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Poker has become a big time TV enent in the last few years. That, along with the explosion of interest caused by online poker, has led to the best players gaining celebrity status. I have listed just a few of the most well known players below.

One of the most popular players in the game today is Daniel Negreanu. Daniel is all over the TV these days if you watch poker. If it isn’t High Stakes Poker, it’s commercials for Poker Stars, or a final table appearance at a televised event.

He has an impressive tournament record. Danile has won four WSOP bracelets, and over $10,000,000 in prize money. He has a pleasant demeanor at the tables, very talkative and cheerful.

Doyle Brunson is an old timer that can still compete. He has been at the WSOP from the first event on. He has two WSOP Main Event wins, a feat accomplished by only four players. The other are Johnny Moss, Stu Unger, and Johnny Chan. He has 8 other WSOP bracelets giving him 10, tied for second behind the 11 of Phil Helmuth.

Many consider Doyle the best poker player of all time. He has won big events in four different decades. Born in 1933 Doyale won a major event as late as 2004 at age 71, and his last bracelet in 2005, at 72. Last year Doyle had a good run in the $50,000 WSOP HORSE event going out 16th and cashing $124,000.

One of the big names from the women who play poker is Annie Duke. She became well known, and gained some celebrity status in the 2000 WSOP Main Event. She finished in 10th place, one spot short of the final table. What made this accomplishment so incredible was the fact that she was eight months pregnant.

2004 was an outstanding year for Annie. She finally won a WSOP bracelet. She followed this up by winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, and collecting a cool $2 million for her efforts. She developed her game while growing up, at home, battling her brother Howard Lederer, another outstanding poker pro,

A lot of people think Phil Ivey is the best player world. Aside from his tournament wins, he reportedly won $16 million from Andy Beal, a billionaire, mathmatician, high stakes poker player. The story goes like this. A group of pros formed a group called the corporation, to pool their money and play Beal. The Corporation is made up of Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harmen, Gus Hansen, and Ted Forrest who pooled their resources and poker bankrolls to play Beal. After a few session with Beal the corporation was down their original stake, about $10 million. At this point they brought Phil Ivey onto the team. Beal agrees to lower the stakes from $50,000/$100,000 limit to $30,000/$60,000. After two days, Ivey is up over $6 million. They agree to go back to $50,000/$100,000 the next day. By the end of the day, Phil has won another $10 million, for a total of $16 million in 3 days. The things that ledgends are made of.

He took the WSOP by storm in 2002 by capturing 3 bracelets that year. Only three other players have accomplished that feat. He adds two other WSOP wins to have a total of 5 bracelets. He has gone deep into the WSOP Main Event three times, going out 10th, 20th, and 25th.

Phil Helmuth is a Texas holdem tournament specialst. He has turned that skill into being the winningest player at the WSOP. He has won 11 bracelets, most by any player, all playing Texas holdem. In 1989, at age 24, he became (and still is) the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event.

Phil is a volitile player, which actually adds to his celebrity. He has gone into an angered rage many times, berating other players when things don’t go his way. Phil is commonly known as the “poker brat” due to his behavior.

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