Site: PokerStars. Guaranteed Prize. Bryn Kenney ($20,563,324) The American poker legend, Bryn Kenney, certified his status in the 2019.

For the last eight 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.

EventPrize Pool (US$)Winner1st PrizeRef.
2006 WSOP Main Event$82,512,162Jamie Gold$12,000,000[4][5]
2019 WSOP Main Event$80,548,600Hossein Ensan$10,000,000[6]
2018 WSOP Main Event$74,015,600John Cynn$8,800,000[7]
2010 WSOP Main Event$68,799,059Jonathan Duhamel$8,944,310[8]
2017 WSOP Main Event$67,877,400Scott Blumstein$8,150,000[9]
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million$65,660,000 (£54,000,000)Aaron Zang$16,775,820* (£13,779,491)[10]
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million$65,660,000 (£54,000,000)Bryn Kenney*$20,563,324* (£16,775,820) (2nd place)[10]
2011 WSOP Main Event$64,531,000Pius Heinz$8,711,956[11]
2008 WSOP Main Event$64,333,600Peter Eastgate$9,152,416[12]
2016 WSOP Main Event$63,327,800Qui Nguyen$8,005,310[13]
2014 WSOP Main Event$62,820,200Martin Jacobson$10,000,000[14]
2012 WSOP Main Event$62,021,200Greg Merson$8,527,982[15]
2009 WSOP Main Event$61,043,600Joe Cada$8,547,042[16]
2015 WSOP Main Event$60,348,000Joe McKeehen$7,680,021[17]
2007 WSOP Main Event$59,784,954Jerry Yang$8,250,000[18]
2013 WSOP Main Event$59,708,800Ryan Riess$8,359,531[19]
2005 WSOP Main Event$52,818,610Joe Hachem$7,500,000[20]
2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop$42,666,672Antonio Esfandiari$18,346,673[21]
2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop$37,333,338Dan Colman$15,306,668[22]
2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza$27,437,564Elton Tsang$12,248,912[23]
2019 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship$26,455,500Ramon Colillas$5,100,000[24]
2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop$24,840,000Justin Bonomo$10,000,000[25]
2004 WSOP Main Event$24,224,400Greg Raymer$5,000,000[26]
2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller$23,511,128 Stanley Choi$6,465,560[27]
Super High Roller Bowl 2015$21,500,000Brian Rast$7,525,000[28]
2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop$19,316,565Fedor Holz$4,981,775[29]
2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller$17,891,148Anthony Gregg$4,830,619[30]
Super High Roller Bowl 2017$16,800,000Christoph Vogelsang$6,000,000[31]
2007 WPT Championship$15,495,750Carlos Mortensen$3,970,415[32]
2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event$15,376,897Niklas Heinecker$4,456,885[33]
2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure$15,132,000Galen Hall$2,300,000[34]
*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. ^'2006 WSOP Main Event payouts'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  5. ^Hendon Mob
  6. ^https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=541550
  7. ^[1]
  8. ^wsop.com
  9. ^http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/payouts.asp?grid=1352&tid=15673
  10. ^ abhttps://triton-series.com/triton-super-high-roller-series-london-2019/
  11. ^'PIUS HEINZ WINS 2011 WSOP MAIN EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP'. WSOP. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  12. ^Hendon Mob
  13. ^'Level 4 concludes: officially the largest main event in the last five years'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  14. ^Poker News Daily
  15. ^pokernews.com
  16. ^'2009 WSOP main event prize pool'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  17. ^'Event #68: No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT'. 2015 World Series op Poker Chip Counts. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  18. ^Hendon Mob
  19. ^'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.
  20. ^Hendon Mob
  21. ^Dalla, Nolan (July 3, 2012). 'Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Amazing Trick by Winning One Drop'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  22. ^Hendon Mob
  23. ^[2]
  24. ^[3]
  25. ^[4]
  26. ^Hendon Mob
  27. ^Hendon Mob
  28. ^Hendon Mob
  29. ^Hendon Mob
  30. ^Hendon Mob
  31. ^[5]
  32. ^Hendon Mob
  33. ^Hendon Mob
  34. ^pokerstarsblog.com
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_largest_poker_tournaments_in_history_(by_prize_pool)&oldid=996991828'

Every poker tournament series, event and festival in the US and Canada is here on PokerAtlas, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP), World Poker Tour (WPT), Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), and all others. Click on any event for the full tournament schedule, including dates, start times, buy-ins, structures, and details about each.

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