In sports, you often find that certain players perform well in specific events or specific stadiums. Think of Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, or Lebron James winning 8 Eastern Conference titles in a row. Well, the same phenomenon can be found in poker! Some players pull out their best performances in specific events to the point where some of them are considered specialists.
To highlight some of poker’s top tournament performers, we’ve found the players with the most titles in each of the best-known tournament series and listed them below, along with details of their accomplishments.
WSOP – Phil Hellmuth – 17 Bracelets
Love him or hate him, there’s no doubt that Phil Hellmuth is the WSOP G.O.A.T. With 17 bracelets, 10 more than his closest competitors, Phil Hellmuth is without doubt one of the most successful players in WSOP history. After becoming the youngest player to win the WSOP Main Event in 1989, he has followed it up with bracelets in a variety of Hold’em events as well as Razz and 2-7 events.
In 2012, Phil became the first person to win both the WSOP Main Event and WSOP Europe Main Event after taking down the tournament for over €1 million. As well as topping the all-time bracelet list by a considerable margin, Phil is also 3rd on the list for all-time cashes with 203 and 3rd on the all-time list for $17,888,340.
The Poker Brat doesn’t look like he’s slowing down, so we wouldn’t bet against him extending this number before he finally hangs up the baseball cap for good!
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
May 1989 | No Limit Hold’em World Championship | $10,000 | $755,000 |
May 1992 | Limit Hold’em | $5,000 | $168,000 |
April 1993 | No Limit Hold’em | $1,500 | $161,400 |
April 1993 | No Limit Hold’em | $2,500 | $173,000 |
April 1993 | Limit Hold’em | $5,000 | $138,000 |
May 1997 | Pot Limit Hold’em | $3,000 | $204,000 |
April 2001 | No Limit Hold’em | $2,000 | $316,550 |
April 2003 | Limit Hold’em | $2,500 | $171,400 |
May 2003 | No Limit Hold’em | $3,000 | $410,860 |
July 2006 | No Limit Hold’em with rebuys | $1,000 | $631,863 |
June 2007 | No Limit Hold’em | $1,500 | $637,254 |
April 2012 | Seven-Card Razz | $2,500 | $182,793 |
September 2012 | No Limit Hold’em Main Event (WSOPE) | €10,450 | €1,022,376 |
June 2015 | Seven-Card Razz | $10,000 | $271,105 |
July 2018 | No Limit Hold’em | $5,000 | $485,082 |
October 2021 | No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw | $1,500 | $84,851 |
July 2023 | Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em | $10,000 | $803,818 |
WPT – Darren Elias – 4 Titles
With larger fields and fewer events, it’s arguably harder to win multiple titles in the WPT, but Darren Elias has shown that it’s possible if you play well enough. Darren had his breakout year in 2014, winning two titles within two months for over $1 million combined. He picked up his third win three years later and claimed his fourth victory in 2018 to become the outright leader in WPT titles.
Darren has a stellar record at the WPT and tops most of the stats you could care to mention. He’s not only first in titles, but he also leads the way in the number of cashes (48) and the number of final tables (13). While he is only 7th in career earnings ($4,802,644), there’s still plenty of time for Darren to add to his total and move his way up the leaderboard.
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
Sept 2014 | Borgata Poker Open | $3,500 | $843,744 |
Nov 2014 | WPT Caribbean | $3,500 | $127,680 |
Feb 2017 | Fallsview Poker Classic | $5,000 | $335,436 |
May 2018 | Bobby Baldwin Classic | $10,000 | $387,580 |
EPT – Victoria Coren Mitchell, Mikalai Pobal, & Mike Watson – 2 Titles
Just like the EPT, the limited number of events and huge turnouts make it incredibly difficult for anyone to win multiple titles. While the EPT boasts a number of side events, only the Main Event is considered to be a true EPT title. It took nearly 10 years for the EPT to have its first two-time winner when Victoria Coren Mitchell took down EPT San Remo for €476,100, eight years after her maiden victory in EPT London.
Five years after Victoria’s second title, we had our next two-time EPT Main Event winner when Mikalai Pobal won EPT Prague for just over €1 million. This victory came more than seven years after winning his first title in EPT Barcelona, similarly for just over €1 million.
Mike Watson was the third player to become a two-time EPT Champion, following up his 2016 PCA win with a win at EPT Monte Carlo in 2023. As well as being a two-time champion, Mike Watson is 5th on the all-time EPT Main Event cashes leaderboard with 16, only 5 behind 1st place Johnny Lodden.
Whether or not any of these players can take down a 3rd title to become the outright leader in EPT titles is up for debate due to the strength of the fields and frequency of events, but with so many talented players we wouldn’t be surprised if we see someone win 3 events in their lifetime!
Victoria Coren Mitchell
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
Sept 2006 | EPT London | £3,500 | £500,000 |
April 2014 | EPT San Remo | €5,000 | €476,100 |
Mikalai Pobal
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
Aug 2012 | EPT Barcelona | €5,300 | €1,007,550 |
Dec 2019 | EPT Prague | €5,300 | €1,005,600 |
Mike Watson
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
January 2016 | PCA | $5,300 | $728,325 |
May 2023 | EPT Monte Carlo | €5,300 | €749,425 |
Triton Series – Jason Koon – 10 Titles
Despite only launching in 2016, Jason Koon has already reached double digits when it comes to Triton titles. After a tremendous 2023, he doubled his haul of titles from 5 to 10, even winning two titles within the space of two weeks in May 2023.
Considered one of the world’s best in both No Limit Hold’em and Short Deck, Jason Koon’s skillset seems tailor-made for the Triton Series, which features a number of Short Deck tournaments. In fact, 4 of his 10 titles have come in Short Deck, 5 have come in NLHE, and his latest in November 2023 came in a PLO event, showing just how well-rounded Jason Koon’s game is.
Jason is currently second on Triton’s all-time money list, only behind runner-up of the £1,050,000 Triton London Million For Charity event, Bryn Kenney (who took more than 1st place in that event after making a deal heads-up!). He also leads the way in the number of cashes with 41 in Triton Series events, demonstrating his dominance in this tournament series.
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
May 2018 | Triton Montenegro Short Deck Ante Only | HK$ 1 million | $3,579,836 |
March 2019 | Triton Jeju Short Deck | HK$ 1 million | $2,899,000 |
March 2019 | Triton Jeju NLH Refresh | HK$ 1 million | $993,221 |
May 2022 | Triton Madrid Short Deck One Bullet | €150,000 | €1,750,000 |
March 2023 | Triton Vietnam NLH Turbo | $50,000 | $574,000 |
May 2023 | Triton North Cyprus NLH 7-Handed | $20,000 NLH | $663,000 |
May 2023 | Triton North Cyprus NLH Main Event | $100,000 | $2,451,082 |
July 2023 | Triton London NLH 7-Handed | $60,000 | $1,570,000 |
Aug 2023 | Triton London Short Deck Main Event | $60,000 | $828,000 |
Nov 2023 | Triton Monte Carlo PLO | $25,000 | $365,000 |
Super High Roller Bowl – Justin Bonomo – 3 Titles
What started as a yearly event has come a tour of its very own, with multiple Super High Roller Bowl tournaments taking place around the world throughout the year. These high buy-in events price out 99.9% of the poker world, meaning that only the elite players (and amateurs with deep pockets) participate. Out of the 17 Super High Roller Bowl events that have taken place, Justin Bonomo has won three of them, cementing himself as the outright leader in this field.
Justin’s first win came in March 2018 when he took down the Super High Roller Bowl China event for just over $4.8 million. Two months later he doubled his win count after winning Super High Roller Bowl IV for a cool $5 million. Not even a lockdown could stop Justin from adding to his win tally, as he took down the Super High Roller Bowl Online event in June 2020 for over $1.7 million.
Not only does Justin have the most Super High Roller Bowl titles, he also leads the way with the most number of cashes (7) and the total prize money ($15,318,077) by a significant margin.
Date | Competition | Buy-In | Prize |
March 2018 | Super High Roller Bowl China | $267,637 | $1,775,000 |
May 2018 | Super High Roller Bowl IV | $300,000 | $5,000,000 |
June 2020 | Super High Roller Bowl Online | $102,000 | $4,821,516 |
Summary
It’s hard to explain why, but there’s no doubting that each player on this list has a certain affinity with their tournament series. They’ve outperformed elite-level competition and have cemented themselves as the best players in these events. Holding on to the top spot is a different challenge, and we can’t wait to follow these events closely to see if they can do just that.
