Every year, one player wins the WSOP Main Event, one wins Player of the Year, and two might enter the Poker Hall of Fame.
The annual Money List is a poker achievement that doesn't get nearly as much fanfare or fireworks – but these players deserve it. To reach the top ten on the Money List, it usually takes at least an eight-figure total for the year. One large win is rarely enough. It takes multiple wins and cashes in high-stakes tournaments, making use of the Triton series or the WSOP.
We're going to run it back and see the players who topped the Money List, going back to 2015. For each year, we'll tell you about that player's journey and the tournaments that propelled them along.
2015: Brian Rast ($8,618,663)
Brian Rast is an American six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, a Hall of Famer, and first on the California All-Time Money List.
In 2015, Rast reached $8,618,663 and became the highest-earning tournament player for the year. He had immense success in a $500,000 buy-in event, the Super High Roller Bowl. The tournament's inaugural field was small, with just 43 entries. Rast received a little under a third of the $21,500,000 prize pool, for a healthy total of $7,525,000. Of course, this event made up most of his winnings for 2015, but Rast had smaller successes to bolster his numbers. He cashed in five different World Series of Poker events in Vegas and four more times in Aria High Roller events.
Scott Seiver and Joseph Mckeeheen were close behind Rast in 2015, with both players nearly reaching $8 million. Even combined, they wouldn't have beaten the German player on top of 2016's Money List.
2016: Fedor Holz ($16,093,400)
Even in 2016 at the age of 23, Fedor Holz was well-known in poker circles. As we write this, the German pro has almost $42 million in tournament earnings. 2016 brought a healthy portion of that figure. He cashed in an astonishing 24 different events during the year, averaging two each month.
2016 began with a massive $3 million score in the Philippines, winning 1st place only three days into the year. A million dollars and 11 cashes later, he caught his next score of $3,500,000 for a second-place finish in the Super High Roller Bowl. Without even reaching the halfway mark, Fedor cleared around $8 million in tournament winnings.
June and July were lucrative months for Fedor. He placed first in three Aria High Roller events, plus a third place, and was up another $1.6 million. Then there was the 2016 World Series, where Fedor cashed in three smaller events before taking down the High Roller for One Drop. He won this $111,111 buy-in event, raking in a few thousand shy of $5 million.
A month later, he'd won a $1,500 EPT event for $1.5 million, plus $300,000 from another Aria Super High Roller.
This year's total was not replicated often on either side of 2016. For GGPoker's Integrity Ambassador, it was as close to a perfect year as anyone could imagine.
2017: Bryn Kenney ($8,505,897)
Originally from Long Beach, Bryn Kenney has become a constant fixture near the top of many lists in poker. In 2017, he topped the Money List, but it wouldn't be the first time. As we write this article, he sits atop a mountain of $67,015,916 poker earnings. If you're reading this in 2025, that number might start with a 7.
Players who top the Money List usually put in a higher-than-average number of appearances (and cashes) at the felt for that year. This was true in 2017 for Bryn Kenney, who cashed in 28 events, an average of over 2 each month.
Bryn began 2017 with large cashes at the PokerStars Championship in the Bahamas. Over six different events (two 1st, one 2nd, and three other final tables finishes) and less than two weeks, he collects $1.7 million. As you'll notice with many Money List elites, the Aria High Roller events make up healthy profits throughout the year. In the next few months after the Bahamas series, Bryn had another $800,000 in cashes from six $25,000 Aria events, plus half a million dollars from a Triton in the Philippines.
The rest of the year was consistent for Kenney, who spent his time cashing in series around the world:D
- Monte Carlo PokerStars Championship (+$1,946,911)
- Barcelona PokerStars Championship (+$782,203)
- Poker Masters in Las Vegas (+$1,085,000)
- Asia Championship of Poker in Macau (+$474,431)
- World Series of Poker Europe (+$354,272)
- World Poker Tour in Las Vegas (+$351,300)
Unsurprisingly, Fedor Holz was fifth on the Money List this year ($6,380,187) after dominating tournament poker in 2016. Scott Blumstein and Christopher Vogelsang both came within half a million of the top, but couldn't dethrone Bryn in 2017.
2018: Justin Bonomo ($25,421,034)
If Fedor's $16 million a couple of years before felt huge, Justin Bonomo made it look much smaller in 2018. This year, the American somehow found nearly $10 million more in tournament winnings. He won $25,421,034 over the year, and nobody could come close to his numbers.
Just like Bryn Kenney the year before, Justin showed success early on, winning around $1.4 million in two events at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Almost a million more came from cashes in WPT and U.S. Poker Open events, before a much larger $4,823,077 score in the Macau Super High Roller Bowl.
In May, Justin added around $1.4 million more to his earnings at the EPT Monte Carlo, with two 1st places, plus a 4th and 5th place finish.
Then, from late May until the end of the year, Justin played exclusively in American tournaments. Before the month was over, he beat Negreanu heads-up to win the Super High Roller Bown IV for a nice, round $5,000,000.
Before the end of 2018, he'd cash 12 more times, including $848,400 over five Aria events in Vegas. The feather in Justin's cap for 2018 was indisputably at the Big One for One Drop WSOP event. He bested 26 others and won the $1,000,000 buy-in high-roller tournament, collecting a cool $10,000,000.
2019: Bryn Kenney ($30,321,412)
Bryn's second appearance on our list is 3.5x as large as the first one. To achieve a total of $30 million in poker earnings for a single year, a player needs to dominate several of the international series, and ideally a mix of Triton and WSOP events too.
Bryn Kenney started 2019 off with a lackluster performance in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, but rebounded in Melbourne with around $900,000 from winning the Aussie Millions. The next month, he wins $450,000 at the U.S. Poker Open, before starting the first Triton events of the year.
First was Triton Jeju, where a 2nd and 4th brought in a total of over $3.5 million. Next, Bryn wins around $3.1 million at Triton Montenegro with two 1st place finishes. After some small cashes in the 50th World Series of Poker, he was back to the Triton again in London. In this historic £1,050,000 buy-in event, Bryn Kenney collected the largest cash in poker history – £16,890,509 ($20,563,324). However, he wasn't the winner; Aaron Zang took that honor. The two had made a deal when Kenney had a large chip lead, before Aaron made a comeback.
Bryn Kenney only cashed in three more events during 2019. He took 1st in a WPT tournament, 4th in an Omaha Prague EPT event, and finished the year with a 42nd place finish in a Holdem event at the same series. Those three wins added another half a million dollars, bringing Bryn to $30,321,412.
2020: Timothy Adams ($5,854,376)
During 2020, COVID-19 was in full swing, bringing live poker operations to a standstill – almost. With the range of obstacles humanity faced, we cannot expect the numbers this year to match the sky-high figures of the past. With travel restrictions, playing two tournaments a month at live events was near-impossible. This year's Money List (and many others) spent more time than ever online, specifically at the WSOP and WPT events.
This year, Canada's Timothy Adams earned more in poker tournaments than anyone, beating top-10 names like Mikita Bodyakovsky, Paul Phua, Cary Katz, Christoph Vogelsang, and Phil Ivey. Far from an unknown, Adams is right behind Daniel Negreanu on the Canada All-Time Money list and has over $38 million in live earnings.
Timothy Adams cashed in 33 different events throughout 2020, mostly online. His year started at the Aussie Millions, where he collected great payouts at three different events, totaling around $700,000. However, his next win would be far larger.
At the partypoker Millions in Sochi, Adams placed 5th in a $25,000 event, before placing 1st for a massive score of $3.6 million in the High Roller Bowl. Two other players often on the Money List, Vogelsang and Mikita Bodyakovsky, were in 2nd and 3rd place.
For the rest of the year, Timothy Adam's wins came from online events only. Around $1.4 million in winnings came from Poker Masters, WPT, WSOP, and Super High Roller Bowl online events.
2021: Michael Addamo ($9,418,837)
Australia's Michael Addamo is a feared professional, who takes unorthodox lines, both live and online. 2021 was his year to top the Money List, making up a large portion of his more than $22.5 million live tournament earnings. Addamo also has four WSOP bracelets and strong potential for more coming in the future.
After cashing in for about $200,000 across some online WSOP and WPT events, Addamo crushed the PokerGo Tour (2021-2022). Between mid-September and mid-May in 2021, he had an unbelievable win rate across the PGT events he cashed in.
Here are Addamo's cashes during the 2021 PokerGo Tour (PGT):
- 1st place in a $50,000 Poker Masters event for $680,000
- 1st place in a $100,000 Poker Masters event for $1,160,000
- 2nd place in a $50,000 Aria High Roller Series event for $322,000
- 1st place in a $300,000 PGT Super High Roller Bowl event for $3,402,000
- 3rd place in a $200,000 PGT Aria High Roller Series for $544,000
- 1st place in a $50,000 World Series of Poker NLH bracelet event for $1,132,968
- 1st place in a $15,700 Aria High Roller Series event for $219,300
- 1st place in a $100,000 World Series of Poker NLH event for $1,958,569
In early 2022, Addamo cashed in three more PGT events, continuing his streak. That included two 1st places in Madrid Triton events for a combined $1.7 million and a $99,000 cash in Triton Cyprus.
2022: Espen Uhlen Jørstad ($10,529,466)
Topping Norway's All Time Money List, Espen Uhlen Jørstad used to be a brewer, even obtaining a master's in brewing science. Before seeing WSOP final tables up close, he played cash games on PokerStars and GGPoker.
Espen's 2022 started at the Norwegian Championships in Dublin. Although placing 3rd and 5th in two turbo events, the buy-ins were only €1,080, so the winnings were just around $12,000.
Monte Carlo was next, but again, the winnings were similar to Dublin's, and not exactly Money List material. In June, Espen popped up in Vegas, competing in the 53rd WSOP and the Venetian DeepStack Championship. His winnings would be less than $7,000. Espen performed much better online afterward, snagging $20,638 from an online World Series of Poker event.
But, he wasn't finished with WSOP live events. In the Tag Team with Patrick Leonard, the duo came first for around $75,000. Next came a small cash in a $700 No-Limit Holdem event, before Espen's dream poker win.
In the Main Event, Espen Jørstad took home the $10,000,000 prize that symbolizes success for many in the community. After the win, he said that he'd better call his mother to make sure she didn't have a heart attack. The single victory at the Main was enough to make up most of his winnings for the year and propel Espen to the top of the Money List.
2023: Isaac Haxton ($16,961,907)
Issac, or Ike, Haxton is a familiar name in the poker scene. By now, we've probably all seen one of his early Hollywood-worthy bluffs at a WPT event in the Caribbean. Nowadays, Ike has shorter hair, but a much larger bankroll. His total live earnings are sitting just under $50 million in 2024, a good chunk of that coming from the year before.
Haxton had healthy tournament volume throughout 2023. He started strong at the PGT in Las Vegas, winning a $50,000 event for about $600,000. Before January had finished, he was cashing in four different events at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He collected around $2.5 million for two 1st-place finishes, around $500,000 for a 3rd-place finish, and had one small cash of $17,6000 in the PCA Main Event.
In March, Ike Haxton was in Hoi An, Vietnam, at the Triton High Roller Series. From five strong finishes, he pocketed another ~$900,000.
The impressive thing about Ike's performance in 2023 is the EV he was able to capture over so many events. There were no 5, 10, or 20 million dollar wins this year – just high cumulative cashes over a wide range of series. His largest cash of the year was $2,760,000 in the PGT Masters $25,000 event, and he cashed in 37 live events throughout 2023.
Who Will Top the Money List for 2024?
At the moment, Jonathan Tamayo is atop the 2024 Money List, with almost all of his earnings coming from winning the WSOP Main Event. It turned out to be controversial, with laptops in the stands and questions of legitimacy swirling. If you'd like to read about that, we've covered it on our news page.
There's still time left for Tamayo to be dethroned by a hardworking tournament player. Adrian Mateos is a regular on this list and is likely to close the gap, as he's only about $800,000 behind. Other common entries on the list like Mikita Bodyakovsky, Phil Ivey, Stephen Chidwick, and Elton Tsang are also candidates this year.
We'll update you as 2024 ends and a new leader is crowned.
