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WSOP Main Event: Check Out These WSOP Main Event Winners

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the most prestigious poker event on the planet and this annual poker fiesta attracts players from across the globe each year. The series got a new home on the Las Vegas Strip at Bally’s and Paris after WSOP 2021 was announced as the last event to take place at the Rio. Each year, pros and poker enthusiasts alike slog hard for the coveted World Series of Poker bracelets and titles.

Here on this page, we take a look at all former World Series of  Poker Main Event (ME) winners till date. The poker series started in 1970 and completed more than five decades so far. We have 53 World Series of Poker Main Event winners who shot to fame with incredible WSOP wins, including poker legends like Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Phil Hellmuth, iconic 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker, Chris Ferguson, and several others.

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ALSO READ: WSOP Rules You Surely Did Not Know About

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The Grand Old Man of Poker — Johnny Moss, has three WSOP ME titles to his credit. The three titles include the inaugural edition of 1970, followed by victories in WSOP 1971 and WSOP 1974 as well. His first victory in 1970 was at a time when the concept of a Main Event didn’t even exist; the winner was selected by secret ballot after a short game with a set start and stop time. 

Stu Ungar is the only other person in WSOP history to have nailed three WSOP ME titles in his career, namely in WSOP 1980, WSOP 1981 and WSOP 1997. Following Moss and Ungar’s three wins each is Doyle Brunson who nailed two consecutive Main Events in 1976 and 1977, with the same cards (T2) too. How amazing is that?!

Joining the bandwagon is Johnny Chan, who also holds the record of winning two WSOP ME titles back-to-back in 1987 and 1989. Since these early days in the game, the series has grown from being a single invite-only tournament to having 100+ events on the World Series of Poker schedule each year.

The prize pools have also grown massively, with winners getting $10+ million pay cheques as well. The first time a prize was awarded was at the WSOP 1971 series where Johnny Moss won again and he won a prize of $30,000 at the time. On the other hand, the highest WSOP Main Event cash so far has been $12,000,000, which was won by Jamie Gold after he shipped the WSOP 2006 ME. 

APT All Time Money List

The most recent addition to the list of World Series of Poker Main Event winners is Norway’s Espen Jorstad, who took down the 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event and cashed 10,000,000. 

List of WSOP Main Event winners:

The past WSOP Main Event winners have etched their names in the books of history. Here’s the list of all WSOP winners who have claimed the Main Event titles:

Year	Nationality	Winner	Prize ($)
1970	American	Johnny Moss	NA
1971	American	Johnny Moss	$30,000
1972	American	Thomas Preston	$80,000
1973	American	Walter Pearson	$130,000
1974	American	Johnny Moss	$160,000
1975	American	Brian Roberts	$210,000
1976	American	Doyle Brunson	$220,000
1977	American	Doyle Brunson	$340,000
1978	American	Bobby Baldwin	$210,000
1979	American	Hal Fowler	$270,000
1980	American	Stu Ungar	$385,000
1981	American	Stu Ungar	$375,000
1982	American	Jack Straus	$520,000
1983	American	Tom McEvoy	$540,000
1984	American	Jack Keller	$660,000
1985	American	Bill Smith	$700,000
1986	American	Berry Johnston	$570,000
1987	American	Johnny Chan	$625,000
1988	American	Johnny Chan	$700,000
1989	American	Phil Hellmuth	$755,000
1990	Iranian-British	Mansour Matloubi	$895,000
1991	American	Brad Daugherty	$1,000,000
1992	Iranian-American	Hamid Dastmalchi	$1,000,000
1993	American	Jim Bechtel	$1,000,000
1994	American	Russ Hamilton	$1,000,000
1995	American	Dan Harrington	$1,000,000
1996	American	Huck Seed	$1,000,000
1997	American	Stu Ungar	$1,000,000
1998	Vietnamese-American	Scotty Nguyen	$1,000,000
1999	Irish	Noel Furlong	$1,000,000
2000	American	Chris Ferguson	$1,500,000
2001	Ecuadorian	Carlos Mortensen	$1,500,000
2002	American	Robert Varkonyi	$2,000,000
2003	American	Chris Moneymaker	$2,500,000
2004	American	Greg Raymer	$5,000,000
2005	Lebanese Australian	Joe Hachem	$7,500,000
2006	American	Jamie Gold	$12,000,000
2007	American	Jerry Yang	$8,250,000
2008	Danish	Peter Eastgate	$9,152,416
2009	American	Joe Cada	$8,574,649
2010	Canadian	Jonathan Duhamel	$8,944,138
2011	German	Pius Heinz	$8,715,638
2012	American	Greg Merson	$8,531,853
2013	American	Ryan Riess	$8,359,531
2014	Swedish	Martin Jacobson	$10,000,000
2015	American	Joe McKeehen	$7,683,346
2016	Vietnamese-American	Qui Nguyen	$8,005,310
2017	American	Scott Blumstein	$8,150,000
2018	American	John Cynn	$8,800,000
2019	Iranian-German	Hossein Ensan	$10,000,000
2020	Argentinian	Damian Salas	$1,550,969
2021	German	Koray Aldemir	$8,000,000
2022	Norwegian	Espen Jorstad	$10,000,000
2023	American	Daniel Weinman	$12,100,000

Winning a World Series of Poker bracelet is a big deal, but winning a World Series of Poker Main Event can be a life-altering moment! It’s the biggest dream of almost every poker player in the world. We await to see which players can go on to create history by shipping future WSOP Main Events, though with the thousands of entries each year now, we doubt anyone can win a WSOP Main Event twice anymore.

As we prepare for the upcoming 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event and the entire series, all eyes are on who will win the World Series of Poker 2023 Main Event. Will World Series of Poker 2022 Main Event champion, Espen Jorstad, be able to defend his title? Well, only time will tell. Till then, check out the WSOP 2023 schedule here.

Also, we at Gutshot Magazine will be covering WSOP 2023 updates, so make sure to stay tuned and keep an eye for all the latest WSOP updates.

For more news and updates, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram.

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