Biggest Cash Game Winners by Limit 2022 (Part 2)

Previously we talked about the top winners in the categories NL10 to NL50. Now we move on to the NL100 to NL500 categories to see who performed the best. As with the previous article, we gained most of our information from Smarthand’s database.

Top Winners in Each Category

We looked at how the best winners in each category performed, their EV bb and bb/100. From the NL100 and up, you’ll find more professional, high-stake players than in previous NL categories.

NL100 Top Winner

Supermegopro was one of the dominant players in the PokerStars NL50 a few years ago. However, he’s the NL100 class winner for 2022, winning $28,436 over 495,067 hands. These results give him a 5.7 bb/100, while he has a 7 EV bb/100, as he won $35,068 under the expected value (EV). In 2022, 368,498 hands were short-handed (SH) tables.

NL200 Top Winner

One of the most significant NL50 rivals to Supermegopro a few years ago was BSTUSim, who is now the top winner of NL200 in 2022. He won $48,047 over 257,789 hands, with a 9.2 bb/100. The expected value of his winnings is around $45,840, giving him an 8.8 EV bb/100. He’s a player who plays almost equally on SH and full-ring (FR) tables but made more on the FR tables than the SH ones.

The runner-up, MrDuckens, is the best player in the SH circles. MrDuckens almost matched BSTUSim’s result, but only by playing SH tables, winning $47,312 over 262,742 hands, with a 9 bb/100.

NL400-500 Top Winner

We’ve finally reached the forerunner of high-stakes poker and treat the NL400 and NL500 together. Seta-Beni is the top NL500 player and plays up to NL10,000. Over 138,462 hands, he won $79,350, with an expected value of $70,342. That gives him an 11.5 bb/100 and a 10.2 EV bb/100. He’s the best SH NL500 player, as most of his tables were SH tables.

Comparison with 2011

In 2011, we can once again see similar results and winnings, but over a higher number of hands. In the NL100, the top 2011 player, catleonet, won $46,942 over 763,980 hands, with a 3.07 bb/100.

The NL200 winner, gutter23, played 1,522,813 hands to win $79,228 with a low 1.3 bb/100.

Gogol’s Nose was the best NL400-500 player in 2011, winning $133,978 over 432,441 hands, with a 3.87 bb/100.

Rakeback and Poker

It’s clear that there’s an emphasis on the quality of your plays over quantity these days. The reason for the higher number of hands is the larger rakeback in 2011. Rakeback is a vital part of poker, as it gives a percentage of your stake back every time you play at a table. This is crucial for professional players and is still a major component of modern poker tournaments.