Poker Leaderboard: Poker Commentators

Career Live Tournament Earnings of Poker Commentators

Mike Sexton might be best known to many casual poker fans for his work as a commentator on the WPT’s televised broadcasts, but he was also a very accomplished tournament player, with multiple major titles and more than $6 million in career live tournament earnings. Sexton will go down in history as one of the greatest player-commentators in the history of the game, having achieved so much in both fields.

Many of Sexton’s fellow poker commentators and analysts have also found success playing when they aren’t calling the action. In recent years more high-stakes poker pros like Nick Schulman, Maria Ho, and Tony Dunst have brought their experience to televised poker broadcasts. Schulman has covered high-stakes events like the Super High Roller Bowl in recent years, while remaining active as a cash game and tournament player. He has accumulated more than $12.8 million in tournament scores, including winning his third career WSOP bracelet during the 2019 series in Las Vegas.

Tony Dunst, who was Sexton’s replacement in the WPT booth, has the third-highest career earnings with just shy of $4.1 million. While Ali Nejad has the smallest tournament earnings of any player shown on this list, he is a regular cash-game player, often seen playing in mixed games where any given pot could dwarf his career tournament total.

High Stakes Poker commentator Gabe Kaplan might be best known to the public as an actor and comedian who starred in the 1970’s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, but he is also an avid player who has participated in big cash games and tournaments. His biggest title run came in Amarillo Slim’s Superbowl of Poker in 1980 for $190,000.