In the world of poker, there is only one scoreboard that matters – how much money have you won? With this fact in mind (and before the start of the 2025 World Series of Poker), Poker News Daily has headed over to The Hendon Mob poker database with a critical question: Who are the all-time money leaders by state? In our first three parts, we covered fourteen states and the District of Columbia (alphabetically), so let’s keep it going with the state of Iowa.
Iowa
There is a pretty close race for supremacy in Iowa when it comes to the all-time leader in earnings for poker. The top five players on the list are only separated by $300,000, meaning a singular major poker victory for any of these men would result in a shuffling of the rankings. Even the sixth-place member of the list, poker veteran Darrell Dicken, is only a half-million dollars out of the top slot.
The player who can claim the bragging rights in Iowa has a slew of tournament poker finishes but no major accomplishments on his resume. Alex Condon has racked up 260 cashes in his career, but his biggest achievement is finishing in fourth place in 2016 in the World Poker Tour’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic for nearly $500K. Still, when you have accumulated over two million dollars in career earnings, that’s nothing to sneeze at! Here are the top three players in Iowa poker history (at least by money earned in tournament poker):
1. Alex Condon (Sioux City, IA), $2,351,516
2. Shiva Dudani (Ames, IA), $2,197,712
3. Dustin Dirksen (Iowa City, IA), $2,107,715
Kansas
The battle atop the standings for Kansas could see some changes very soon. The top slot goes to one of the “OG” High Rollers, Brandon Steven, and he has a rather good stack ($6.8 million) to sit on for his career earnings. But a proverbial “young gun” has been making some moves over the last decade and, should he stay on course, will take Steven down at some point, perhaps soon.
Maxx Coleman has, in the past decade, earned over 90% of his career earnings. Simply taking his last five years of action (2021-2025), that averages out to over $660,000 per year, meaning that Coleman would pass Steven in three years (Steven’s last cash was in last year’s WSOP Main Event, and he does not play much anymore). With Coleman’s penchant for High Roller tournaments, is there a change coming in Kansas? Here are the top three players in Kansas poker history (at least by money earned in tournament poker):
1. Brandon Steven (Wichita, KS), $6,844,176
2. Maxx Coleman (Derby, KS), $5,008,822
3. Kirk Morrison (Wichita, KS), $3,198,299
Kentucky
The real story with Kentucky is that there are only four poker millionaires on the list of all-time money leaders. This is a little surprising since over two thousand people are on their state’s roster. Leading the way for the Bluegrass State is Kurt Jewell, who has several victory notches on his belt but no major tournament poker championships. The same cannot be said for the man in second, Charlie Dawson, who has earned an online bracelet at the WSOP in 2024 and five WSOP Circuit rings in his career.
It does demonstrate that longevity in the world of poker sometimes will rule out over big wins! Here are the top three players in Kentucky poker history (at least by money earned in tournament poker):
1. Kurt Jewell (Frankfort, KY), $2,757,518
2. Charlie Dawson (Owensboro, KY), $1,564,201
3. William “Billy” Kopp (Erlanger, KY), $1,248,201
(Writer’s note: Kopp was once known as ‘Patrolman35’ and one of the most feared online players of the Aughts)
Louisiana
One of the cool things about going through each state’s all-time money leaders is that you mention some names that are not often heard in the poker world. Louisiana is one of those states that has a surprise atop the list in veteran player Keith Lehr. What makes Lehr an interesting figure is that he recently passed the FORMER #1 with his work on the PokerGO Tour.
In February, Lehr got what looked like a middling eighth-place finish at the $25,000 PokerGO Cup Main Event, earning a $59,000 payday. That was enough for Lehr to pass not only the former #1, Kevin Eyster, but also jump over the former #2 on the list, Brandon Adams. As you will see from the top three rankings for Louisiana, it is entirely possible that this ranking will be completely different come the end of the summer:
1. Keith Lehr (Bossier, LA), $5,439,691
2. Kevin Eyster (Lafayette, LA), $5,411,831
3. Brandon Adams (New Orleans, LA), $5,411,232
Maine
You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of the three men atop Maine’s leaderboard. While Spencer Champlin earned a PokerGO Tour championship this year, the other two men haven’t been world beaters (although Matt Woodward earned a seven-figure payday on the European Poker Tour back in 2009). These three men are also the only ones to have over a seven-figure largess for their careers. Here are the top three players in Maine poker history (at least by money earned in tournament poker):
1. Spencer Champlin (Scarborough, ME), $3,968,405
2. Matt Woodward (Waterboro, ME), $2,661,177
3. Leonard Cortellino (Lewiston, ME), $1,582,527
Maryland
A bonus state this time around (so we get back on count)! The Crabcake State battle is a heated one in that the top four players are all still quite active in the tournament poker world. Sitting atop the rock is Anthony Gregg, who has only racked up a World Poker Tour title and WSOP One Drop bracelet to his credit. That will go a long way to put your career earnings north of the $12 million mark.
A former World Champion is right behind Gregg on the leaderboard. 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson is less than a million dollars behind Gregg, but he has not had a six-figure score since 2015. It might be Christian Harder who makes the move, but he is quite some ways back and not a threat to either Gregg or Merson. Here are the top three players in Maryland poker history (at least by money earned in tournament poker):
1. Anthony Gregg (Columbia, MD), $12,062,895
2. Greg Merson (Laurel, MD), $11,484,627
3. Christian Harder (Annapolis, MD), $6,413,192
With that, we have wrapped up twenty states (and the District of Columbia) on our way to covering all fifty states! Come on back next time and potentially find out who YOUR state’s all-time money leaders are.
