Two lists of note. Here is the top 25 list of Money Winners at the WSOP (from Pokerlistings) and all time tournament money winners (from Pokerpages). (Please ignore the player links had a formating issue. They all go to the same place.
| Rank | Name | Cashes | Bracelets | WSOP Cash | Name | Total Cash Won | ||
| 1 | Jamie Gold | 3 | 1 | $12,014,078 | 1 | Jaime Gold | 12,183,572 | |
| 2 | Peter Eastgate | 1 | 1 | $9,152,416 | 2 | Daniel Negreanu | 10,920,135 | |
| 3 | Jerry Yang | 1 | 1 | $8,250,000 | 3 | Joe Hachem | 10,561,131 | |
| 4 | Joe Hachem | 9 | 1 | $7,941,823 | 4 | Scotty Nguyen | 10,184,201 | |
| 5 | Allen Cunningham | 32 | 5 | $6,496,096 | 5 | Allen Cunningham | 9,838,209 | |
| 6 | Paul Wasicka | 4 | 0 | $6,189,966 | 6 | Peter Eastgate | 9,588,487 | |
| 7 | Ivan Demidov | 2 | 0 | $5,849,449 | 7 | Phil Ivy | 9,249,339 | |
| 8 | Phil Hellmuth | 57 | 11 | $5,716,914 | 8 | T.J. Cloutier | 9,108,713 | |
| 9 | Greg Raymer | 11 | 1 | $5,703,006 | 9 | John Juanda | 8,909,006 | |
| 10 | Tuan Lam | 3 | 0 | $4,851,424 | 10 | Erik Seidel | 8,759,612 | |
| 11 | Michael Binger | 13 | 0 | $4,775,130 | 11 | Phil Hellmuth | 8,753,596 | |
| 12 | Dennis Phillips | 1 | 0 | $4,517,773 | 12 | Carlos Mortensen | 8,459,283 | |
| 13 | Scotty Nguyen | 28 | 4 | $4,389,004 | 13 | Jerry Yang | 8,251,324 | |
| 14 | Steve Dannenmann | 3 | 0 | $4,271,489 | 14 | David Pham | 8,166,068 | |
| 15 | T.J. Cloutier | 49 | 6 | $4,198,043 | 15 | Paul Wasicka | $7,568,931 | |
| 16 | David Williams | 14 | 1 | $4,185,236 | 16 | $7,492,858 | ||
| 17 | Ylon Schwartz | 12 | 0 | $3,899,554 | 17 | Chris Ferguson | $7,425,499 | |
| 18 | Johnny Chan | 37 | 10 | $3,888,508 | 18 | JC Tran | $7,040,584 | |
| 19 | Erik Seidel | 47 | 8 | $3,848,090 | 19 | Barry Greenstein | $6,805,374 | |
| 20 | Chris Ferguson | 49 | 5 | $3,565,608 | 20 | Michael Mizrachi | $6,802,590 | |
| 21 | Dan Harrington | 9 | 2 | $3,491,513 | 21 | Erick Lindgren | $6,628,392 | |
| 22 | Kassem “Freddy” Deeb | 23 | 2 | $3,263,496 | 22 | Ivan Demidov | $6,498,176 | |
| 23 | Rhett Butler | 2 | 0 | $3,221,237 | 23 | Mike Matasow | $6,285,289 | |
| 24 | Josh Arieh | 8 | 2 | $3,199,774 | 24 | Michael Binger | $6,182,992 | |
| 25 | Scott Montgomery | 4 | 0 | $3,170,468 | 25 | Dan Harrington | $6,078,459 |
What’s interesting and obvious is the all time money winners in poker are mostly filled with Main Event winners.
Daniel Negreanu is nipping at the heels of Jaime Gold for the All Time Money Winnings BUT is nowhere to be seen in the top 25 of WSOP cashers. Principally, that’s because he lacks a Main Event title or final table. This year everybody is on edge to see if Negreanu can catch Gold. He and many others can pass Gold on the all tournaments list. However, Gold can still hang on to his WSOP career earnings lead even if Negreanu does some damage. And for the WSOP crown his closest competitors are Jerry Yang and Peter Eastgate. One is less than 3 million behind the other about 3 and 3/4 million behind.
Even guys like Joe Hachem or Allen Cunningham who can easily surpass Gold in all time winnings, would have a hard time catching him in WSOP winnings. They are about 4 and 5 million behind respectively, and though that may not seem like much take this into consideration. Only 9 men have won more than 5 million all time at the WSOP. 7 of those finished 1st or 2nd in massive Main Event fields. Only 16 men, sorry no ladies, have won more that 4 million. Included in those are an additional seven players who are more massive Main Event also rans like Tuan Lam, Michael Binger, Dennis Phillips, Steve Dannemann, and David Williams.
Now, even Eastgate has a huge mountain to climb at three million behind. Only 26 men have won more than 3 million at the WSOP. Deep finisher Raymond Rahme being the 26th. There are two types of players in that category, guys who have cashed 57, 49, 37, 28, 47, and 29 times and guys with deep Main Event runs in massive fields. Meaning you either have to run like God for the Main Event or play for 20 years to win three million.
Short of one of the top ten finishing in the top two this year, or somebody winning three bracelets this year, Gold is safe.
The only spanner in the works is just how big the 40k field will be. Mostly big time pros will be in that event, and many of them will have a great shot a bracelet and a big payday. Probably not 6 million big but maybe a couple of million.
Or perhaps, the internet poker qualifiers internationally, despite a weak economy, will push the Main Event to an even bigger size than it was when Gold won. Then a new guy will be number 1. That’s unlikely though.