Poker Winnings 2018

Over the past two weeks 7,874 competitors (myself included) paid $10,000 to enter the main event of the World Series of Poker. Who would win the money? And how much of the winnings would they actually get to keep?

One important note: I do need to point out that many of the players in the tournament were “backed.” Poker tournaments have a high variance (luck factor). Thus, many tournament players sell portions of their action to investors to lower their risk. It is quite likely that most (if not all) of the winners were backed and will, in the end, only enjoy a portion of their winnings. I ignore backing in this analysis (because the full details are rarely publicized). Now, on to the winners.

115647 players in the 2018 Money List. This ranking list does not include results from recurring events (regular daily, weekly or monthly events). February 27, 2018 10:12 am Winning nearly $60,000 in a high-stakes poker tournament wasn’t apparently enough excitement for Jake Cody. The poker pro took the money he won during a high roller event.

Congratulations to John Cynn of Evanston, Illinois for winning the 2018 WSOP Main Event and a cool $8,800,000. After a mammoth 10-hour heads-up battle against Tony Miles (where the chip lead went back and forth), Mr. Cynn finally prevailed when his king-jack flopped trips and all Mr. Miles could muster was queen-high. Mr. Cynn will pay federal income tax, self-employment tax (all nine of the final players are professional gamblers), and Illinois income tax. Of his winnings he’ll lose an estimated $3,860,183 to tax (keeping $4,939,817), a tax burden of 43.87%. Mr. Cynn definitely benefits from tax reform; had he had the same winnings in 2017 he would have owed $4,094,676 so he saves $234,493. Another way of looking at this is his tax burden last year would have been 46.53%. Mr. Cynn has the second highest tax burden of the final nine.

The aforementioned Tony Miles finished in second place. A resident of Jacksonville, Florida, Mr. Miles benefits from Florida’s lack of a personal income tax. Mr. Miles, like all of the Americans at the final table, will owe federal income tax and self-employment tax; he’ll owe an estimated $1,939,341 (38.79%) of his winnings.

Finishing in third place and winning $3,750,000 was Michael Dyer of Houston. Mr. Dyer had the chip lead for the first part of the final table but ran into a full house of held by Mr. Miles. The Texan avoids state income tax but will still lose an estimated $1,449,275 to federal tax (38.65%). Mr. Dyer has the lowest tax burden of the six Americans at the final table (and the second-lowest tax burden overall).

Wsop Winnings 2018

Nicolas Manion of Muskegon, Michigan started the final nine with the chip lead but couldn’t make it through; he ended up in fourth place for $2,825,000. Mr. Manion is the only individual who will end up paying three taxes: federal, state, and city. Michigan has a flat income tax of 4.25% and Muskegon has a city income tax of 0.5%. Still, Mr. Manion is better off in 2018 than if he had won this in 2017; he’ll lose only an estimated $1,217,323 to tax (43.09%).

Joe Cada finished fifth for $2,150,000. If that name sounds familiar, it should: Mr. Cada won the Main Event in 2009. This time around Mr. Cada’s pocket tens lost a classic race against Mr. Miles’s ace-king. Thanks to tax reform, Mr. Cada loses only 40.59% of his winnings to tax ($872,635) compared to 42% back in 2009. Mr. Cada, a resident of Shelby Township, Michigan, owes federal and Michigan tax.

Aram Zobian of Cranston, Rhode Island, ended up in sixth place for $1,800,000. A professional poker player, Mr. Zobian will owe federal and Rhode Island tax. Rhode Island has marginal tax rates up to 5.99%, so it’s in the middle of the pack for states. Overall, Mr. Zobian will owe an estimated $721,821 in tax (40.10%).

Alex Lynskey of Melbourne, Australia finished in seventh place. While the US and Australia have a tax treaty, it does not cover gambling. Thus, of Mr. Lynskey’s $1,500,000 of winnings, he loses 30% off the top to the IRS ($450,000). Australia does not tax gambling winnings for amateur gamblers but it does tax gambling winnings of professional gamblers. The Australian tax system somewhat mirrors ours in that are marginal rates; however, Australia’s top rate is 45% compared to our 37%. The US-Australia Tax Treaty does specify that a foreign tax credit can be taken for taxes paid to the other country. Mr. Lynskey would have paid an estimated $666,296 to the Australian Taxation Office; given the US tax he’s paid that number is reduced to $216,296 (or $292,000 Australian).

In eighth place was Artem Metalidi of Kiev, Ukraine. Mr. Metalidi will pay the least tax of any of the final nine, both in dollars and by percentage. Ukraine has a flat tax rate of 18% plus a 1.5% military tax (a total of 19.5%). Mr. Metalidi will lose only an estimated $243,750 of his $1,250,000 to tax. None of that is going to the IRS: The tax treaty between the Ukraine and the United States exempts gambling winnings from taxation.

Antoine Labat, a professional poker player from Vincenna, France, finished in ninth place. He earned an even $1 million, but that’s before taxes. The United States and France have a tax treaty exempting gambling winnings, so he lost nothing to Uncle Sam. However, France is anything but a low-tax environment. While 2018 French tax rates have not been announced (they’re not announced until late in the year), based on 2017 rates Mr. Labat will lose $432,574 (€369,721) of his $1 million (€854,701) winnings to taxes.

Here’s a table summarizing the tax bite:

Gambling Winnings 2018

That means 39.01% of the winnings of the final nine will go to taxes. That’s up from 2017 because last year four of the final nine faced no taxation (they were all residents of the United Kingdom which does not tax gambling winnings).

Here’s a second table with the winners sorted by their estimated take-home winnings:

Mr. Metalidi finished in eighth place but based on after-tax winnings he finished in seventh place. The Ukraine’s low flat-rate income tax gives him a benefit over the relatively high taxes in Australia.

But the true winner this year was the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS’s take of $9,811,437 exceeds the combined after-tax winnings of the first and second place winners ($8,000,476) and nearly exceeds the top three! Taxes may be what we pay for a civilized society, but we sure pay a lot of them. One truism this year (as usual) is that the house (the IRS) always wins.

Tags: WSOP

The 2018 World Series of Poker will be here sooner than you think, with the first bracelet events starting May 30 — check out the full schedule here.

You're a 'home game hero' who has come to Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker to prove you've got what it takes. But here's the thing. If you're testing yourself in one of the bracelet events, you're bucking the odds to finish in the money. Even if you only come out to play in the cash games, you might find yourself at a disadvantage.

To help you anticipate some of the potential challenges you'll face this summer, I've listed below five reasons why those who consider themselves winning poker players elsewhere might find it a bit more difficult to count on winning in Las Vegas.

1. Statistically, you're supposed to lose

For the sake of argument, let's assume you really are better than the average player. In fact, let's say you're twice as good as the average player. Even those playing at that level do very well to cash as much as 20 percent of the time in tournaments.

That means, of course, you're going to bust out with nothing 80 percent of the time. You're not going to see any payday at all (on average) four times for every one time you cash. And as far as making any serious score is concerned (making a final table or actually winning), that's an even more elusive goal to reach.

In fact, your odds of winning are probably worse than I'm calculating, for a few reasons. First, if you're like most poker players, you're overestimating your skills. Second, you're probably underestimating the experience and skill level of those who tend to make it to the money. While you might be better than the average entrant, are you better than the entrant who typically makes it to the money? Are you better, on average, than the player who devotes his or her career to playing tournaments, as many do at the World Series of Poker?

As the duffers and weekend warriors bust out because of their inferior skills, the field that remains in competition for the money and for the big money at the final table becomes more and more saturated with the best players — players who will tend to have more experience and more skill at these long-format tournaments than you. Which is just another way of emphasizing that even if you're good, the odds are against you scoring big in a WSOP tournament.

2. You're playing better players

Let's say you're not playing in the bracelet events, that you're only playing cash. Even so, you're not doing very well and you're wondering why. One reason may be that (again) you're likely to be up against better players than you're used to playing.

If you're like a lot of players coming out for the WSOP, you're heading to the poker rooms you've heard about, the ones that you've heard are the 'best.' But what does that mean? It means you're probably heading to the Aria, Wynn, Bellagio, or the Venetian. Guess what? That's where the best players go. That's where the biggest games are. That's where the richest players play.

And that's where most of the best tourists head when they come to Las Vegas. So you're there, too. You'll be up against the best players there, probably a better quality of player than you're used to playing at home.

Since the best regulars are playing against you, is it any wonder you may not be having as easy a time of it as you had in your hometown room, where you're against players you've learned how to beat?

3. Your opponents have an advantage over you

It's not just that the players you're up against may be more skilled and may have considerably more experience in the game in which you're playing. There's also the fact that they since many are regulars and not tourists like you, they have many advantages. I covered some of these advantages in my last column, but let's review.

They are under no time pressure. You are, out for a short stay when you're trying to get in some poker action. They live nearby and can incorporate their poker play into their regular lives. That's not the case for you, either.

By nature of the fact that they are at home, they are more comfortable, better rested, more familiar with the opposition, and maybe even more likely to gain advantages you aren't even aware exist. For instance, they know the styles of others around the table. They know who is extremely aggressive (and intentionally sit to the left of such players), they know who the rocks are whose bets should always be respected, and so on.

You, as an outsider, know none of these things, and so may more easily fall prey to pitfalls the regular can avoid.

4. You're not at your best

If you're honest with yourself, you know this to be true. At home you play when you want, get as much rest as you want, eat the diet with which you're most comfortable, and have no reason to drink or eat to excess. You get in whatever exercise or relaxation outside of poker you want to get, and you can play with complete attention and focus.

In Las Vegas, after a long flight, you may not be well rested. With the temptations of Sin City all around you — something you're not used to — you may be staying up late, sleeping poorly, eating poorly or too much, drinking more than you are accustomed to, and doing all sorts of things that may have a negative affect on your game.

5. You're more interested in action than optimal strategy

If you're like most players who fly in for the WSOP, your eagerness to play is probably working against you. You're probably not as selective in the game you're playing as you would be back home. And even if you are selective, since you don't know the regulars here like you do at home, you really don't have enough information to find the best seat in the best game as you are able to do in your hometown poker room.

Similarly, unless you are unusually patient for a WSOP tourist, you are probably torpedoing your best game because you are more eager than normal for action. So you're gambling more, sacrificing patience in the interest of 'playing.' Who can blame you? You probably only come out to Las Vegas infrequently, and you want to make the most of your short stay.

Conclusion

I admit that I may be too hard on some of the home game heroes who come out to the WSOP. After all, many who do may be well aware of these potential disadvantages, may have dealt with them, and may have taken countermeasures.

For those of you who have not done so, try to anticipate the obstacles outlined above. Also, I will have an article in the near future sharing steps you can take to avoid the problems of being a tourist in Las Vegas, as well as things you can do to make your temporary engagement in the WSOP poker scene work to your advantage.

Ashley Adams has been playing poker for 50 years and writing about it since 2000. He is the author of hundreds of articles and two books, Winning 7-Card Stud (Kensington 2003) and Winning No-Limit Hold'em (Lighthouse 2012). He is also the host of poker radio show House of Cards. See www.houseofcardsradio.com for broadcast times, stations, and podcasts.

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