Bryan Kenny is the current all-time money leader, having earned a total of $67,015,920 from poker.
This is a considerable amount of career earnings, and definitely too much for most people to know what to do with it. This begs the question: how do poker winners actually spend the millions of dollars they win during high-stake tournaments?
Whether playing in-person in major tournaments or practicing online at the sites on Buyshares’s list of the best online casino sites, one thing remains constant: poker offers some huge prize purses. Some prominent poker players never reveal how they spend their prize money – they prefer to keep their poker playing anonymous and use no-KYC (Know Your Customer) online casinos. This keeps their identities and winnings private.
On the other hand, some poker players like to publicise their spending. Spending habits can be divided into four categories: luxury, philanthropy, business ventures, and personal passions.
Luxury
Let’s face it, the vast majority of poker players who hit the jackpot are definitely going to invest a considerable amount in luxury.
Daniel Negreanu is one of the highest-earning poker players of all time, winning a total of seven World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. As of 2024, the Canadian poker player’s total live earnings currently sits at $53,898,810. He has spent some of his considerable earnings on cars, having once owned a red Tesla Model S with a signature license plate that read “DNEGS”.
In 2023, he sold the Tesla Model S to fellow poker player Landon Tice. Negreanu’s personalised license plate is now fixed on his new ride: a midnight silver metallic Tesla Model X.
Antonio Esfandiari, on the other hand, likes to go a little further in terms of luxury. Esfandiari’s live tournament earnings currently exceed $27,810,800, which he’s spent on living a life of luxury.
He recently bought his second home in Venice Beach, Southern California. The first home he purchased in the area was reportedly worth $5.4 million, complete with five bedrooms and six bathrooms.
Philanthropy
Although poker players generally like to spend their money on luxuries, many also have a charitable side. One of the most notable of which is Phil Hellmuth, who has set a lifetime goal of raising $100 million to go towards various charities that he’s passionate about. So far, he has raised over $54 million. He has done so by arranging charity poker tournaments in addition to contributing some of his poker earnings.
A wide range of charities have benefited from Hellmuth’s donations, including the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, the Wall Street Warfighters Foundation, and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
Business ventures
Some other poker players look to the future and invest in industries they think will keep them financially sound well past the end of their professional poker careers.
The best example of this is Fedor Holz who has invested heavily into the tech and gaming industry since the start of his poker career. For example, in 2017, he invested in Envy Gaming, Inc., one of the biggest esports gaming companies in the world which now makes an annual revenue of $26.4 million.
Not only that, but Holz has also established a mindfulness app called Primed Mind, which has proved to be both popular and well-reviewed.
Pursuing personal passions
Some poker players merely see their poker winnings as a means of launching the career they really want to pursue. Venessa Selbst is one such example of this.
Selbst was a highly skilled poker player, having earned $11.9 million from the game. She was once recognised by the New York Times as being the most successful female poker player of all time.
Throughout her poker career, invested her winnings in her education, having received a JD degree from Yale University in 2012. She later unofficially retired in 2018 to pursue other professions. Since then, she has worked for a hedge fund firm as well as an electronic trading firm.
Final thoughts
The spending habits of the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth give an insight into how poker players spend their money. From this, we can imagine what other poker players who don’t publicise their spending put their money towards. Besides luxury, philanthropy, business ventures, and personal passions, a lot of poker players simply put their money back into poker, by constantly entering high-stake tournaments.
