Damian Brewster

Poker is an uncomfortable mirror. It reflects every flaw in your decision-making, emotional control, and character.

In 1999 if you traveled the world playing the highest stakes tournaments, you couldn’t spend more than $250,000. In 2013 that number rose to roughly $1.2 million. In 2025, that number is roughly $12 million. You need to cash for $12 million+ to turn a profit if you play all the Triton, WSOP, and other high rollers. In 2024 only 3 players cashed for $12 million. Adrian Mateos $13,109,217 Patrik Antonius $12,488,048 Alejandro Lococo $12,287,737 Not everyone will hit every stop, but among the high roller regs that play most of them, I think spending $10 million is reasonable considering every Triton stop will run you about $2 million in buy ins. Only 3 more players cashed for $10 million+ Alex Foxen $11,593,726 Jonathan Tamayo $10,298,455 ***WSOP Main Event*** Daniel Dvoress $10,298,200 40 players cashed for more than $5 million. 121 players cashed for more than $2 million. A whopping 259 players cashed for over $1 million in 2024. Most every pro who is playing this kind of high roller schedule is selling action and/or swapping, so if you see a pro who played them all cash for $7 million in a year, likely losing $3-5 million, they didn’t actually lose that much if anything at all. If they only sell at markup, they can lose $3-5 million, but still show a profit personally. Most high rollers have turbo like structures which increase variance and lower the pros ROI significantly, as a lot of these events become a folding battle, focusing on ICM and laddering pay jumps while flipping some coins along the way. If you want to make a good living as a tournament player, your best bet is to focus on low to mid stakes buy in tourneys. Low defined as: $1500 and below Midstakes: $2k-$10k What you envision at the highest stakes is mostly a mirage. No one playing these rates to have an ROI over $5 million in any given year. Profitable years like that will happen, but they are anomalies rather than the norm.