Who are the Stayers, Movers and Shakers in the Poker World?

Being a game of part chance part strategy, it’s difficult to truly gauge a poker player’s skill level. Yet some have established themselves as the best in the world based on their records in live poker events. Their consistency says something about how well they know and understand the game.

In this article, we break down the top players in poker, how their rankings have shifted in recent years, and the possible movements to come.

United States Continues to Dominate

Many of the most well established poker players come from the USA. This makes a lot of sense given that Texas Hold’em and other popular forms of the game first found their home in the States.

The biggest live poker tournaments of the year are held in Las Vegas, where a lot of the top ranked poker players have achieved their biggest results.

Sitting at the top as the best poker player of all time is Bryn Kenney. It’s worth pointing out that Kenney achieved a lot of his success from a single tournament. Still, he is a player who is racking up fresh results as recently as March 2025.

Behind Kenney in the poker rankings are second place Justin Bonomo, who is also from the USA. Bonomo is also from the USA. He’s less active than he used to be, with no results in 2025 as of yet, but was around on the live tournament circuit in 2024.

Dan Smith is among the movers in the poker world. He recently outshone USA compatriot Jason Koon following a solid year in 2024 and a great start to 2025.
Incredibly, 12 out of 20 of the top poker players in the world come from the USA, including Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Steve O’Dwyer, William Alex Foxen, Cary Katz and Nick Petrangelo.

Canadian Players Breach the Top 20

Although the USA is still the country to beat when it comes to the poker all-time money list, Canadian players have been steadily rising up the ranks and tend to be considerably more active than their competitors in the states, many of whom are semi-retired or only frequent the live poker scene occasionally.

Canada is close enough that the major US tournaments are easily accessible. Players can also play poker in Canada online at licensed sites and have pretty much always been able to, unlike their neighbours in the states.

This gives Canadians access to a full range of poker tournaments both live and online, which has led to a more engaged community of players who are quickly moving up the worldwide rankings.

The most famous Canadian player and the one who has achieved the best results is Daniel Negreanu, a legend in the poker world. Although not as active as he once was, Negreanu still frequents live poker tournaments in the USA and had huge first place results in 2022 and 2024.

Perhaps the biggest mover and shaker from Canada, though, is Daniel Dvoress, who had a terrific year in live poker in 2024, especially in the November and December months. He’s moved up the poker rankings from 22nd to 17th in recent years and, given that some of his best results are very recent, it’s easy to imagine him breaking into the top ten soon enough.

A total of four out of the top 20 players on the all-time money list are from Canada, more than any other nation outside of the US. This article from Bodog shows how the top five players are the same faces as they have been for years, although their order in the rankings and total scores have risen.

Rise of New Stars

As the last generation of greats begin to take a step back from the tables having reached their pinnacle, when they reduce their volume so they can explore other aspects of life, there’s always going to be new, young guns looking to break through who are highly skilled at the game.

Bryn Kenney, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey – these are all names that have been sitting pretty at the top of the poker world for many years. But a new era is coming. Arguably, it’s already here.

Mikita Bodytakovsky is a name worth remembering. This young player from Belarus has been steadily climbing the rankings for years now, overtaking the likes of Negreanu and Ivey a long time ago.

In recent years, a first place result catapulted Bodytakovsky into fourth place, within punching distance of Chidwick and Bonomo.

Fedor Holz, the best player in his home nation of Germany, is also moving fast and now sits within the top 10 players of all time.

William Alex Foxen has also found himself in the top 20 after a great few days in December 2024 boosted him all the way up. Consistency will be key if Foxen is to rise any further this year.

The poker rankings don’t move very often, but the players mentioned in this article could well find themselves shifting up (or down) in the months to come.