A Look at the All
Our very own Jesse Fullen and Matt Hansen are currently embarking on an East Coast Road Trip, visiting local card rooms and checking out the poker scene. There are three main states they'll stop through this coming week — Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Thanks to the Hendon Mob database, we've compiled an all-time live poker tournament top 10 list for each of those states. In each of the states, there's a mix of World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champs, high roller crushers, players we haven't seen much of lately, and some names you may have forgotten. Let's take a look at the current top 10 all-time in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
In 2012, Greg Merson had a memorable run to the WSOP Main Event title for $8.5 million. Months prior, he began his journey to sobriety. Those who followed the WSOP that year recall Merson wearing his Baltimore Orioles jersey at the final table.
He's a proud native of Maryland and has had more success in tournament poker than just that one tournament. The former world champion has over $11.4 million in cashes, which is quite impressive, but not as impressive as Anthony Gregg, who leads the state with $12,016,191.
Gregg's a bracelet winner himself and took down the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Roller in 2013 for $4,830,619, a career-best score. There are some other familiar names on the Maryland Top 10 list, including 2005 WSOP Main Event runner-up Steve Dannenmann (fifth place) and Phil Galfond (ninth place), who has always been more of a cash game specialist.
In New Jersey, it's Phil Ivey and everyone else, but there are many other great players from the Garden State, including once again, the second place player being Tom Marchese.
Ivey has compiled over $38 million in live tournament scores, which is even more impressive when you consider he's been an online and live cash game crusher for years, and he's scaled back the tournament play since 2014. The 10-time bracelet winner has double the cashes of second place Marchese ($19.1 million), and more than triple third place, Darren Elias, who is the GOAT of the World Poker Tour (WPT).
In fifth place is another past world champion, Scott Blumstein, whose $8.1 million won in the 2015 WSOP Main Event represents about 95% of his overall cashes. Tom "durrrr" Dwan also made the list — sixth place with $6.3 million in cashes — despite having always been more of a cash game and online poker specialist.
Pennsylvania's Top 10 list isn't competitive, although some might argue the leader should have an asterisk by his name. Jake Schindler, who was accused last year of cheating during live events and colluding and using RTA's online, tops the charts by a wide margin with $35.4 million in career cashes. For years, he's been one of the top high rollers in the game, although it will likely be quite some time before we see him again in action, if we ever do again.
Right behind him is, you guessed it, a former WSOP Main Event winner — Joe McKeehen who has just under $19.6 million in cashes. McKeehen became world champion in 2015 and has been a tough competitor on the tournament circuit ever since.
The New Jersey list also includes Poker Hall of Famer and legend of the game, John Hennigan (fourth), Matt Glantz, and Matt Berkey. At the bottom of the list is Bin Weng, who has been on the heater of a lifetime the past few months.
Although Weng currently has $3,526,746 in cashes, he'll almost certainly be adding a ton more to that total as later this month he will be at the final table of two WPT events, and he has the chip lead in both. There's a solid chance he could jump all the way up to sixth place in New Jersey in a couple weeks.
Find out who is among the all-time live poker tournament leaders in MD, NJ, and PA.