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The 50 Best Poker Players in the Last 50 Years [Part 2]
We hope you read the article from last week about shaping the ranking of the top 50 poker players over the past 50 years. Using a sophisticated key and public votes, the Card Player's editorial staff has formed a discussed ranking full of poker icons, of which we will present the next part today. Did you find your favorite player in it?
![The 50 Best Poker Players in the Last 50 Years [Part 1]](/fileadmin/user_upload/staryweb_en/images/20220610095309_0a0d092ec7761a177883374b3fbef936.jpg)
T.J.Cloutier
T.J. he first dedicated his teenage life to football, where he worked his way up to a professional playing in the Canadian league. However, he later moved to Texas, where he went to work on oil rigs. The men shortened the longlasting shifts here with games of poker, which gradually turned out to be more lucrative for him. During his 40 years of professional career, T.J. got more than 400 ITM placements, including six bracelets and four WSOP Main Event final table finishes.
Shaun Deeb
The prominent personality, who likes to comment on everything that is going on in the poker worlds, quickly gained his supporters and opponents. Apart from the regular drama, Deeb is definitely one of the best players in the world. Already at the age of 16, he started crushing his opponents online and gradually worked his way up to a online world number one. He has become one of the most complex mixed games players in live poker and attacks the WSOP Player of the Year title every year. He has five bracelets on his resume, two of which come from the prestigious $25k PLO Championship.
Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio was only 9 years old when his family moved from Iran to the United States. His nickname The Magician arose from making a living as a magician after school, but he later switched to poker. In 2004, he dominated the prestigious WPT L.A.Poker Classic. He added his second triumph in 2010, and later won three WSOP bracelets. However, he made the history as a champion of the most expensive tournament, the million-dollar One Drop, in which he won a record win for an individual - $18.3 million, which catapulted him to the top of the all-time money list for many years.
Chris Ferguson
The poker Jesus is a long-time icon of the world scene, but even though his name has been tarnished by the infamous Full Tilt case, his poker success cannot be denied. At the moment, Ferguson has six WSOP bracelets on his resume, including the one in the 2000 Main Event, and that he still succeeds in poker proves the WSOP Player of the Year title, which he won in 2017.
Ted Forrest
The versatile poker matador became famous as one of the best high stakes cash game players of his time, but he also regularly proved his complexity with tournament success. Among them we can find six bracelets, a WPT title or a title from the National HU Championship. He was always known for not being afraid to play with anyone for any amount, for which he earned the distinctive nickname Suicide King.
Phil Galfond
Although he is primarily the director of his own RIO room, this Maryland native has been a dominant player throughout his career. Already in 2000, he won the first of his three bracelets, and since then he has built himself the status of one of the best PLO players in the world. In 2019, he came up with the idea of a heads-up challenge, in which he found several challengers (VeniVidi, Brandon Adams, Chance Kornuth), but no one has been able to beat him yet.
Barry Greenstein
Just imagine that you are making so much money in cash games that you donate all your tournament winnings to charity. As a result, Barry has earned the nickname Robin Hood of Poker, which is more than truthful. Originally a IT-worker has won three bracelets in the poker world, two WPT titles and became famous for his regular participation in TV shows or his book Ace on the River.
Jennifer Harman
The native of Nevada became one of the first prominent female representatives of the mainly men's game, and she bravely resisted her opponents. Jennifer spent much of her career in the legendary Bobby's Room in Bellagio, where she played the biggest cash games. Gradually, she became an ambassador for online gaming, a regular participant in various TV shows, and won two WSOP bracelets.
Brian Hastings
Even though he is only 33 years old, he has managed to do more than enough in less than half of his life. Already during his college years, he built a quarter-million poker bankroll, and at the age of 21 he already played the highest stakes. He became famous to the world especially when he beat the legendary Viktor "Isildur" Blom in one PLO session for $4.18 million. He also doesn't do badly in live poker, winning up to four of the five WSOP bracelets in non-Holdem formats, which only underlines his flexibility. UPDATE: Just few days ago, Brian won the sixth bracelet, which he took home from the $10k Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship along with $292,146.
Isaac Haxton
High stakes cash games? Yes. High stakes tournaments? Yes. Respect from your opponents? Definitely! For many years, Isaac has been one of the most consistent winners, whether in nosebleed cash games or tournament high rollers. Although he does not have a WSOP bracelet on his account, the nearly 30 million in winnings only proves his qualities.
Phil Hellmuth
What else can you say about Phil? As he himself claims, he is simply the best player in WSOP history, as evidenced by a record 16 bracelets (six more than his closest pursuers - Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson). In his time, Phil was the youngest WSOP Main Event champion (24 years old), but he didn't show everyone that he didn't age or lose his qualities last year. He also won the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2012 and ranks fourth in historical WSOP cashouts at 16.3 million.
John Hennigan
The current 51-year-old former pool professional confirms the reputation of a versatile player who, in addition to the acclaimed nosebleed cash game player, is also known for his tournament success. Among them are six WSOP bracelets, including a title from the challenging $50k Poker Players Championship, a title from the U.S. Poker Championship and a WPT Borgata prize.
Fedor Holz
The German poker school revolving around this player has given the world several top names, such as Rainer Kempe, Ole Schemion, Dominik Nitsche and Steffen Sontheimer, but each of them remains in Fedor's shadow. Fedor has nearly $35 million in live tournaments (9th in ATML), winning the overwhelming portion of that amount in just three years! He was no less successful online, where he currently occupies the 32nd place in the PocketFives ranking with 11 million. And finally, one little thing - Fedor is still only 28 years old!