World Series of Poker Stats -- Who’s Been the Best Since the Boom? Part 2 of 3

In 2003, Chris Moneymaker changed everything.

Just like the NBA keeps different stats for different eras (after the institution of the shot clock or the three-point line, for example), we here at Card Player decided it was time to begin keeping track of the major stats of the post-Moneymaker era of the World Series of Poker.

We’ve gone through the results, crunched the numbers, and have figured out who has had the best results from 2004-2009.

Yesterday, we looked at bracelets. While Phil Hellmuth may be the all-time leader, no one has been better than Jeffrey Lisandro in the last six years in terms of hardware. Today, we will look at cashes and overall prize money.

Make sure you check out Part 1 of the “WSOP Stats: Who’s been the best since the boom?” series, as well.

Most WSOP Cashes (2004-2009)

No matter how you slice up the stats, Hellmuth is seemingly always near the top. The self-proclaimed Poker Brat has taken a lot of verbal abuse in recent years (almost as much as he doles out), with many top online grinders and other pros publicly critiquing his skills and abilities. They’ve said anything from “His game doesn’t hold up in the modern era,” to “The game has passed him by.” But take a look at the post-boom stats, and Hellmuth is right up there with the best of them.

With 35 WSOP cashes since 2004, no player has made the money more than the Wisconsin native. Along with his two WSOP bracelets since the boom (tied for No. 5), Hellmuth can make a solid case for the title of “best pro in the WSOP in the modern era.”

Just behind Hellmuth, and perhaps looking to surpass him this summer, are three of the game’s best — John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negreanu. Lisandro, who leads all players with the most bracelets since 2004, is impressively in fifth place on this list, as well.

Allen Cunningham, one of only four players with at least three WSOP bracelets in the modern era, is tied for No. 12 for WSOP cashes since 2004. He easily has the most WSOP prize money in this group in the past six years, due to his fourth-place finish in the 2006 WSOP main event.

The great Phil Ivey didn’t make this list, although with 20 WSOP cashes since 2004, he’s not too far out of the picture.

Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson’s stats show that just because he hasn’t won a bracelet since 2003 doesn’t mean he isn’t producing solid results. No player has more WSOP cashes without a bracelet (28) since the boom, although Tony Cousineau (27) is certainly close.

For comparison, here is the all-time WSOP cashes list:

Most WSOP Cashes All-Time

Hellmuth has clearly made the WSOP his focus, and it’s paid off. At 75 cashes, he’s 10 ahead of Men Nguyen in second place.

Two former world champs, Ferguson and Berry Johnston, occupy the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, while the always dangerous Erik Seidel is fifth on both the all-time cash list and the all-time bracelet list.

Cousineau, tied for No. 20, has the unfortunate distinction of having the most career WSOP cashes without ever winning a bracelet. In fact, he holds that honor pretty easily. With 42 cashes, the next highest player in terms of cashes and no bracelets is Surinder Sunar with 30.

WSOP Money Leaders

This category is perhaps the least surprising of the three. With the WSOP main event becoming a global phenomenon, its illustrious prize pool and immense first-place reward has propelled the recent winners to the top of the all-time list. The differences between the all-time list and the post-2003 list are slight, but here are the two lists:

WSOP Money Leaders (2004-2009)

WSOP All-Time Money Leaders

As you can see, the top five spots in the two above lists are identical, and most of the top 10 in the two lists are quite similar, as well.

In the top 20 list of the WSOP money leaders from 2004-2009, Vitaly Lunkin stands alone as the only person to make it into the standings without a main-event final table result to his name. The two-time bracelet winner is there thanks in large part to his incredible 2009 WSOP.

Lunkin won the commemorative $40,000 no-limit hold’em event for nearly $1.9 million, finished runner-up for the $10,000 PLO title for $419,832, and came in fourth place in the $50,000 Players Championship for $368,813 in 2009. Add all that, along with an additional $628,417 he received for winning a $1,500 bracelet in 2008, and you’ve got an astonishing tournament poker résumé.

On the all-time WSOP money list, there are just four players who have gotten there without a main-event final-table finish in the post-Moneymaker era. They are Hellmuth, (No. 10), Ferguson (No. 11), Scotty Nguyen (No. 16), and T.J. Cloutier (No. 19). The first three players won the main event before the boom, while Cloutier has finished runner-up twice.

In fact, all of this talking about who has done what without the extravagant main-event final table prize money added to the mix has inspired us to make one final list.

Tomorrow, in the final part of this feature, we will provide a list of the top players in terms of WSOP prize money from 2004-2009, but with the added qualifier of excluding all final table results of the WSOP’s Las Vegas main event. We understand that’s a lot of restrictions for one category, but with the main-event final table providing such massive scores to whomever is fortunate enough to get there, it really skews the all-time list to who was able to run well over that particular week.

We think this final list will provide an interesting perspective on who has accumulated a ton of cash without the one-hit wonder known as the main event.

Check back tomorrow for the final edition of the “WSOP Stats — Who’s been the best since the boom?” series.

Editor’s Note: Statistics are based on the record-keeping of the World Series of Poker. If you notice any omissions or see the need for any corrections, please e-mail [email protected].

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