Who Is The Strongest Tournament Poker Player Of 2025?

Picking one single player is extremely difficult

In poker, there have been years when one specific player won everything in sight. For example, 2016 was the year of Fedor Holz (over $16M in winnings for the year), 2018 was the year of Justin Bonomo (over $25M), 2019 was the year of Bryn Kenney (over $30M), and 2023 was the year of Isaac Haxton ($17M in winnings).

2025 is different: there was no single player whose total winnings exceeded everyone else’s by several times.

Several players finished the year with between $10M and $13M in winnings.

Putting them into a clear, strict order is incredibly difficult. Perhaps even the players themselves don’t know exactly how much they won over the year. The difference between these sums can be a couple of dozen or a hundred dollars. Or, by high roller standards, 1–2 buy-ins in a Triton Main Event. So let’s just remember the brightest performances of the year.

Breakout of the Year: Bernhard Binder (over $10M in winnings for the year)

The 27-year-old poker pro from Austria won the $25K Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise for $10M — the biggest cash of his career. In the heads-up, he defeated the legendary Jean-Noël Thorel ($6M). Binder is an online MTT grinder. In February, he recorded his biggest online cash — $1.83M in the $10K GGMillion$ Phase event. We’re confident that Bernhard Binder will shine at Triton next year.

Isaac Haxton finally got the monkey off his back by winning his first $100K PLO Main Event title

Haxton has been traveling to Triton since the series was founded in 2017. Over that time, he has accumulated more than $20M in winnings, including 35 final tables. He lost six heads-ups and only in September recorded his first victory in the $100K PLO Main Event ($2,789,000). In total, Haxton won around $11M during the year.

Artur Martirosian became the Triton Super High Roller Series Player of the Year

Artur Martirosian started studying PLO at the beginning of the year with one goal: to win the Ivan Leow Player Of The Year Leaderboard. And it worked out. Artur recorded three wins during the season and $7.7M in winnings — and that’s only on Triton. Back in June, he also won $1M in the $3.5K Wynn Summer Classic with 2K+ entries. On top of that, Artur won a WSOP bracelet in the $25K NLHE Heads-Up Championship ($500K). In total, he earned around $11M for the year.

Punnat Punsri had a brilliant year

He won three Triton titles:

• $125K NLH Jeju ($2,594,555*)
• $25K PLO 6-handed Montenegro ($550,000)
• $50K NLH 7-handed Triton Jeju II ($1,697,000)

On top of that, Punsri chopped heads-up in the $8K Triton One Main Event ($1,205,775) — the tournament attracted 1,046 entries.

In total, Punsri earned around $11M for the year. And what’s most interesting — what sets him apart from other players — is that Punsri continues to play quite affordable tournaments. For example, in November 2025 he won the $222 Quadruple Super Stud – Hyper Turbo APT for $2.4K.

Jason Koon continues to update his own Triton record

Koon recorded two Triton wins in 2025:

• $150K NLH 8-handed Montenegro ($3,393,656*)
• $30K PLO Quattro Bounty Turbo ($305K)

He continues to extend his own record for the number of Triton titles — he now has 12. Additionally, this past year he won a bracelet in the $50K NLHE High Roller ($1,968,927). His total winnings for the year are around $11M.

Aleks Ponakovs also got the monkey off his back by recording his first Triton win

Ponakovs won the $100K Triton NLHE Main Event ($4,750,000). With this victory, he received his first Triton trophy and his third bracelet. Aleks wasn’t even planning to attend this series, but he flew in with his wife, won, and updated his career-best cash for the second time in the year. The first time was $3,139,000 for 2nd place in the $150K NLH 8-handed Triton Jeju in March 2025. In total, he earned more than $11M during the year.

Alex Foxen closes out his “so close” year

Why is the year called «so close»? Because of no really big victories. Foxen earned around $11M. Here are best results:

• $3,060,314 — 2nd place in the $250K WSOP Super High Roller
• $1,076,000 — 6th place in the $150K NLH 8-handed Triton Jeju
• $755,000 — win in the $25K Triton Montenegro
• $721,600 — 3rd place in the $25K WPT Global Slam Triton Jeju II
• $539,917 — 6th place in the $100K PLO WSOP 2025

Additionally, Alex Foxen recorded three wins on the PokerGO Tour and became the first player in history to reach 100 ITMs on the PGT.

The one and only Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi achieved something that is unlikely to be repeated

Michael Mizrachi earned more than $11M in winnings. The key difference — without Triton. He did it literally in just two tournaments: the $50K Poker Players Championship ($1,331,322) and the $10K WSOP Main Event ($10M). Will anyone be able to repeat this achievement? We’re not sure. A legend!

Ben Tollerene earned $12M, half of it in just one week

Tollerene delivered phenomenal results at the Triton Montenegro series in May. First, he chopped heads-up in the $150K NLH 8-handed with Jason Koon and received $3,437,344 ($43K more than Koon). Two days later, he won the $100K PLO Main Event ($2,390,000). In June, he made two final tables at the WSOP: the $50K High Roller (3rd place, $914K) and the $250K Super High Roller (8th place, $581K).

Seth Davies had the best year of his career, updating his best cash twice

Davies first finished 2nd in the $200K Invitational Triton Montenegro in May ($4,190,000). A month later, he won the $250K WSOP Super High Roller ($4,752,551). It’s unclear which is more important: the updated best cash or the first bracelet in a tournament with one of the toughest fields. In total, Davies earned more than $12M.

Stephen Chidwick recorded the second-largest best cash in a Triton event that wasn’t supposed to exist — and that he didn’t plan to play

The $200K Short Deck Triton Jeju II was added to the schedule simply because many players wanted to play it. Initially, this tournament wasn’t on the schedule. It drew 61 entries. Stephen Chidwick wasn’t planning to play this tournament, as he arrived at the series tired and hadn’t yet recovered. But he didn’t hesitate — he opened his notes and remembered how to win in 36 cards.

A week later, Chidwick recorded another seven-figure score, finishing 2nd in the $125K event ($1,927,188). In total, Chidwick earned more than $12M in winnings in 2025.

Unstoppable Kayhan Mokri won everything in sight

Norwegian poker pro Kayhan Mokri had what was probably the best year of his career, earning around $13M, including $7.7M for winning the $250K WSOP Paradise Triton Invitational.

Mokri recorded seven wins on other series. Here are some of his other major results:

• $597K — 3rd in €25K EPT Monte Carlo (May 2024)
• $1.5M — win in €100K EPT Barcelona (August 2024)
• $750K — 1st, 2nd, and 5th in single-day $20K+ high rollers at EPT Cyprus (October 2024)
• $1M — win in $30K NLH Triton Monte Carlo (November 2024)
• $129K — win in €10K Mystery Bounty EPT Monte Carlo (April 2025)
• $255K — win in €50K Bombay High Stakes Week Tallinn (August 2025)
• $608K — win in €50K Super High Roller Second Chance EPT Barcelona (August 2025)
• $3.8M — win in $150K NLH Triton Jeju (September 2025)

How he does it — Mokri himself doesn’t know.

Jesse Lonis confirms: thoughts become reality

Finally, our list would be incomplete without Jesse Lonis. Like Mokri, he earned around $13M in winnings, but did it in a slightly “different style.” Lonis recorded around 50-60 ITMs. Roughly speaking, he was cashing about once a week.

Lonis updated his best cash this year and recorded three seven-figure scores:

• $3,224,298 — win in the $100K Triton Main Event Montenegro
• $1,745,625 — win in the $100K ONYX SHRS Invitational
• $1,502,000 — win in the $50K NLH 7-max Triton Monte Carlo

Back in 2021, Lonis once wrote on social media: “I’ll be playing Triton soon. I promise I won’t disappoint.” And that’s exactly what happened.

In total, in 2025 Lonis recorded nine wins, including victories on the PGT, EPT Monte Carlo, and Wynn series.