The Five Luckiest Players in Poker Tournament History

Winning a major poker tournament takes a lot more than skill – it also requires a whole lot of luck. Even the best poker players in the world are regularly on prolonged losing streaks in tournaments, and this isn’t because they don’t know what they’re doing. Any World Series of Poker winner will tell you that they got extremely lucky to come out victorious. For some players, the luck aspect was a compliment to their skills, while other players have relied solely on luck. It is easy to tell who is skilled and who is lucky – just take a look at any player’s resume. With that, we present you with the luckiest players in poker.#1 – Chris MoneymakerChris Moneymaker is widely credited as the reason that poker exploded as much as it did in 2003. Moneymaker was as average Joe as they come, but he was able to take down the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event for several million dollars. Having earned his seat to the Main Event through a satellite on PokerStars,com, Moneymaker proved that poker is a game where literally anyone could be a superstar.If you watch highlights from the 2003 event, however, it becomes quite clear that Moneymaker was on the run of his life. Laying the hammer (with the worst hand) on players like Phil Ivey, Moneymaker was absolutely invincible; he could do no wrong. Moneymaker does deserve some credit for his win, though, as he was able to pull off one of the most famous bluffs in poker history against Sammy Farha, the eventual runner up. Moneymaker hasn’t been able to find success since his 2003 win, and he will be the first to tell you that he had angels on his shoulder for the entirety of the tournament.#2 – Jamie GoldJamie Gold, the man who was always talking his opponents into (or out of) a call in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main event. Gold’s crafty speeches were able to induce folds at just the right time, and bad calls at others. He always seemed to know how to get his opponents to do exactly what he wanted.This was the extent to which Gold used his skills to navigate the huge tournament field, however, as he always seemed to flop the nuts. There were few situations where Gold didn’t win up with a monster hand. His God-like run was enough to secure the largest first place payout in World Series of Poker history, and it rocketed him to number one in overall WSOP prize money. Jamie used that success to earn an endorsement deal from the Aced.com poker room, but the two parties split off shortly after.#3 – Jerry YangJerry Yang might hold the record for most prayers at the poker table. Always looking to God for another bailout, Yang’s prayers were seldom ignored. Battling one of the largest fields in the World Series’ history, Yang was able to take down the event with relative ease.At one point, Yang burned through millions of his chips, but another monster hand was always just around the corner. He has admitted that he is not the best player, and his results in succeeding events have proven this. Yang is unlikely to ever get as lucky as he did when he was able to with the Main Event, and he is probably quite alright with his fate.#4 – Dmitri NoblesDmitri Nobles is the sole name on the list who did not win a World Series Main Event, but judging from how lucky he was in 2007, you would think his name on the bracelet was a lock. Nobles gained notoriety for both his boisterous banter at the tables as well as for his absolutely terrible plays, and he jumped out to a monstrous, early chip lead.There were few pots that Nobles was in where he didn’t have the worst of it. This was far from a worry, though, as he always managed to squeeze himself out of a tough spot. He may have been extremely lucky in his Main Event run, but he wasn’t lucky enough, as he eventually busted in.#5 – Joe CadaJoe Cada is actually one of the most talented World Series of Poker Main event winners in the past few years, but he is also one of the luckiest. He could easily be number one on this list, but the fact is that Cada does actually know what he is doing. Cada serves as proof that skill only gets you so far in a massive tournament field, and that every winner needs their share of luck.Cada repeatedly got his money in bad, and was, at one point in time, practically out of chips, but he was always bailed out by the board. Cada is one of, if not the, most skilled luckboxes in poker history