The 5 most underrated tournament poker players

It’s pretty hard to fly under the radar in the poker world when you have won millions of dollars playing tournaments, and for one entrant on this list, won the World Series of Poker Main Event! But somehow these players have managed to stay relatively anonymous to the casual poker fan, or at the very least do not come up when the title of best tournament player is being tossed around.

Every player on this list has at least $4.4 million in career tournament earnings (I didn’t select any up-and-coming players or players from the younger generation for this list), with a high-water mark of over $8.2 million –yet its unlikely any of these players would be mentioned if you asked a casual poker fan to name the top 100 players.

Juha Helppi

Juha Helppi is absolutely the most underrated player in poker. All Helppi does is cash and cash in poker tournaments, something he has done ever since he broke onto the poker scene in 2002 when he won the WPT Ultimate Bet Poker Classic Amateur event.

Amazingly Helppi has never won a major tournament (which is probably why he still flies under the radar) but he has amassed an impressive $4.4 million over the course of his career.

JC Tran

With $8.2 million in career tournament earnings it’s hard to fathom how JC Tran can be on an underrated list, but despite all of his success he still manages to keep a pretty low profile outside of his peers.

JC has a WPT victory and a WSOP bracelet, but for whatever reason he rarely gets mentioned on most people’s best tournament players list.

Chris Bjorin

Swedish poker pro Chris Bjorin has been around poker since the 1980’s and some 30 years later he still is at the top of his game. In his career the two-time bracelet winner has amassed over $5.2 million, and has runner-up finishes in the past two World Series of Poker tournament series, showing the poker world he is far from being past his prime.

Scott Clements

Clements is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and a two-time WPT Champion, but he still doesn’t get much love from the general poker fan. Clements has over $5 million in career cashes, and is still very much in his prime.

Dan Harrington

How can I include a man who won the WSOP Main Event (1995), made the final table of the WSOP Main Event in back-to-back years (2003 and 2004), and wrote the most famous poker tournament books of all-time? The answer is very easy, Harrington is very, very, underrated!

Probably because he has always played a very limited schedule Harrington doesn’t have the career accomplishments that some other big names do, but make no mistake about it, Dan Harrington is a beast.

Honorable Mention (these players are a little better-known, but still don’t get the recognition they deserve):

• Hoyt Corkins
• Fabrice Soulier
• Justin Bonomo
• Carlos Mortensen
• Jani Sointula
• Mike McDonald
• Jonathan Little