Alltime money list for the World Series of Poker

Top 10 WSOP winners

‘I was playing to win. I was zoned’ - Joe Hachem

By Poker Player

June 2006

1. JOE HACHEM $7,525,850

It’s testament to the exponential growth of the WSOP, in particular the Main Event, that the top three WSOP all-time money-winners are the 2004 and 2005 world champions and last year’s runnerup. And leading the pack is Australia’s Joe Hachem, the former chiropractor from Melbourne, who last year went to Las Vegas and took down the $7.5m first prize. Like the two previous winners – Moneymaker and Raymer – poker wasn’t Hachem’s main profession, and as a result the Australian tax office let him keep the lot. Lucky sod. Still, with rumours of an estimated $10m first prize this time, he’ll have to fend off a potential 8,000 runners to make the final table again and retain top spot.

2. GREG RAYMER $5,433,450

Having finished 12th in an Omaha Hi-Lo event in 2001, Fossilman was clearly no fool when he went to the Big One in 2004 and took home $5m. Which is no mean feat in the year when the Main Event more than trebled from a field of 839 and a prize pool of less than $8m in 2003, to 2,576 entries and a pot of nearly $25m. He proved it was no one-off by finishing 25th in last year’s Main Event.

3. STEVE DANNENMANN $4,250,000

The accountant from Maryland may have finished second in last year’s Main Event, but won the nation’s hearts as the underdog who gave as good as he got to Phil Hellmuth, ...