Top Five: Modern Main Event Champions
Last week Ryan Riess became the tenth WSOP Main Event champion since the poker boom. Can he match up to the post-game achievements of some of his more successful predecessors?
Disclaimer: This list is simply research based estimates of each post-Moneymaker champion’s earnings divided by the number of years that have passed since they won the Main Event. It is an attempt to set a benchmark for Riess to compare against following his win, not one writer’s opinion of who the most successful champions are. It is also obviously limited by the fact that live tournament earnings do not include profit and loss figures.
5) Greg Raymer - $255,000 per year
The 2004 champ has won an estimated $2,300,000 in nine years including an incredible run in the Heartland Poker Tour stretching from July-November 2012, when he won four titles.
Some of his other major feats include a third place finish in the $40,000 WSOP event in 2009 for just short of $775,000 and an extraordinary effort to defend his Main Event crown with a top 25 finish in the 2005 Main Event for $300,000.
Biggest post-Main Event result:
$40,000 WSOP 40th Anniversary Event 2009
3rd for $774,927
4) Joe Cada - $262,500 per year
Riess now trails to only one man on the Michigan earnings list, the youngest ever Main Event champion Joe Cada.
Just four years after his title in 2009, Cada has won over $1m and made three further WSOP final tables, two of which came in this year’s series, the other – a $400,000 runner-up score in 2012 - his biggest cash since the big one.
Biggest post-Main Event result:
$1,500 WSOP No Limit 2012
2nd for $412,424
3) Peter Eastgate - $380,000 per year
Edging ever closer to Gus Hansen at the top of Denmark’s all time hit list is Peter Eastgate, who’s won nearly $2m in the five years since his 2008 Main Event title.
The considerably 'Great Dane' had a fantastic run at EPT London’s main event in 2009 finishing as runner up, topped a PCA event earlier the same year and more recently final tabled a 2012 WSOP event.
Biggest post-Main Event result:
£5,000 EPT London Main Event 2009
2nd for $843,734
2) Joe Hachem - $538,000 per year
The amicable Aussie has been a marvelous champion, winning almost $4.5m since way back in 2005 and tops his nation’s leader board by some distance, despite Jeff Rossiter’s recent surge.
Hachem’s cashed in a plethora of tournaments around the globe, the pick of the bunch a WPT title in the Doyle Brunson Classic for $2.2m in 2006.
Biggest post-Main Event result:
$10,000 WPT Doyle Brunson North American Classic 2006
1st for $2,207,575
1) Jonathan Duhamel - $1,000,000 per year
Hachem was going to take some beating, but the Canadian adrenaline junkie has answered any critics spectacularly in the three years since his title, winning a little over $3m.
To list just a few big cashes, in 2009 he took down the EPT Deauville High Roller, in 2012’s PCA series he netted over $1m with a win and two final tables and in this year’s WSOP he final tabled the prestigious $50,000 Players Championship with finish – unstoppable.
Biggest post-Main Event result:
PCA $25,000 8-Max High Roller 2012
2nd for $634,550
Ryan Riess is going to have his work cut out competing with this group, never mind fulfilling his claims to be the best player on the planet, but since none of these guys have bagged a second WSOP bracelet yet – that would certainly be a good start!
By Josh Logan
