The Race to Top Poker's All Time Money

Poker’s “All Time Money List” is currently headed by Daniel Negreanu with $32,887,949 in live tournament earnings, followed closely behind by Erik Seidel ($31,513,654), who is $1,372,295 adrift. That gap represents a mere drop in the ocean, though, for these players who can easily amass seven-figure sums from taking down their preferred high-roller tournaments.
A bit further behind in the race is Daniel Colman ($27,963,503), Antonio Esfandiari ($27,353,449), and Phil Ivey ($23,856,035), but in a recent interview given with PokerNews, Seidel was keen to point out that the battle for poker’s top money spot was far from being just a two-horse race.
Negreanu’s results have been a bit slim of late, and in 2016 he earned $302,452 from playing live tournaments, followed by $268,780 so far this year, which is slim pickings by his high standards. Eric Seidel, on the other hand, earned a bumper $5,108,412 in 2016, and has added a further $499,881 already this year.
The next chief contender for the top spot is Daniel Colman, and while most of his winnings have come via a glorious 2014 in which he earned $22,389,481, he still continues to add seven-figure sums to his running total each year, including $1,923,946 so far in 2017.
In the meantime, Esfandiari and Ivey have certainly fallen off the pace of late, with both yet to record a cash in 2017. In Ivey’s case, however, he is more of an infrequent visitors to the tournament tables these days, but if he gets his motivation back on track again, then it may not take much for him to win a major high-roller event and make all the poker headlines once more.
Nevertheless, it is the 8-times WSOP bracelet winner Eric Seidel and 2014 Big One for One Drop winner Daniel Colman who seems most likely to wrestle control of the top spot next. Commenting on the race, Seidel explained recently:
“I’m not gonna change my schedule. I’m kind of set in what I want to play. I’m not going around playing everything,” before adding: “I think it’s great for poker. You’ve got three people who have had a good amount of success in tournaments. It makes [the tournaments] a little more interesting, I think.”