Just like other games and sports, there are a number of poker players who rise head and shoulders above those around them. There’s something about them that just shouts “star quality” and adds to a charisma that undoubtedly helps to undermine the confidence of their opponents.
All five players in this list have that certain X Factor that hasn’t just made them legends in the poker world, it’s won them a great deal of money too. There have been many attempts to analyse what goes in to making champion players like these and qualities needed include resilience, determination, cool thinking and more than a little luck. If any of us could emulate just a few of these skills, we’d be doing very well indeed.
Vanessa Selbst
There have been a number of very successful women poker players over the years, with many more emerging all the time. This has been great news for the game as it’s helped to add a whole new dimension and take it away from the male-dominated world it once was.
Among the world-leading women, Vanessa Selbst stands out not least for the $11 million she earned from the game up until her retirement in 2018. Not only that, she has also been a real inspiration for other women to start playing by providing a great role model to follow.
In her decade long career Selbst won many tournaments, the richest of which was the Partouche Poker Tour in which she took home $1.8 million. She is also the proud holder of three World Series of Poker bracelets – a feat achieved by no other female player.
Fedor Holz
A WSOP bracelet is also something that tends to be won when a player has reached a certain level of experience and maturity so winning one at the tender age of just 23 in 2016 marked out Holz as a player to watch even if he is missed off many lists featuring the best poker players.
The bracelet win came in an event called the $111,111 No Limit Hold’em for One Drop and shortly before this he had come a very worthy second in the Super High Roller Bowl. In 2018 he proved himself still further by picking up no less than $6 million in WSOP winnings by again being a runner up, this time to Justin Bonomo in the $1 million Big One for One Drop. At the very young age of 26 he’s already seen his earnings top $32 million. And with poker players able to go on playing into their fifties and beyond, the sky could be the limit for the talented Holz.
Justin Bonomo
Another player whose early promise went on to become major success, by the age of 32 Justin Bonomo had gone on to earn career winnings of $44 million. What was all the more remarkable about this is that he made nearly 25% of those millions in a single big money prize. Competing in the 2018 WSOP $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop he took home $10 million – not bad at all for a few days’ work. This was the pinnacle of an amazing run of success for Bonomo which had included winning $4.8 million in the Macau Super High Roller Bow and $HK 3 million in an NLHE event. He’s still a very active player on the circuit so we can expect to see him picking up many more titles in the years to come.
Erik Seidel
We mentioned the potential longevity of a poker career and no-one exemplifies this more than Erik Seidel. Now in his sixties, he is still going strong and hoping every year to add to his eight WSOP bracelets that he’s won to date. He has also banked more than $35 million over a long and illustrious career.
The biggest of his wins came in 2011 in the $250,000 Super High Roller No Limit Hold’em Aussie Millions Poke Championship when he won $2.72 million – and that was just for coming second to another player called Johnny Chan. Other big wins have included $2.2 million at the 2015 €98,000 + 2,000 No Limit Hold’em EPT $300,000 event in Monte Carlo and the $2.4 million he won in the Super High Roller Bowl in 2016.
Bryn Kenney
Ever since he first arrived on the poker scene Bryn Kenney has been quietly and steadily building a reputation, not to mention impressive winnings, that have seen him earn over $55 million in the space of just 12 years. His first significant win came in 2007 but it wasn’t until 2014 that he won his very first WSOP bracelet at the $1,500 10-Game Mix 6-Handed event. In all he has taken home winnings from 32 WSOP events although the Main Event has eluded him so far. The nearest he has come to carrying of that particular title was in 2010 when he was placed 28th.
But he’s probably not too worried about this, especially after the 2019 that he’s had. The undoubted highlight of the year was coming third in the Triton Million. Even though he fell short of the outright win, he still managed to pick up £20.5 million in the process.
There are five players fully deserving of praise and there are hundreds more who could be mentioned. All of them deserve a place in the poker hall of fame.