Poker Leaderboard: Best Without A Bracelet

Rank Player Career Earnings
1 Dan Smith $37,803,165
2 Cary Katz $33,485,851
3 Mikita Badziakouski $31,836,895
4 Steve O’Dwyer $31,279,874
5 Isaac Haxton $29,607,580
6 Jake Schindler $28,476,336
7 Christoph Vogelsang $26,202,151
8 Sam Trickett $21,808,828
9 Rainer Kempe $21,585,864
10 Paul Phua $21,532,865

With an extensive online segment, the classic Las Vegas live festival, and a European series, 2021 is set to award the most World Series of Poker bracelets ever handed out in a single year. There were 74 WSOP Online bracelets won from July through September. With 88 bracelet events at the Rio, another 11 online bracelet events in the fall, and the 15 from the WSOP Europe, a grand total of 188 bracelets will be won this year.

As of Oct. 18, 107 bracelet events have decided their champion, leaving another 81 to go. This leaderboard lists the top 10 highest-earning tournament players in the world who have yet to win a bracelet.

It is headlined by Dan Smith, who has accumulated more than $37.8 million in lifetime cashes, with more than $9.9 million in cashes at the series. He has 10 final-table finishes in bracelet events, with one runner-up showing (2016 $111,111 One Drop High Roller – $3,078,974) and six third-place finishes. His largest cash at the series came when he finished third in the 2018 $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop event for $4 million.

With Jason Koon having removed himself from this list, Cary Katz joins Smith as the only other player in the top 10 of poker’s all-time money list without a bracelet. Katz has accumulated more than $33.4 million in earnings, with eight final table showings and two runner-up finishes at the series.

Mikita Badziakouski and Steve O’Dwyer are the only other players with more than $30 million in tournament earnings without a bracelet to their name. The next few months will reveal if these any of these top tournament players can finally break through with a win at the series.