Who Are The Five Biggest Live MTT Winners From Mexico?

Mexico is the world’s 13th largest country by area and the 10th most populous with 126 million residents. The country has produced some incredible poker players over the years and continues to do so. The five biggest live poker tournament winners from Mexico have $10,597,934 in combined winnings. Who is that quintet? Continue reading to find out.

JC Alvarado is the biggest poker tournament winner in Mexico

Juan Carlos “JC” Alvarado is the biggest poker tournament winner in Mexico, although he now resides in McAllen, Texas. He has almost $4.5 million in live cashes and several more millions in online poker earnings.

Alvarado has ten live scores weighing in at six figures, with two worth more than half a million dollars. He finished second to Dan Smith in a €50,000 Super High Roller at the 2012 European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona festival and walked away with a career-best $969,006. His fourth-place finish in the same event three years later came with a $504,391 payout.

The US-based Mexican has not recorded a live tournament cash since October 2019, having retired from playing competitively. Alvarado’s lead in the Mexico all-time money list should stand for a while, as he has $2.3 million more in earnings than the man in second place.

Luis Velador took home two WSOP bracelets to Mexico

Luis Velador has dual Mexico/US citizenship and is currently based in Lake Elsinore, California. Velador’s $2,194,980 in winnings place him second in the Mexican money listing. The poker veteran has two WSOP bracelets on his impressive resume. He won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold ’em event in 2008 for what is still a career-best $574,74. Bracelet number two came two years later in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha mix. It was worth $260,552.

Velador has another massive score on his record, thanks to a deep WSOP Main Event run. He finished tenth in the 2014 WSOP Main Event, a finish worth $565,193. Martin Jacobson won that year and scooped $10 million. Velador three-bet all-in with 4d-4h, and Mark Newhouse called with 5h-5s. The board ran 6d-Ah-Ac-3h-As to bust Velador.

Angel Guillen won his WSOP bracelet in 2009

Angel Guillen lives in Mexico City, although he spends a lot of time on the road competing at the highest level. Guillen’s $2,024,825 in career earnings are enough for third place on the Mexican leaderboard.

Some $530,548 of Guillen’s winning stems from his WSOP bracelet victory. He outlasted 1,533 opponents in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the 2009 WSOP. The victory made up for finishing second in a $2,500 No-Limit Hold ’em event a few days earlier; Guillen won $312,800 on that occasion.

Guillen became a father recently. He and partner Lynn Gilmartin of WPT fame are parents to a son named Bodhi.

Santiago Nadal the one million dollar man

Santiago Nadal of Mexico City, Mexico, is the only other Mexican in the country’s biggest winners to have accumulated $1 million in winnings. Nadal has $1,057,762 in earnings, to be exact. Nadal scooped a career-best $237,888 in 2014 when he finished second in a €2,200 buy-in event in Barcelona. A $150,000 prize made its way to his bank account when he won a $1,100 tournament at the Wynn, Las Vegas.

Nadal has not registered a live cash since late 2019, like many of his fellow Mexicans. We have the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to blame for that.

David Cossio is a low-to-mid stakes grinder

David Cossio is fifth in the Mexico all-time money list with $826,067 in winnings. The Mexican resides in El Paso, Texas, which explains his lack of online poker tournament results. Cossio should check out the US-friendly sites offered on these pages, perhaps?

Cossio has cashes dating back to April 1999, but 2013 was his year to remember. He cashed three times at the WSOP before becoming the runner-up in a $1,675 WSOP Circuit event in Hammond. The $260,100 Cossio collected for his runner-up finish is still his best-ever haul.

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

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