Poker has always had a unique way of ranking players, it uses money won as a marker of success. It’s difficult to measure cash game players’ success using this system because few sites track results. Online poker MTT, on the other hand, are an entirely different beast. Tournaments results are readily available and several websites log each cash.
Online poker MTT receive a lot of attention because of this. They create the superstars of the game, players who others want to emulate. The five biggest winners have accumulated $85,094,544 in cashes between them.
It’s worth noting the astronomical figures you’re about to read about are cashes and not profit. It’s fair to assume, however, that all five online poker MTT specialists are showing a huge profit.
Niklas “Lena900” Astedt Is The Biggest Online Poker MTT Winner with $19,819,767 in Earnings
Sweden’s Niklas “Lena900” Astedt is the online poker MTT player with the most earnings ever. The Swede has amassed an incredible $19,819,767 in cashes and is set to become the first-ever online player to surpass $20 million in cashes.
Astedt is an incredible player, one who manages to play a loose-aggressive style to perfection. He has 8,409 in the money finishes with an average cash of $2,357. He’s just the perfect online poker MTT player.
$1,154,199 are Astedt’s live tournament winnings. Astedt, amazingly, doesn’t play much live poker. This is partly due to the weird Swedish taxation laws. Also, why would you travel to play live poker when you destroy the online scene?
Peter “Belabacsi” Traply has $17,616,026 in Online MTT Winnings
Peter “Belabacsi” Traply has been racking up online poker MTT cashes for the best part of 15-years. The Hungarian boasts of an incredible 29,058 in the money finishes; how many bubbles must he have burst?
Traply’s 17,616,026 in winnings are enough to rank him second in the all-time listing. He was once a regular in the highest stakes MTTs, but focuses more on mid-stakes these days. Traply doesn’t play much live poker, just like Astedt, yet still has $946,427 in cashes.
The fact Traply lives in Hungary means he’s probably living a lavish lifestyle with his winnings and only plays poker for fun and a little extra income. What a life.
Chris “Moorman1” Moorman’s $16,335,193 Place Him Third in the Online Poker MTT Winnings Standings
Chris “Moorman1” Moorman was the first online poker MTT to record $10 million in cashes. He was the poster boy for online tournaments, although he’s slowed down plenty recently. Moorman splits his time between his native United Kingdom and America where his wife is from. He also frequently travels to Canada to play in PokerStars’ largest festivals.
Moorman is a beast in the live poker world, unlike others on this list. The popular Brit has $5,942,729 earnings from live poker tournaments. Two WSOP runner-up finishes, a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title helped Moorman reach this lofty number.
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet has $16,056,807 in Cashes
Canada’s Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet comes in at fourth-place thanks to $16,056,807 in winnings. Van Fleet has been around since 2006 and is highly regarded. He’s managed 131 outright victories, 94 runner-up and 113 third-place exits in his online career.
He went on an incredible run in October 2019 on GGPoker. Van Fleet won six $25,000 buy-in Super High Rollers for a combined $2,313,912. His victory in the partypoker MILLIONS Online in 2017 is his career highlight thanks to it banking him $1,027,000.
Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson’s $15,266,751 in Winnings Rank Him Fifth
Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson is another Swedish star, one whose friends with Niklas Astedt. Mattsson has almost 6,000 online poker MTT cashes to his name, which weigh in at $15,266,751. He probably has more earnings but hasn’t listed his new partypoker alias anywhere.
Mattsson is no slouch in the live arena either as he has $1,420,000 in live winnings.
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Matthew Pitt
If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.