We are just five months into the year but some of poker’s finest players have already added millions of dollars to their bankrolls. They have traveled the world, faced other fine and seasoned players and have outmaneuvered them to be rewarded for their skills.
Just as many poker professionals and enthusiasts are readying for this year’s World Series of Poker, Casino News Daily has compiled a quick list of the most profitable players so far in 2018. Here is a little bit more information about how much they have won and how they have performed the past several months.
Justin Bonomo – $8,907,138
Bonomo has been on a hot streak over the past five months and it seems that he has no intention to end his winning spree. The player has cashed nearly $9 million since the beginning of the year from 15 different tournaments. There is more to the story, he won five of these and made final table appearances in most of the other.
Half of Bonomo’s 2018 live tournament earnings came from his first-place finish in the HK$2-million buy-in Super High Roller Bowl China. The popular poker pro bested a field of 75 seasoned high rollers to collect $4,823,077 from the event’s prize pool. Bonomo defeated Finland’s Patrik Antonius (who will appear later in this list) heads-up.
Aside from his Super High Roller Bowl China triumph, he also took down the Lucky Hearts Poker Open $25,500 High Roller for $556,873, a US Poker Open $10,500 event for $190,400, the EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em for €378,000, and the EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 Single Re-Entry for €259,700.
Jason Koon – $6,837,091
Koon is, too, having quite some year and quite a month, to be more precise. The player won high roller tournaments on two continents over a week’s span. He first outlasted 103 entries in the partypoker-sponsored HK$1,000,000 Triton Super High Roller Montenegro to scoop a hefty payout of $3,569,836.
Just a few days later, the player claimed another title and another seven-figure payout. He won the Aria $100K High roller during the WPT Tournament of Champions Festival at Aria Resort & Casino. Koon was the last man standing from a field of 31 entries. His share of the prize pool totaled $1,039,940.
Koon has cashed in seven events since the beginning of the year and has won one more tournament over the past few months. During this year’s PCA, the poker pro bested the field of the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em, good for a prize of $421,080.
Stephen Chidwick – $5,906,441
UK’s second most profitable player of all time rounds out the podium of this year’s most profitable live tournament poker players. Chidwick has finished in the money in 15 tournaments since January and has won several of them to add nearly $6 million to his already hefty poker bankroll.
The UK poker pro started off 2018 with victories in two US Poker Open tournaments, both of them $25,000 buy-in ones. He scooped more than $700,000 from those. Just a couple of days ago, the player took down a $25,000 Aria High Roller event for $300,000.
Back in April, Chidwick collected two seven-figure payouts from the partypoker MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona festival. He first finished runner-up to Jake Schindler in the €100,000 Super High Roller for €1.1 million in prize money, and then collected €1 million for his third-place finish in the €10,300 Main Event.
Patrik Antonius – $4,537,936
We have seen more and more from the Finn over the past months which is always good, as we all know how good he is at this game. The player has cashed in just five events this year, but one of these was the above-mentioned Super High Roller Bowl China.
Antonius collected $3,153,551 from that tournament after outlasting all but one of the contenders for the title. In February, the player put up great performance at the partypoker MILLIONS Germany at King’s Casino Rozvadov to win the €25,500 Super High Roller for a first-place prize of €425,000.
Jake Schindler – $4,411,041
Schindler rounds out the list of the five most profitable players so far this year with nearly $4.5 million added to his bankroll. He has cashed in 17 tournaments since the beginning of 2018, which is an impressive number itself. In addition, he actually topped the fields of some of these events.
As already mentioned, the player emerged victorious in the €100,000 Super High Roller during the partypoker MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona. His share of the tournament’s massive prize pool amounted to €1,750,000. Schindler has also won a couple of Aria High Roller tournaments over the past several months and has cashed in some other such tournaments.
