1. Famous Poker Players
2. Top 10 Best Poker Players Of All Time
3. World's Best Poker Player
4. Top 100 Poker Players
5. Ten Best Poker Players Of All Time

American Johnny Moss was one of the initial inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame and for good reason. Born in 1907 he was one of the greatest poker players of his time. He won the very first World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 1970, when it was played in a cash game format. The following year, when it was played as a freezeout, he won again.

Aug 16, 2019 In the world of professional poker, just like in all professional sports, there are a handful of players who are, quite simply, head and shoulders above the rest. Take Ronaldo and Messi in soccer and Federer and Djokovic in tennis. Other players just can’t touch them, sometimes quite literally. For several decades now, the debate has been raging on about who are the best poker players of all-time. While there is plenty of support for experts who could make such a determination. Another professional American poker player who definitely deserves a spot on this list of the best US poker players is thirty years old Dan Smith. Dan Smith was born on the 23rd of February 1988. He was introduced to the game of poker at a very young age. In fact, he found the game at the perfect time as the game itself has been very kind to home. Stuart Errol Ungar (September 8, 1953 – November 22, 1998) was an American professional poker, blackjack, and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin player of all time. He is one of two people in poker history to have won the World Series of Poker Main Event three times. One of the all-time best, Daniel Negreanu, is a Toronto local and an ambassador for the recreational site GGPoker.A six-time winner of the World Series, the 46-year-old was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2014, when he was simultaneously ranked as the best player of the decade.

Moss continued to play in the WSOP right up until the year he died, 1995. He won the Main Event again in 1974 and won a total of nine WSOP bracelets overall. He also played in a number of other tournaments and was famous for regularly playing high stakes cash games. Moss was widely known as The Grand Old Man of Poker in deference to his stature in the game.

Amarillo Slim

Amarillo Slim is without question a poker legend. The American, real name Thomas Austin Preston Jr died aged 83 in 2012 having had a very colorful life. He was famed for not only his poker skills but a number of other gambling activities too. He won one of the early WSOP Main Events, back in 1972. Following that win, he’s credited with helping bring a wider audience to poker.

Preston was a really engaging character and his appearances on television and radio talk shows certainly generated a lot of interest. He was inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame and will be fondly remembered by poker fans for a very long time.

Chip Reese

David “Chip” Reese was an American poker player that has been described by many as the greatest cash game player that ever lived. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1991 and, at 40 years old, was the youngest player to have received that honor. In addition to his cash games skills he was a very proficient tournament player, with three WSOP bracelets to his name. He died in 2007, at age 56.

Doyle Brunson

When it comes to longevity in the game, few (if any) players can touch Doyle Brunson. The American was born in 1933 and at the time of writing he’s still playing regularly. He has twice won the WSOP Main Event, has a total of 10 WSOP bracelets and was the first player to earn over $1 million in tournament winnings. He’s a Poker Hall of Fame inductee and, in 2006, was voted as the most influential person in world poker by Bluff Magazine.

Chris Moneymaker

Famous Poker Players

Chris Moneymaker is at the very least partially responsible for the huge boom in the popularity of online poker. In 2003, at the age of 27, he won the WSOP Main Event for around $2.5 million. What made his win amazing was that it was his first live tournament and he had qualified for the event at an online poker room. He had paid just $39 to enter a satellite at the PokerStars poker site.

Top 10 Best Poker Players Of All Time

Moneymaker gave poker players all over the world hope that they too could match his achievements. His win generated huge publicity and, it was what dubbed the “Moneymaker Effect”. There was a massive increase in the number of people signing up at poker sites after his win. While online poker would undoubtedly have become popular anyway, Chris Moneymaker definitely gave things a significant kick start.

Phil Hellmuth

Some people love him, some people hate him, but there’s no doubt that Phil Hellmuth is one of the best known poker players of all time. He has won a very impressive 13 WSOP bracelets, including the 1989 Main Event. Just 24 years old at the time, he became the youngest ever winner of the Main Event. Hellmuth has something of a temper, and he has been described as being brash and arrogant. Poker would almost certainly be poorer without him around though.

Vanessa Rousso is considered one of poker’s sex symbols and has appeared in a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. However, she is far more than that and is a very accomplished player too. Born in 1983, by the age of 30 she had racked up well over $3 million in tournament winnings and is one of the most successful female pokers ever. She is vocal about her pro-gambling stance.

Dan Harrington

Harrington is a very accomplished poker player and author of one of the most famous series of poker strategy books, Harrington on Hold’em. He has won the WSOP Main Event (in 1995), is an inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame, and has won over $6 million in tournament cashes. His nickname is “Action Dan”, which is somewhat ironic as he is known to be a tight player.

Phil Ivey

World's Best Poker Player

Phil Ivey is regarded by many as the greatest all around poker player in the game today. He has never won the WSOP Main Event, but he does have nine bracelets to his name. He is a feared cash game player and has shown time and time again that he’s willing to gamble it up. As a former member of the Full Tilt Poker team of pro players he could often be seen playing at the online poker room at the very highest stakes

Annette Obrestad

Annette Obrestad claims to have started her poker career online at the age of just fifteen. Playing underage isn’t something that we condone or recommend, but it seems to have worked for Obrestad. She is one of the best known female poker players and has a number of successes to her name. She states that she has never had to deposit any of her own money to a poker site as she built her initial bankroll entirely by playing in freeroll tournaments.

Viktor Blom

Viktor Blom is a high stakes online poker player from Sweden. He is better known as “Isildur1”, his online screen-name. He caused a huge stir on the online poker world in 2009, when he appeared seemingly out of nowhere and started playing at the highest stakes available. At this time, no-one knew who was behind the Isildur1 screen-name, but there was plenty of speculation on the matter. In early 2011, shortly after joining the PokerStars team of pro players, his identity was revealed.

Daniel Negreanu

Negreanu is a popular poker player with significant winnings in both tournament and cash play. He’s particularly well known for his ability to read his opponents and accurately determine what cards they are playing. Daniel has himself stated that his most important skill is being able to observe and remember what range of hands his opponents play in what situations, and how they play him. He joined Team PokerStars in 2007 and has appeared on many televised poker shows.

Female poker player Liv Boeree is from England and is well known for both her poker play and her TV presenting. She first appeared on the poker scene in 2005 when she took part in a poker based reality TV show where she was coached by leading players including Phil Hellmuth. Since then she has had a number of lead roles on poker based TV shows and has had great success at the poker tables.

Stu Ungar, who died in 1998, was one of the greatest poker players ever. He won the WSOP Main Event three times and was a top class gin rummy player. He was also a very skilled blackjack player and card counter, which led to him eventually not being able to play the game in Las Vegas casinos. He’s known as the “Comeback Kid,” because of his last WSOP win came 16 years after his previous one. During that time span he had hit rock bottom and experienced drug problems.

One of the best known players from the online poker era, Tom Dwan is famous for playing high stakes under the screen-name “durrrr”. He began online with $50 and started out playing sit and go tournaments before moving on to cash games. By building his money at low stakes and slowly moving up, he eventually began playing in the biggest online games. Such is the nature of poker he subsequently experienced massive swings, but he’s easily a winning player. Dwan has proved to have excellent money management skills and has not been afraid to drop down in stakes when required.

A Tradition

Poker is a not just a game that people play for fun with their friends. It isn’t about gambling or hoping to make a quick buck in a desperate situation. Poker is a past-time, a tradition, and a sport that has changed many people’s lives for the better. If poker was purely a game of luck, how could there be professionals that play and win consistently?

The game has proven to be something that requires some serious skill, and has produced some interesting characters, legends, and myths that make it all the more interesting. Every year now people gather from all around the globe to watch the world’s best poker players do what they do best, and out of that heap, heroes have been forged.

The Best of the Best

Top 100 Poker Players

Every once in a great while, some solitary figure emerges from a shroud of mystery to forever change the way that people looks at a sport and profession. Poker is no exception to this rule. That is why below we have assembled a list of the best poker players of all time:

Stu Ungar – The son of an illegal bookmaker and bar owner, Stu certainly had the background that got him quite familiar with card games. Stu was known for having a lot of self-destructive tendencies that were deeply rooted in his childhood, but to go with it he also had a razor sharp mind and an almost supernatural intuition for card games. He was not just one of the best poker players, but he was also excellent at gin rummy, and equally intimidating at BlackJack. He was so good many joked you couldn’t beat him if you got free bets. Clearly Stu had an understanding of card games and fundamentals that most simply never will. The fast talker got into the World Series of Poker quickly and became the youngest to ever win it all in 1980.

Chip Reese – Before ever even considering poker, Chip Reese was going to law school at Stanford. So it may have surprised many when he decided to give that up to go play cards, but fate usually gets its way. It only took one weekend in Vegas playing poker to make Chip fall in love forever. He had started with nothing more than $400, and in a few days he flipped that bankroll into $60,000. So suddenly law school did not seem so attractive. Over the course of his career Reese won 3 WSOP tournaments.

Tom Dwan – A newer face in the poker seen, Dwan is known for his extremely aggressive play, and no nonsense policy. He is a sharp and focused player, and quite young, which is why many on the scene are calling him the modern day Stu Ungar. Dwan got his start playing poker online, and with time and patience, turned a small amount of money into a big bankroll. He has already made a substantial amount over the course of his career, and with the respect of big names like Doyle Brunson, this bright career has only just started.

Ten Best Poker Players Of All Time

Want to see more great players? Check out a more complete list here.