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

Editor’s note: Stats reflect totals before the 2010 World Series of Poker.

If you don’t know it, Phil Hellmuth will gladly tell you. With 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, he is the all-time leader. No one has won more events in what is universally recognized as the most distinguished tournament series in the game.

Total number of bracelets won — it’s the one stat that seems to resonate in poker. With so many tournaments running every day all over the world, both live and online, WSOP stats are viewed as an imperfect but fair way of determining the relative success of poker players. Winning a bracelet can now serve as the highlight of a pro’s career, and a second bracelet often solidifies his stature in the eyes of the poker community.

Twenty-five players have won three WSOP bracelets, and 29 players have won four bracelets or more.

The top of that all-time leader list is well-known: Phil Hellmuth with 11, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with 10, Johnny Moss with nine, Erik Seidel with eight, and Phil Ivey and Billy Baxter with seven.

But it’s hard to deny that the World Series of Poker today is a vastly different beast than the World Series of decades past, when most of those bracelets were won. Just 10 years ago, in 2000, there were 25 events; 21 of those 25 events attracted fewer than 250 players.

Go back further and the numbers shrink even more. In 1980, in the 11th-annual WSOP (highlighted by Stu Ungar’s first of three main-event titles), not a single one of the 12 events had a field of more than 176 players. Nine of those events had 73 players or fewer, including a 13-player field in a $2,000 limit draw high event.

Although there are more bracelet events today (61 in 2010, including WSOP Europe), with thousands of players entering those with the smallest buy-ins and hundreds of solid pros competing in those with the biggest buy-ins, the math is undeniable: It’s harder than ever to win a bracelet.

Some people might even claim that it’s a different game than it was years ago — that Chris Moneymaker changed everything with his 2003 main-event win, which was glorified on ESPN countless times for all the world to see, inspiring a new generation of poker players that would transform the pace of the action.

For those reasons, Card Player has decided to compile the WSOP stats of the post-Moneymaker era. For the period 2004 to 2009, we have created lists for most bracelets won, most cashes, and most prize money won in the WSOP.

This exercise is by no means an attempt to diminish the accolades of poker players in decades past; it is merely an attempt to recognize the players who have simply been crushing it at the World Series ever since Moneymaker dramatically ushered in the new era of the game.

So, without further ado, here are the stats:

Most Bracelets Won (2004-2009)

Most Bracelets Won All-Time

The 2004-2009 list makes Jeffrey Lisandro’s 2009 performance all the more impressive. In the last six years combined, only three other players have been able to win three World Series of Poker bracelets. Lisandro accomplished that task in less than three weeks last summer. Along with a stud bracelet in 2007, Lisandro is No. 1 in bracelets won in the post-Moneymaker era.

Lisandro had a legitimate claim to the title of “Best Player Never to Have Won a Bracelet” before finally getting the monkey off his back by winning a $2,000 seven-card stud event in 2007. Last year, he became the first and only player since the poker boom to win three bracelets in a single World Series. Four other players in history have done it, although all did it before the modern era (Puggy Pearson in 1973, Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth in 1993, and Phil Ivey in 2002).

Ivey shares the No. 2 spot with two other popular and well-respected pros, Allen Cunningham and Barry Greenstein. Widely recognized as one of the best in the game, Ivey won his post-boom bracelets in a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event in 2005, a $2,500 deuce-to-seven no-limit event in 2009, and a $2,500 Omaha eight-or-better/seven-card stud eight-or-better mixed event in 2009.

Like Ivey, Cunningham has been a monster since 2004. Besides winning three bracelets, each player has made the final table of the mammoth main event (Ivey in 2009, Cunningham in 2006). All of Cunningham’s hold’em bracelets, which comprise three of his five bracelets won, have come since 2005.

With nearly $7.3 million in lifetime tournament earnings over several years, many fans might be surprised to discover that all of Greenstein’s bracelets have come post-Moneymaker. Perhaps realizing early that tourneys were the wave of the future, the cash-game player has dedicated himself to playing multitable tournaments and has won bracelets in no-limit deuce-to-seven draw, pot-limit Omaha, and razz.

Although more than 300 bracelets have been awarded in the past six years, only those four players have won three bracelets or more during that time. This becomes even more surprising when you consider how many double-bracelet winners the WSOP has featured. In 2009, improbably, five different players won multiple bracelets. In fact, there has been at least one double-bracelet winner in every single WSOP since the boom (and even extending back to 2000).

However, Lisandro and Ivey remain the only two players who have won multiple bracelets in a single summer and have at least one other post-2003 win.

It is not uncommon for an unknown player to rise out of anonymity to win a WSOP bracelet, and then never be heard from again.

Hal Fowler did this in dramatic fashion when he became the first true amateur to win the main event in 1979. It was his first and only WSOP cash in his lifetime.

Fowler isn’t the only one to have a one-and-done performance at the WSOP. According to WSOP records, 88 players have exactly one WSOP bracelet and one WSOP cash — meaning they had never cashed in the World Series prior to their win, and never cashed again after it.

Since the poker boom, this trend has grown. Since 2004, 29 individuals (including 2007 main-event champ Jerry Yang and Irish pro Ciaran O’Leary, whose 2007 bracelet win was highlighted by ESPN’s coverage of his final table) have won just one bracelet with a single WSOP cash on their resumes. That’s nearly 10 percent of all of the bracelet winners in the past six years.

While Lisandro has been the top dog in terms of wins, Hellmuth has been No. 1 in terms of cashes in the modern era. Here’s a look at WSOP cashes:

Most Cashes (2004-2009)

Most WSOP Cashes All-Time

No matter how you look at 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 things like, “His game doesn’t hold up in the modern era,” and “The game has passed him by.” But take a look at his post-boom stats and you’ll see that 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 bracelets since the boom (tied for fifth), Hellmuth can make a solid case for the title of “best pro in the WSOP in the modern era.”

Just behind Hellmuth, and looking to perhaps pass 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 won since 2004, is impressively in fifth place on this list, as well. Cunningham is tied for 13th in cashes since 2004. Ivey didn’t make this list, but with 20 WSOP cashes since 2004, he’s not too far out of the picture.

The WSOP prize money category is perhaps the least surprising of the three categories. With the main event becoming a global phenomenon, its 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 lists are identical, and most of the top 10 in the two lists are quite similar, as well. That’s why we thought it would be interesting to create one final list that highlights the players who have won the most money in the past six years without the benefit of a main-event final-table score.

WSOP Money Leaders (2004-2009; Excluding Main-Event Final-Table Results)

Understandably, the top four players are there due in part, at least, to a huge performance in one of the WSOP’s premier events ($50,000 H.O.R.S.E., last year’s $40,000 event, or the WSOP Europe main event). In order to make some serious cash in poker, you need to take down a major title.

But take special note of Ivey (No. 6) and Cunningham (No. 9). Even when you subtract their winnings from their main-event final-table results in the past decade, they still make this exclusive list, thanks to numerous other strong showings over the past six years.

Some players — like the late Chip Reese, 2009 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. champ David Bach, and the young Annette Obrestad — are on the list primarily because of one big cash. Others — like Ivey, Cunningham, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeffrey Lisandro, Daniel Negreanu, and Barry Greenstein — are there as a result of their slew of cashes.

J.C. Tran shows how a player can make this group even without a massive score. While most players in the top 20 are there because of one or two events, Tran is there thanks to his astonishing consistency. With eight WSOP final tables in the last six years, his only very big cash was for his bracelet win, which netted him $631,170.

As for Lunkin, most poker fans probably wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup before the 2009 WSOP began. But the Russian player is alone at the top of this specialized category. His incredible heater last summer, along with his 2007 bracelet win, make him the WSOP’s biggest winner in the modern era if you exclude those who have made a main-event final table.

So, Who’s Been the Best Since the Poker Boom?

As if we could actually and definitively answer that …

But in the spirit of trying to make sense of the numbers, we will highlight a few players and show how and why they stand out from the rest.

In terms of which players have the best stats in the post-boom era, a few individuals have set themselves apart from the rest: Lisandro, Ivey, Cunningham, Greenstein, Negreanu, Lunkin, Hellmuth, Juanda, and Scotty Nguyen.

Lisandro has won the most bracelets, but Hellmuth has cashed more than anyone else.

Gold has technically made the most prize money, thanks to his 2006 win in the very top-heavy main event, but if you look at the prize money won in all events other than the main event, Lunkin has earned the most.

In the seven lists that were compiled — most bracelets won (modern era and all-time), most cashes (modern era and all-time), and most prize money won (modern era, all-time, and excluding main-event final tables) — one pro is near the top of every one.

That pro is Allen Cunningham.

The Full Tilt pro is tied for second in bracelets won in the modern era (3), tied for 12th in bracelets won all-time (5), tied for 13th in cashes in the modern era (23), 23rd in cashes all-time (41), ninth in prize money won post-2003 (just over $6 million), sixth all-time in prize money won ($6.7 million), and ninth in prize money won when excluding the main-event final table ($2.1 million).

Cunningham also has won three hold’em bracelets in the modern era, a feat that no one has equaled.

This is not a conclusion that Cunningham has performed the best, but, arguably, no one has his record of consistency both in the modern era and in WSOP history.

A few players are definitely neck and neck with Cunningham, however, and have outperformed him in various areas.

With no WSOP main-event final table to his name, Negreanu failed to make either the all-time or the post-2003 money list. However, he was amongst the very best in virtually every other post-boom category: tied for fifth in bracelets won (2), fourth in cashes (32), and fifth in prize money won if you exclude the main-event final table ($2.66 million).

Lisandro is also incredibly impressive in those three categories: No. 1 in bracelets won (4), fifth in cashes (29), and eighth in prize money won when excluding the main-event final table ($2.54 million).

Along with Negreanu and Lisandro, Greenstein and Hellmuth are the two other players who are in the top 10 of each of those three specific post-boom categories. Greenstein is tied for second in bracelets won (3), third in cashes (33), and 10th in prize money won without main-event final-table results ($2.1 million). Hellmuth is tied for fifth in bracelets won (2), No. 1 in cashes (35), and seventh in prize money won ($2.55 million).

So, who’s been the best since the poker boom? The debate will rage on. But if you look at the numbers, picking any one of the above players probably would not be a bad bet.