Who Are The Five Biggest Winners From Hungary?

Hungary has produced some incredible poker players over the years. It is not the first country you think of when considering poker’s elite, but it should be. Thinking of heading to Las Vegas for the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) this fall? You may bump into this talented quintet of Hungarian superstars.

Norbert Szecsi Top The Hungary All-Time Money List

Norbert Szecsi hails from Budapest, Hungary, and has $3,834,666 in live poker tournament earnings, which are enough to rank Szecsi first in the Hungary all-time money listings. Szecsi won the second event he cashed in, a €660 buy-in tournament in Malaga, Spain, for €33,650 ($45,758) in November 2010.

He came close to winning a World Poker Tour Main Event in April 2012. However, Szecsi ultimately finished sixth at WPT Vienna for €49,100 ($65,404).

Szecsi made amends for that near miss when he traveled to the 2013 WSOP. The Hungary grinder won the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $345,037 and a coveted gold bracelet. He almost secured bracelet number two a year later. Szecsi finished second in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for a career-best $444,425. Another runner-up finish in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty event in 2016 came with $179,625 in prize money.

He finally won his second bracelet in 2018 at the WSOP Europe festival. Szecsi triumphed in the €1,500 PLO/NLH Mixed for €86,956 ($100,162). That result came less than two months after he netted a career-best €626,357 ($731,716) in a €10,300 High Roller in Barcelona.

Marton Czuczor of Hungary Crushes Online and Live Poker

Martin Czuczor also resides in Budapest, Hungary, and it from here he crushes online poker tournaments. Czuczor is known as “noirduck” in the online poker world. He has almost $3.9 million in winnings at the virtual felt, helped by a $123,254 score in July 2018.

Czuczor is no slouch in the live poker world either having racked up $3,808,741 in winnings. A huge €1,253,234 ($1,393,721) of that sum stems from a runner-up finish in the 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event. That was his second EPT Main Event second-place finish after EPT Prague in December 2016.

A fourth-place finish in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2017 WSOP is the closest Czuczor has come to winning a bracelet.

Andras Koroknai the Former November Niner

Andras Koroknai hails from Debrecen, Hungary, and is third in his country’s money list despite only recording 14 cashes. Koronai has $3,616,640 in earnings, with almost all that money coming from two massive results.

First, Koroknai won the 2010 WPT L.A. Poker Classic event for a cool $1,788,040. His trip to the 2012 WSOP bore fruit because Koroknai reached the final table of the Main Event. He lasted 109 hands before busting at the hands of the eventual champion, Greg Merson. Koroknai got his chips in with Kh-Qd but ran into As-Ks. The 8h-3s-2c-7s-7h board sent Koroknai home in sixth for $1,640,902.

Andras Nemeth Has Millions in Online Winnings

Andras Nemeth is the first name that springs to mind when you think of poker players from Hungary. He is fourth in Hungary’s all-time money list with $3,494,833 but has won eight figures in the online poker world.

Nemeth won a €1,600 event in Austria in 2009 for €49,600 ($73,028), the first live event he cashed in. We should have known then that we had a global superstar on our hands. His largest score came in August 2018 when he won a €25,000 event in Barcelona. Nemeth walked away with €605,600 ($692,882) that day.

The Hungarian is a rare breed in that he is equally adept at No-Limit Hold’em as he is Pot-Limit Omaha. He plays a loose-aggressive style that is often unpredictable. It works for him, just ask anyone who has had the misfortune of playing against him.

Denes Kalo Won $2.5 Million From Five Events

Denes Tamas Kalo is fifth in the Hungary money list with $2,509,779 despite only recording five live cashes. He banked €50,440 ($64,169) for a second-place finish in a €3,150 buy-in tournament in Vienna in October 2006. A €375,00 ($529,856) prize followed exactly a year later, also in Vienna.

Kalo finished second to Canada’s Glen Chorny at the 2008 EPT Grand Final. The result came with €1,179,000 ($1,865,595) in prize money. Two cashes followed in 2009 and that was the last we saw of Kalo.

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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