Who Are the Richest Poker Players?

Poker is a game where thousands and millions of dollars are often up for grabs and where the thrill and skill involved is like no other. With that said, it is no surprise that the game attracts people from all walks of life, whatever they may be.

That includes the wealthier people in society, many of which have pursued poker as a hobby. Here at PokerTube have decided to highlight the most high profile billionaires who have played with the world’s best poker players in the world’s best poker events. Let's get into the richest poker players in the world:

Andrew Beal

He may not be the most notable billionaire on the planet, but Andrew Beal’s poker cash games against professional poker players in the mid-2000s have become a story of legend. Beal used his love of maths and finance to become a real estate investor, businessman and banker, having started his own bank – Beal Bank – in 1988.

Beal’s business ventures have contributed to a total net worth of US$11billion, which has put him at number 42 on the Forbes Richest People in America list. Beal’s career and work in mathematics has shown that he loves a challenge, so it is really no surprise that he has played poker at the highest stakes against some of the best players.

Between 2001 and 2004, Beal played cash games against such players as Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Todd Brunson and Jennifer Harman, with blinds as high as US$200,000. He was actually successful in some stages, having won US$11.7 million in a single hand. However, in a heads-up match against Phil Ivey, Beal lost a total of US$16.6 million over a couple of days.

David Sacks

One of the large handful of technology billionaires who have sprung up over the last two decades, David Sacks first established himself as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PayPal. In 2008, Sacks founded the social networking service Yammer, which was sold to tech giant Microsoft just four years later.

While Sacks’ net worth is unknown, it is known that eBay bought PayPal in October 2002 for US1.5 billion and Yammer was bought for US$1.2 billion. With that said, it is highly likely that Sacks has a fair stack of cash in his bank account, which has allowed him to pursue poker as a hobby.

He has placed in the money in a number of small professional poker tournaments over the years, and also placed in the money at the 2008 WSOP Main Event (he came 523rd out of a field of 6,844). Sacks, along with other tech business figures, has also regularly played poker cash games with high level poker players like Phil Hellmuth.

Guy Laliberté

He is known as the founder of world famous Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil, a venture that has helped make Guy Laliberté a billionaire. A street performer since his early youth, Laliberté co-founded Cirque du Soleil as a 25-year-old back in 1984 with a grant from the Canadian government.

The company has since grown from strength to strength as it has become globally synonymous with circus-style entertainment, employing over 5,000 people in over 40 countries. As a result, Cirque du Soleil now makes over $800 million per year, which makes it no surprise why Laliberté was named the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006.

Street entertainment and business are not the Canadian’s only talents, however. Laliberté has also shown himself to be a beast on the felt, having finished fourth in the $25,000 WPT No’ Limit Championship in 2007 and winning US$696,220. He also finished fifth in the $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop in the 2012 WSOP, having beaten the likes of Brian Rast and Mike Sexton to win US$1,834,666.

David Einhorn

Staying on topic with the Big One for One Drop event, hedge fund manager David Einhorn is another billionaire who has performed well in the event, and other professional poker events for over a decade. He was only in this 20s when he founded his hedge fund company Greenlight Capital in 1996, a venture which has contributed largely to his current net worth of just under US$2 billion.

His love and talent of making money in the business world has also carried over to poker as shown by his US$5.1 million in total live poker tournament earnings. The bulk of those earnings come from his performance at the 2012 Big One for One Drop event, where he finished ahead of Laliberté and 43 other players to finished third, good enough for a US$4.35 million dollar win (which he donated to City Year).

Einhorn also made his mark in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, having finished a highly respectable 18th in that event. He won US$659,730 as a result of his strong performance, which he donated to the Michael J. Fox foundation.

So there you have it, some of the richest poker players in the world who can be marveled at for both their fortunes and their skills on the felt. Until next time, PokerTubers!