Poker All-Time Money List: Gross vs Net Earnings

The poker all-time money list is the most quoted ranking in the game, and also one of the most misunderstood. It tallies live tournament prize money, but it says nothing about what a player paid to win it. This reference page publishes the current top ten of the poker all-time money list with exact figures from the PokerNews rankings (which draw on Hendon Mob data), analyses how concentrated the list is, and explains with real examples why gross cashes are not the same thing as profit.

If you are a journalist, student or analyst who needs a defensible way to describe tournament poker earnings, the key idea is simple: the list measures prize money received, not net results. Every number in the tables below is a published figure; where we derive a percentage or total ourselves we say so.

Key Findings: The Poker All-Time Money List

Bryn Kenney leads the live tournament all-time money list with $90,849,210, about 1.52 times the tenth-place total of $59,912,863. The top ten combine for $702,018,500 in recorded cashes, 6 of them US players. But the Hendon Mob records only gross prize money: it deducts no buy-ins, travel, taxes or staking costs, so rankings overstate net profit, sometimes by a large multiple.

The Top 10 Live Tournament Earners

The table below reproduces the all-time money list as published by PokerNews, which cites The Hendon Mob and excludes recurring events. The share columns are our calculations.

Rank	Player	Country	Total earnings	Share of top-10 total	% of #1
1	Bryn Kenney	United States	$90,849,210	12.9%	100.0%
2	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	$79,927,052	11.4%	88.0%
3	Jason Koon	United States	$77,032,156	11.0%	84.8%
4	Adrian Mateos	Spain	$70,372,453	10.0%	77.5%
5	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	$69,466,521	9.9%	76.5%
6	Isaac Haxton	United States	$66,813,452	9.5%	73.5%
7	Justin Bonomo	United States	$65,611,097	9.3%	72.2%
8	Dan Smith	United States	$61,356,629	8.7%	67.5%
9	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	$60,677,067	8.6%	66.8%
10	Alex Foxen	United States	$59,912,863	8.5%	65.9%
	Top-10 total		$702,018,500	100.0%

How concentrated is the list?

The ten players together account for $702,018,500 in recorded prize money, an average of $70,201,850 each. The gap between first and second place is $10,922,158, and the spread between first and tenth is $30,936,347. Put another way, the leader has won 1.52 times as much as the player in tenth place. 6 of the ten players are from the United States (our count), with the United Kingdom, Spain, Belarus and Canada each represented once.

A note on conflicting figures

Different outlets quote different totals for the same player. The PokerNews table lists Bryn Kenney at $90,849,210, while a separate article cites roughly $90.7 million, and the same PokerNews page's FAQ still refers to an older "over $75 million (as of Jan 2026)" figure. Daniel Negreanu appears at $60,677,067 in the table but "over $52 million" in the FAQ. These differences come from update timing, rounding and whether recurring events are excluded. For citations, use the dated table and name the source.

What the Hendon Mob Does and Does Not Measure

The Hendon Mob database records gross prize money only. It does not deduct buy-ins, travel, taxes, or the share of winnings owed to backers, and it does not account for sold action. As Gambling Insider notes, the database itself describes its figures as "no more than notional gross recorded winnings." In practice that makes the list a measure of tournament success and exposure, not of profit.

Gross vs Net: The Daniel Negreanu Case Study

The clearest public example of the gap between gross and net is Daniel Negreanu, who sits ninth on the list. According to Gambling Insider's analysis, his gross Hendon Mob cashes are about $60.7 million, but his self-reported net result since 2013 is up about $13.1 million, and a PokerNews estimate puts his true lifetime net at $18 million to $22 million, which Negreanu called a fair guess.

Measure	Figure	Context
Gross Hendon Mob cashes	about $60.7 million	Total prize money recorded, no costs deducted
Self-reported net since 2013	up about $13.1 million	About 21.6% of gross (our calculation)
PokerNews estimate of true lifetime net	$18 million to $22 million	About 30% to 36% of gross (our calculation)
Net result reported for 2023	a $2.23 million loss	A single year can be negative despite a long record of cashes

Even the generous end of the range implies that only about a third of gross winnings remained as profit. And the 2023 loss shows that annual results can run negative even for a player with one of the longest records of cashes in the game.

Why the Gap Exists: Buy-Ins Have Exploded

The main reason gross figures mislead is that the cost of competing has risen dramatically. Negreanu told Gambling Insider that in the late 1990s a professional might spend about $250,000 a year on tournament buy-ins; by 2013 that was about $1.2 million; and a full elite schedule today costs more than $12 million. A single Triton Super High Roller stop can reach seven figures.

Era	Annual buy-in spend (full schedule)	Multiple of late-1990s spend (our calculation)
Late 1990s	about $250,000 a year	1.0x
2013	about $1.2 million a year	4.8x
Today (elite schedule)	over $12 million a year	48x or more

Because the high-roller circuit has ballooned, today's leaders accumulate gross cashes much faster than players of earlier eras, but they also put far more money at risk to do so. That is why comparing list totals across eras without adjusting for buy-in levels is misleading. A $1 million cash in a field where the buy-in was $10,000 is a very different return from $1 million in a series where the entry was $250,000.

Three Ways Gross Figures Overstate Profit

Gambling Insider's illustrative examples (hypotheticals, not real players) show the mechanisms. We have reproduced their arithmetic below.

Scenario	Setup	Real outcome for the player	Hendon Mob credit
Annual spend vs cashes	$12.5m buy-ins, $12m cashes	$500,000 loss (about -4% of spend)	+$12,000,000
Staked win	Sells 80% of a $100,000 buy-in, wins $1,000,000	Player keeps about $200,000 before markup	+$1,000,000
Makeup clearance	$500,000 deficit, then a $400,000 win	Zero net profit for the player	+$400,000

1. Cost of entry

If a player pays $12.5 million in buy-ins across a year and cashes $12 million, the result is a $500,000 loss (about -4% on spend), yet the database adds $12 million to lifetime earnings.

2. Staking and sold action

If a player sells 80% of a $100,000 buy-in and wins $1 million, the player keeps roughly $200,000 before the backer's markup and any other terms, while the database credits the full $1 million.

3. Makeup

If a player is carrying a $500,000 deficit with a backer and then wins $400,000, that win clears part of the debt and leaves zero net profit, but the database adds $400,000.

How to Use the List Responsibly

For writers and researchers, the practical rule is to describe the list accurately: "live tournament earnings" or "recorded prize money," never "winnings" or "profit" without qualification. If you want to discuss true profitability, use self-reported net figures with attribution or avoid estimates entirely. The data is best suited to questions about who has cashed the most, how fields have grown, and which circuits pay the most, rather than who is actually ahead of the game.

If you want to understand why results diverge from skill, our guides on poker strategy and GTO versus exploitative play explain how edges are built, while the poker glossary defines terms such as staking, makeup and ROI used on this page. Players testing their own results can use the equity calculator, and those looking for places to play can compare poker sites.

Earnings by Country Within the Top 10

Grouping the ten players by country gives a second view of the list. The table is our calculation from the figures above.

Country	Players in top 10	Combined earnings	Share of top-10 total
United States	6	$421,575,407	60.1%
United Kingdom	1	$79,927,052	11.4%
Spain	1	$70,372,453	10.0%
Belarus	1	$69,466,521	9.9%
Canada	1	$60,677,067	8.6%

The United States dominates by count, but the single largest non-US contributor, the United Kingdom's Stephen Chidwick, is second overall, which shows that the top of the list is not purely a function of the size of a national player pool. Spain, Belarus and Canada are each represented by one player.

Five Questions to Ask Before Citing a Money List

1. Is the figure gross or net? Prize money received is not profit. Use language such as "recorded live tournament earnings."
2. What is the date of the data? Totals change with every result, and outlets update at different times, as the conflicting Kenney and Negreanu figures above show.
3. Are recurring events excluded? The PokerNews table excludes them, so another list may rank players differently.
4. Which events are included? The list covers live tournaments only. Online play and cash games do not appear.
5. Does the era matter? Buy-in levels have risen sharply, so comparing a modern total with a historical one without adjusting for cost of entry compares different risk profiles.

Glossary of Terms Used on This Page

Gross earnings: total prize money won, before any deductions. Net result: prize money minus buy-ins and costs, after any backer share. Staking (sold action): an arrangement in which a backer pays part of a buy-in in exchange for a share of any winnings. Makeup: a running deficit that a staked player must recover before they profit from further wins. ROI: return on investment, the net result divided by money spent on buy-ins. High roller: a tournament with an unusually large buy-in, often in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Why the List Still Matters

None of this means the money list is meaningless. A top-ten position requires consistently deep runs in the biggest fields and highest buy-in events against the strongest opposition, and the totals reflect real competitive achievement. The list is also the closest thing the game has to a universal, public, comparable record, which is why it appears in broadcasts, player profiles and sponsorship discussions. The issue is only that it should be described as what it is: a scoreboard of prize money, not a ledger of wealth.

Limitations of the Data

Three limitations apply. First, rankings include only live tournament results recorded in the database, so online results, cash games and private side action are absent. Second, the list excludes recurring events, so the order could shift under a different treatment. Third, net figures for any individual are estimates or self-reports and are not audited. Readers should treat every net number as approximate.

Methodology

We took the top ten all-time live tournament earnings from the PokerNews all-time money list (which cites The Hendon Mob and excludes recurring events), checked them against reporting from Gambling Insider on gross versus net earnings, and computed totals, averages, ratios and shares directly from the published figures. Figures marked "our calculation" are derived arithmetic. Buy-in escalation figures and Negreanu's net estimates are as reported by Gambling Insider and are not independently verified. Illustrative scenarios are hypotheticals from that source, not observed player data. Data was collected on 22 October 2026 and totals change as new results are recorded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is number one on the poker all-time money list?

Bryn Kenney, with $90,849,210 in live tournament earnings on the PokerNews list, followed by Stephen Chidwick ($79,927,052) and Jason Koon ($77,032,156).

Does the Hendon Mob list show profit?

No. It records gross prize money only and does not deduct buy-ins, travel, taxes or backing arrangements.

How much of his cashes has Daniel Negreanu kept?

Against about $60.7 million in gross cashes, he reports being up about $13.1 million since 2013, and a PokerNews estimate of $18 million to $22 million lifetime net, which he called fair.

How much do elite players spend on buy-ins?

According to Negreanu, a full elite schedule now costs over $12 million a year, compared with about $1.2 million in 2013 and about $250,000 in the late 1990s.

Why do sources show different totals for the same player?

Update timing, rounding, and the treatment of recurring events produce differences. Always cite the source and date.

Sources

• PokerNews, Best Poker Players: All Time Money List
• Gambling Insider, The Illusion of Poker's All-Time Money List
• The Hendon Mob (database methodology)

Cite This Article

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