November 14, 2019 By Sourav

Poker is a member of the card game family, which involves serious betting, and is widely played in clubs and casinos. The origin of poker is a top of many a debate as English actor Joseph Cowell stated in his memoirs that the game was first played with a deck of 20 cards in Louisiana in 1829, whereas, R. F. Foster is his 1937 edition of Foster's Complete recorded that, “the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As Nas.' Later, many game historians like David Parlett challenged the origination of poker in America as they proved its similarity with a French game called Poque. And now, check out the Top 10 Greatest Poker Players Of All Time.

Top 10 Greatest Poker Players Of All Time

The first top-tier international tournament World Series of Poker began in 1970 and later followed by the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour. The first poker strategy book named Super/System was published by Doyle Brunson. There are different varieties of poker that are popular in the global market these days, which include games like Straight poker and Stud poker. International poker stars earn huge amounts of cash from tournaments as well as enjoy the celebrity status like any other outdoor games, so here is the list of top 10 best poker players of all time.

2020's List Of Top Poker Players - The best poker players in the world, ranked by live poker earnings. He also went on to become the first two-time winner of the event in 2014, the $3.5m prize.
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.

9276 players in the WPT All Time Money List. WPT All Time Money List - Top 9,276. WSOP Main Event Winners; WSOP All Time Money List. 520480 players in the All Time Money List. This ranking list does not include results from recurring events (regular daily, weekly or monthly events).

10. Barry Greenstein

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Barry Greenstein[/caption]

American professional poker player Barry Greenstein was nicknamed 'the Robin Hood of poker' for donating his profit from tournament winnings to several charities and mainly donated $440,000 to the Children Incorporated. He achieved the bracelet of World Series of Poker three times and made it to the final table seventeen times. Barry also made it to the final table of World Poker Tour five times and won the championship twice. Besides live tournaments, he also plays online under the alias name 'barryg1' at PokerStars.

His total live tournament earnings exceeded $7,500,000 as of 2014 out of which he made $2,676,821 from World Series of Poker. Besides his amazing career as an international poker superstar, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in computer science and pursued post-graduation studies for a Ph.D. in mathematics. he now holds the tenth place in our list of the greatest poker players of all time.

9. Johnny Chan

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Johnny Chan[/caption]

Chinese-born American poker player Johnny Chan dropped out of the University of Houston and moved to Las Vegas to become a professional gambler at the age of just 21. He is famous for keeping a 'lucky orange” on the table in front of him. Chan won the World Series of Poker championship twice consecutively in 1987 and 1988 and also made to the final table twenty-seven times. He became the first player in 2005 to win ten World Series of Poker bracelets. He was nicknamed 'The Orient Express' and was inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002.

Besides his international poker career, he appeared in a cameo role playing against Matt Damon in the 1998 film Rounders. Chan also appeared as himself in the 2009 Hong Kong movie Poker King. He launched an online poker club called ChanPokerOnline.com in 2007. Chan definitely deserves his mention among the top 10 greatest poker players of all time.

8. Daniel Negreanu

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Daniel Negreanu[/caption]

Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu is the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time with his total prize money worth of $29,750,000 as of 2014. He has already achieved six bracelets of World Series of Poker and made it to the final table thirty-one times. Negreanu is the first player in poker history to be named the WSOP Player of the Year more than once with his award in 2004 and again in 2013. He has won the World Poker Tour twice till now and made it to the final table seven times and besides that, he also made it to the final table of the European Poker Tour five times.

He was named World Poker Tour Player of the Year for the 2004-05 season. Daniel is the first player in history to appear in all three World Series of Poker bracelet-awarding locations in Las Vegas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Besides his active poker career, he appeared playing against the Gambit as a poker player in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Daniel now holds the eighth place in the list of top 10 greatest poker players of all time.

7. Erik Seidel

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Erik Seidel[/caption]

American poker player Erik Seidel was originally the participant of backgammon tournaments for eight years and eventually started playing the stock market and then moved on to the world of poker. He was also one of the group members of Mayfair Club in New York City, which includes many famous poker players like Stu Ungar, Dan Harrington, Paul Magriel, Jay Heimowitz Howard Lederer and Mickey Appleman.

He has achieved eight bracelets of World Series of Poker and made it to the final table thirty-five times. Erik also reached the final table of World Poker Tour five times and won the championship once. His total live tournament earnings exceed $20,800,000 as of 2014 out of which he made $4,973,063 from World Series of Poker which placed him in the second position of all-time list. He now holds his place among the top 10 greatest poker players.

6. Johnny Moss

Biggest Poker Winners All Time

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Johnny Moss[/caption]

Former American gambler and professional poker player Johnny Moss is regarded by many as the finest players of the 1970s. He started to gamble as a young boy and eventually won the World Series of Poker main events three times. That includes consecutive wins in 1970 and 1971. Johnny was the inaugural winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event by the vote of his peers in 1970. He also achieved World Series of Poker bracelets nine times during his career. That placed him fourth overall in the all-time table after Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and Doyle Brunson.

His 1949 poker game against five-month-long 'heads up' Nick the Greek was the foundation for Al Alvarez's best-selling book named The Biggest Game in Town. That game also often cited as the inspiration behind the World Series of Poker. He was nicknamed “The Grand Old Man of Poker”. Besides, he was inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame as the inaugural member in 1979. He also holds his place among the greatest poker players of all time.

5. Phil Ivey

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Phil Ivey[/caption]

American professional poker player Phil Ivey is widely considered as the best all-round poker player of modern times in the world. He is often regarded as 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'. He was nicknamed 'The Phenom' after winning three bracelets in 2002 at World Series of Poker. Phil won ten World Series of Poker bracelets and one World Poker Tour title till now in his career. He also made it to the World Poker Tour final tables nine times. He appeared in World Series of Poker's final table a record thirty-one times till now, just at the age of 42.

Top Poker Winners All Time Nfl

Besides his career as an active poker player in international championships, Phil also established two companies, Ivey Poker and Ivey League. Ivey Poker is a 'play for free' poker App to compete against Ivey himself and several other pro players. And, the Ivey League is a poker training site. Ivey holds the fifth place in our list of top 10 greatest poker players of all time.

4. Antonio Esfandiari

[caption align='alignnone' width='600'] Antonio Esfandiari[/caption]

Professional poker player and former pro