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 the first half of our series, we covered twenty-five states and the District of Columbia (alphabetically), so let’s keep it going with the state of Montana.
Montana
What is intriguing in looking at Montana’s top three is the disparity between the first-place slot and…well, the rest of the state! Leading the way for Montana is David ‘Doc’ Sands, who has been able to rack up almost $8.5 million in his poker career. Although he now lives in Las Vegas, Sands’ performance is rated with the state he was born in, which is Big Sky Country.
Now comes the fun part. What do you think the second-place person has earned in their poker career, and remember this is ALL TIME? Bradley Anderson won a World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2022, but in his poker career he has only earned $828,656! That is over ten times less than what Sands has earned, and it is the biggest difference (in ratio) in any state.
Suffice it to say that Sands is safe atop the all-time standings for the state of Montana:
1. David ‘Doc’ Sands (Bozeman, MT), $8,459,921
2. Bradley Anderson (Bozeman, MT), $828,044
3. Ian Gordon (Missoula, MT), $742,281
Nebraska
There has been a recent change on top of the Nebraska leader board when it comes to the all-time money leader. Up until April, Daniel Sindelar held the top rung of the ladder, but Mike Vanier had two finishes on the World Poker Tour that shot him past Sindelar. A 20th-place finish at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown earned him nearly $40K, then a six-way chop at the WPT Choctaw picked him up another $70K.
Those two finishes were enough to push Vanier past Sindelar into the lead for Nebraska poker players. What makes it even more interesting is that the third-place player, Ryan Phan, is only $300K behind both men, making the chase for the top slot an active one! Here are the top three all-time money leaders for the state of Nebraska:
1. Mike Vanier (Lincoln, NE), $2,351,415
2. Daniel Sindelar (Lincoln, NE), $2,268,626
3. Ryan Phan (Omaha, NE), $2,006,691
Nevada
The list for the state of Nevada is a complicated one. The Hendon Mob has done an excellent job overall of putting the players in the states where they were born, but Nevada is one where they fail massively. Every one of the Top Ten on the Hendon Mob’s Nevada rankings came from somewhere else, so we will have to deal with what we are given.
On top of the Nevada standings is Dan Smith, who was born in New Jersey, but his $59 million in career earnings would top almost any state he was put in. Following him is the man who won the first ever Big One for One Drop, Antonio Esfandiari, who was born in Tehran, Iran. Colorado is the birthplace of Jeremy Ausmus, who hits the third place slot, and both he and Esfandiari’s total career earnings added together do not equal Smith’s! Here are the top three all-time money leaders for the state of Nevada:
1. Dan Smith (Las Vegas, NV via Manalapan, NJ), $59,994,267
2. Antonio Esfandiari (Las Vegas, NV via Tehran, Iran), $27,810,801
3. Jeremy Ausmus (Las Vegas, NV via Lamar, CO), $26,532,596
New Hampshire
Some interesting numbers come out of the state of New Hampshire. The all-time money leader for the state, Dan Chalifour, has NO six-figure cashes on his sixteen-year poker resume, but he IS a ‘poker millionaire’ in that he has won over a million dollars from his 102 finishes. It is not like he has retired either; in the last two months, he has two finishes in tournaments in Florida, picking up almost $60K for his efforts.
If there is going to be a challenge for Chalifour, it would be the second-place player in Daniel Geeng. Geeng is only around $100K behind Chalifour and, with a penchant for playing “High Roller” tournaments, it would only take one big finish for Geeng to bypass Chalifour quickly. Here are the top three all-time money leaders for the state of New Hampshire:
1. Dan Chalifour (Spofford, NH), $1,134,388
2. Daniel Geeng (Hanover, NH), $931,089
3. Michael Drummond (Rye, NH), $735,564
New Jersey
Three guesses as to who gets the top slot on the New Jersey leaderboard? Yes, this is the spot where Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey shows up in our rundown. The man who originally called Absecon, NJ, home had to make his mark somewhere, and The Hendon Mob correctly put Ivey in the Garden State along with his over $48 million in career earnings.
You might think there is a heated battle behind Ivey, but there isn’t. Tom Marchese is looking to break the $20 million mark, while four-time WPT champion Darren Elias has surprisingly only racked up $13 million in career earnings. In another surprise, Chris Klodnicki is just off the podium as the final person over $10 million in career earnings. Here are the top three all-time money leaders for the state of New Jersey:
1. Phil Ivey (Absecon, NJ), $48,749,823
2. Tom Marchese (Parsippany, NJ), $19,153,692
3. Darren Elias (Medford, NJ), $13,485,295
We are going to hold off on getting to the state of New York, and the rest of the States, until our next edition of the countdown. Have you noticed any surprises in our top threes that we’ve covered to this point? Have we covered your state? We are beyond the halfway mark now, so look forward to our coverage of the remaining states over the next few days!