Today we present a list of the most famous poker players, whose names have thundered all over the world and are still thundering. Many of these people are united not only by their love of poker, but also by the similarity at the beginning of their poker careers, as many of them reached heights literally from scratch.

Victor Blom

Swede Viktor Blom, known in the poker world under the pseudonym "Isildur1", is currently the rock star of the poker community. Viktor, 29, is a talented and promising player. Having started his career at Full Tilt Poker with good results, Blom soon moved under the banner Pokerstarswho offered him a contract. 

Peak online prize money: $ 6 million (November 2009)

Ivan Demidov

One of the first Russian players, who loudly declared himself in the poker world, becoming famous all over the world. Prior to poker, he was a professional esports player (WarCraft, StarCraft). In 2008, the Russian went straight to the final world series in Europe and America (2nd place in the final WSOP ranking, London final), becoming the first such player. In the same year, the Sport TV channel recognized him as the best athlete. Demidov has become a kind of icon for players from the CIS countries, his success has inspired many, provoking an influx of Russian-speaking players online.

Prize money: ~ 6800000$;

Lika Gerasimova 

I came to poker as a student at Bauman University after watching the Barcelona Heads Up tournament on TV. She started her career in the first room that came across the network, after which she went offline in 2007. Not a WSOP bracelet holder, Lika uses poker as her main source of income. He is a member of Sergey Rybachenko's Gipsy Team.

Prize money: more than 500000$;

Sergey Rybachenko

He is best known in the poker community for looking for promising young poker players, who are then promoted and provided with trips to major tournaments, thanks to which many of them have achieved outstanding results. In particular, he helped Ivan Demidov at the 2008 WSOP ME. His rating in real tournaments says little about his play, since Rybachenko plays in closed clubs much more often. He is a professional in many poker disciplines. 

Prize money in real tournaments: ~ 1500000$;

Sam Trickett

A native of Retford, England, he became interested in poker thanks to friends who explained the rules to him at the bar. However, I became a professional by chance. The fact is that Trickett was a professional football player, but a knee injury put an end to this field. The result was that Sam chose poker as his path, where he achieved the highest results. In the period from 2010 to 2012, the poker player held high ranking positions in the most prestigious world series: 

• European Poker Tour (4th place);
• Aussie Millions Poker Championship (won 3,000,000$);
•  World Poker Tour (WPT) (6th place);
•  ME Partouche Poker Tour (won 1,000,000$);
•  55 WSOP 2012 Big One for One Drop (2nd place, won 10000000$).

His prize money in real tournaments is over 20,000,000$.

Tom Dwan

The American is known for his winnings in online poker. According to Tom himself, the first and only deposit was helped by his father, who deposited $ 50 deposited by Dwan into the account. By the time they came of age, 50$ turned into 15000$. In 2008, the total winnings of a poker player on Full Tilt were ~ 6,000,000$. The highest winnings at a time are 672000$, per day - 1900000$.

Prize money in real tournaments: ~ 2900000$.

This is not a complete list, in 2020 famous poker players are no longer a rarity and their number continues to grow, as poker itself continues to grow.