Mihai Manole

Second on the Romanian all-time money list is Mihai Manole – a tournament grinder that has been on the scene for over a decade. His most successful outing to date was in 2009 when he enjoyed an extremely deep run at the EPT Barcelona €8,000 Main Event. Finishing just three places away from the seven-figure payday for first, Mihai exited the tournament in fourth for $357,654. Other in-the-money finishers included Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and German talent Tobias Reinkemeier – all of which Mihai outlasted to make the final table.

Manole has become all too familiar with these bittersweet moments in his poker career – something that many tournament players must learn to deal with. In his live exploits across the pond in North America, he has experienced a few similar close finishes. In 2008, the Romanian made his first ever WSOP final table – at the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Despite being able to get past more than 1,580 other players, Mihai fell short of the gold after finishing in fifth for $155,013. Two years later, Manole got himself another shot at the bracelet – this time in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. Coming agonisingly close once again, Manole finished in third and had to settle for $268,189 with the dream of winning a WSOP bracelet continuing to drive the Bucharest-born pro.

While Mihai may not have won a major title yet in his career, the collection of deep runs have earned him a healthy sum of winnings. With seven six-figure finishes to his name across a total of more than 85+ tournament cashes, Manole’s live earnings now exceed $2,450,000. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars he has won playing MTTs online under the screenname ‘MihayM’ according to PocketFives.