2025’s Biggest Live Tournament Winners (Top 10) — and the Jesse Lonis story

The 2025 live poker money race was a heavyweight fight all year, and it ended with Jesse Lonis finishing No. 1 on The Hendon Mob’s 2025 Money List—just ahead of Norway’s Kayhan Mokri Roshanfekr.

(Yearly totals via The Hendon Mob 2025 Money List.)

1. Jesse Lonis (USA) — $13,334,563
2. Kayhan Mokri Roshanfekr (NOR) — $13,255,542
3. Stephen Chidwick (ENG) — $12,627,025
4. Seth Davies (USA) — $12,363,447
5. Benjamin Tollerene (USA) — $12,010,551
6. Aleksejs Ponakovs (LAT) — $11,868,760
7. Michael Mizrachi (USA) — $11,501,208
8. William “Alex” Foxen (USA) — $11,266,396
9. Jason Koon (USA) — $11,126,678
10. Artur Martirosyan (RUS) — $11,034,164

Note: The gap between #1 and #2 was tiny in relative terms—Lonis’ lead was under $100K on a $13M+ year.

Lonis is an American tournament pro born and raised in Little Falls, New York, where poker was part of the family culture. PokerNews’ player profile notes that he graduated from Little Falls High School, worked in construction early on, and began building his live foundation at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in upstate New York—before making the leap to the high-stakes tournament scene in the early 2020s.

That “regional grinder → elite circuit regular” pipeline matters contextually: it usually produces players with a lot of live reps, comfort in varied line-ups, and a willingness to travel. Lonis’ 2025 schedule reflects exactly that.

By Hendon Mob’s accounting, Lonis sits among the top earners all-time with $27.45M+ in total live earnings (at the snapshot used here).
He’s also widely recognized as a multi-time WSOP bracelet winner (PokerNews references him as a bracelet winner; the WPT piece is consistent with him having won a bracelet and competing/winning at the highest levels).

PokerNews’ report on his Triton Montenegro title frames the arc clearly: he was dubbed a “breakout star” a few years earlier, but by 2025 he had become a true high-roller regular, racking up massive scores and adding another signature title.

A useful way to summarize Lonis as a player:

• Not a one-format specialist. He posts major results in both NLH and PLO in big fields and elite lineups.
• Comfortable on “tour” circuits. His results show repeated appearances in the same ecosystems (PokerGO Studio/PGT, Triton stops, major festival high rollers), where sustained performance is hard because fields are dense with top regs.

Lonis didn’t top the 2025 money list via min-cashes and one spike. He had multiple seven-figure pillars, plus a long list of mid-to-high six-figure results that kept the yearly total climbing.

The defining score was his victory in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro $100K NLH Main Event, where PokerNews reports he won $3,426,298 (noted as involving a heads-up deal).
This alone accounts for roughly a quarter of his entire 2025 total—and it was also described as his third Triton title in that coverage, underlining that he wasn’t a newcomer binking a single big one.

Hendon Mob lists his best live cash as $3,446,298 and tracks his major high-end results across the year; your dataset includes the $1,745,625 ONYX SHRS Invitational win as another huge pillar for 2025.

PLO is where many NLH stars struggle to translate results, but Lonis’ year includes a $1,261,000 podium finish in the Triton Jeju $100K PLO Main Event (3rd), reinforcing the “multi-format” point in a very concrete way.

Another key feature of Lonis’ 2025 is that it wasn’t confined to one tour or region. A major score at EPT Barcelona’s Super High Roller (your list shows $823,527 for 3rd) adds “big festival” credibility on top of the Triton/PGT ecosystem.

Many #1 money list seasons are essentially “one giant score + a few extras.” Lonis had the giant score and several seven-figure / high-six-figure pillars, which is a different profile.

A good example is the PokerGO/PGT world: PokerGO’s own reporting from the 2025 PGT PLO Series shows Lonis repeatedly in the mix in high buy-ins, reaching streamed final tables and battling lineups stacked with elite names.

By the time you’re sitting around $27M+ in total live earnings on Hendon Mob, the story changes from “heater” to “established elite.” 2025 was the year that stamped that status at the very top of the annual race.

If Jesse Lonis’ 2025 was defined by breadth and consistency, Kayhan Mokri Roshanfekr’s year was built around two colossal spikes at the very top of the buy-in spectrum.

Mokri’s single biggest result of 2025 was also one of the largest individual payouts of the year:

• $7,725,000 — Triton Invitational $250K NLH (WSOP Paradise, win)

That victory alone accounted for well over half of his entire 2025 total, immediately placing him at the top of the yearly race and forcing everyone else into chase mode.

Mokri didn’t rely on just one outlier result:

• $3,835,059 — Triton Jeju $150K NLH 8-Handed (win)

With two wins in ultra-elite Triton fields, Mokri demonstrated the ability to close against the toughest lineups in poker—exactly the type of results that swing annual money lists.

Beyond Triton, Mokri added several mid-to-high six-figure scores to stabilize his total:

• EPT Barcelona Super High Roller Second Chance (win) — ~$608K
• Bombay High Stakes Week Tallinn Main Event (win) — ~$256K
• Additional EPT Monte Carlo and regional high-roller victories

Profile takeaway:
Mokri’s 2025 was a classic “top-heavy” money-list build—fewer cashes overall, but absolutely massive wins at the highest possible buy-ins. Without Lonis’ consistency across tours, Mokri still came within $80K of finishing #1.

Stephen Chidwick’s 2025 followed a very different pattern—one that longtime observers will find familiar. His year was defined by volume, format diversity, and relentless deep runs rather than a single Invitational-style jackpot.

Chidwick’s largest score came in a format few players master at the elite level:

• $3,455,000 — Triton Jeju $200K Short Deck (win)

The victory underlined Chidwick’s reputation as one of the most technically versatile players in the game, capable of winning not just NLH and PLO, but also high-stakes Short Deck.

Rather than relying on one spike, Chidwick stacked multiple major podium finishes:

• $1,927,188 — Triton Jeju $125K NLH (2nd)
• $1,430,938 — WSOP $50K PLO High Roller (2nd)
• $879,000 — Triton Montenegro $100K NLH Main Event (6th)
• $557,930 — NAPT Las Vegas $50K Super High Roller (win)

Chidwick’s results list reads like a who’s who of elite tours:

• Triton (Jeju & Montenegro)
• WSOP high rollers
• PokerGO Tour / U.S. Poker Open
• EPT Monte Carlo
• NAPT Las Vegas

He cashed repeatedly in NLH, PLO, and Short Deck, often making final tables without necessarily winning—yet the sheer frequency of deep runs pushed his total past $12.6M.

Profile takeaway:
Chidwick’s 2025 was a masterclass in elite-level sustainability. No Invitational-style $7M score, but constant pressure on the leaderboard through volume, versatility, and high conversion rates in stacked fields.

• Lonis combined multiple seven-figure wins with broad consistency across NLH and PLO.
• Mokri relied on two enormous Triton wins that nearly carried him to #1 on their own.
• Chidwick assembled his total through relentless deep runs across formats and tours.

Three different paths, three different player profiles—one extremely tight race for the top of the 2025 live poker money list.