The Poker All Time Money List (ATML) Explained: How to Read It and What It Really Means

Every sport has a scoreboard that fans quote without thinking: goals, home runs, grand slams. Poker's equivalent is the All Time Money List, usually shortened to ATML. When a commentator says a player has "passed thirty million in live earnings" or "just cracked the top ten all time," this is the list they mean. It is simple, it is public, and it is endlessly argued over — which is exactly why it is worth understanding properly instead of just glancing at the rank.

This guide covers where the ATML comes from, how to look things up on it step by step, where its prestige comes from, and — just as important — everything it does not tell you.

What is the All Time Money List?

The ATML ranks players by the total prize money they have won in live poker tournaments over their career. It is built and maintained by The Hendon Mob, the largest public database of live tournament results in the world. Each result that a player cashes adds to their lifetime total, and the list sorts everyone from the biggest total downward.

Earnings are shown in US dollars, so results won in other currencies are converted. The headline number is deliberately blunt: it adds up what was paid out to you, nothing more.

Where the list comes from

The Hendon Mob takes its name from a group of London players — the "Hendon Mob" — who were part of the British poker scene long before the boom. Members of that group started recording tournament results online in the 1990s, at a time when there was no reliable place to look up who had cashed where. What began as a hobby database grew into the reference the whole industry uses: broadcasters lift their "career earnings" graphics from it, players link to their profile in their bios, and journalists check it before publishing a number.

That history explains the list's status. It did not become the standard because someone declared it so; it became the standard because it was the only place where the results were kept consistently, for everyone, for free.

How to consult it, step by step

You do not need an account to browse it. The exact menu labels on the site can change over time, but the route is always the same:

1. Open The Hendon Mob's website and go to the rankings section.
2. Choose the All Time Money List. You will see the global list first, ordered from the largest lifetime total downward.
3. Filter by country. This is the most useful trick for most people. Every country has its own all-time list, so you can see the best-earning players from your own country — often a far more relatable scoreboard than the global one.
4. Search for a specific player. Type a name to jump to their entry, or open a profile directly from the list.
5. Open the profile. This is where the list becomes interesting: you get the player's individual results — the event, the venue, the date, the finishing position and the prize — instead of just one total.

A few habits make the data much easier to read:

• Sort a profile by prize size to see whether a career is built on many steady cashes or on one or two enormous scores.
• Look at the number of cashes as well as the total. A player with hundreds of cashes and a modest total tells a very different story from someone with five cashes and a huge total.
• Check the dates. A total earned across two decades is a different achievement from one built in three years.

How to read a row

A row on the list boils down to a rank, a name, a country and a dollar figure. Behind that figure sit a few things worth keeping in mind:

• Total earnings are the sum of all the tournament prizes credited to that player.
• Cashes are the number of times they finished in the money.
• Biggest cash is the single largest prize on their record — often the reason a player sits where they do.

Two players on adjacent rungs can have reached the same number in completely different ways. That is the first hint that the ranking is a starting point for a conversation, not the end of one.

Why the list carries so much prestige

Being high on the ATML has real weight in the poker world, and it is worth understanding why.

It is a shorthand for longevity and consistency at the top. Reaching the upper reaches of the list means cashing repeatedly in events that pay serious money, year after year. Nobody gets there with a single lucky week; even the players who owe most of their total to one huge win generally had to keep playing the high-stakes circuit to stay there.

It is a public, verifiable line in a bio. Sponsors, tournament organisers, broadcasters and staking groups all look at it. "Top 50 all time" or "number one from my country" is a credential anyone can check in seconds.

It creates rivalries and storylines. Watching one player climb past another, or a rising star break into the top 100 in a couple of seasons, is part of how the sport tells its own history. National lists add a local flavour to this: being the best-earning player in your country is a genuine badge of honour even if you will never trouble the global top ten.

It sits alongside other kinds of prestige, rather than replacing them. A WSOP bracelet, a Triple Crown, a Poker Hall of Fame induction — each measures something different. The Poker Hall of Fame, for instance, weighs longevity, respect among peers and contribution to the game, not just money. Many people consider a bracelet a purer mark of a win, while the ATML is a measure of accumulated earnings. The most respected careers usually show up strongly on several of these at once.

Names such as Justin Bonomo, Bryn Kenney and Daniel Negreanu have sat at or near the very top of the global list at various points, and players like Phil Hellmuth are famous for a different prestige entirely — the WSOP bracelet record. That contrast is the whole point: different scoreboards reward different things.

The catches nobody puts on the TV graphic

This is the part that makes the ATML interesting rather than just impressive. The list is a fair record of what it measures — and it measures less than people assume.

It measures winnings, not profit

The single most important caveat: the ATML counts prizes won, not money made. It knows nothing about what a player paid in buy-ins to get there. A player who cashes ten million dollars but spent nine million on entries has made a million; a player who cashes two million on a tiny budget may have made far more. The list ranks the first player higher anyway.

For the same reason it is a poor guide to "who is the most profitable player." It is closer to a measure of who has taken the most money out of the biggest tournaments.

Buy-ins have exploded

The modern high-roller circuit runs events with buy-ins that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, and prize pools have grown with them. A player active in that era can accumulate a total that legends of earlier decades never had the chance to reach — not because they were worse, but because the money on offer was smaller. The list therefore leans heavily towards the current era, and comparing across decades without adjusting for inflation is comparing different games.

One result can move everything

A single enormous prize can vault a player many places at once. When the biggest charity and high-roller events pay eight-figure first prizes, one deep run can outweigh years of ordinary cashes. That is exciting, but it also means the rank can say more about one great week than about sustained results.

Backing and staking blur the picture

Many top players sell pieces of their action, or play with backers who share the winnings. The list credits the player whose name is on the entry. In practice the person appearing on the list may not keep all of the prize, which makes the money a slightly abstract number rather than personal income.

It is a live-tournament ranking

The ATML is built from live tournament results. Online tournaments and cash games — where many professionals make the majority of their money — do not feed it, so a player who is dominant online but rarely travels to live events can look far less impressive on the list than they are in reality. Check the site's own notes for exactly what is and is not included, because those details can evolve.

Data is never perfectly complete

Results from smaller or older events can be missing, incomplete or entered late. For casual browsing this hardly matters; if you are researching a specific player's career carefully, treat the totals as a very good approximation rather than an audited figure.

Other rankings worth knowing

Because the ATML only tells part of the story, it is worth knowing what else exists:

• Player of the Year style rankings measure a single season, which rewards current form rather than accumulated history.
• Points-based rankings such as the Global Poker Index try to rate performance while accounting for the size and difficulty of the events played, rather than just adding up prizes.
• Online tournament rankings — PocketFives is the best-known — track results from online events, which the live-only ATML cannot see.
• WSOP bracelet counts and Hall of Fame status measure titles and career stature instead of totals.

Looking at two or three of these together gives a much fairer picture of a player than any one list on its own.

Fun ways to actually use the list

• Follow your national list. It is a great way to discover local players and see who is rising.
• Trace a career. Open a profile and read it chronologically — you can often see the year a player broke through.
• Compare styles. Steady cashers, single-score winners and consistent high-roller regulars all leave very different signatures.
• Spot the inflation effect. Look at the top of the list, then look at how many entries in the top ten made most of their money in the last ten years or so.

What the ATML teaches about your own results

The best lesson from the ATML is not about the pros at all: it is that a total on its own is a poor way to judge results. The list ranks winnings, but the numbers that actually matter to a working player are profit, return on investment and the sample size behind them.

If you play regularly, your own results deserve better bookkeeping than a running total:

• Track profit, not just cashes — that means counting your buy-ins and fees. Rake is one of the biggest of these costs and is easy to ignore; see what rake is and how it affects your win rate.
• Be cautious about conclusions from a small sample. A hot month proves very little — how many hands you need before your stats are reliable explains why.
• Keep your bankroll matched to the variance you actually face — the same swings that let one big score reshape the ATML can also empty a bankroll that was sized too tightly. See bankroll management for online cash game players.
• Use proper tracking software so the numbers you look at are complete and correct. If you play on CoinPoker, converting your hands with PokerHandsConverter before importing them into your tracker is what keeps your win rate and profit figures trustworthy in the first place.

In other words: treat your own results the way you would want the ATML to treat everyone else's — with the full picture, not just the flattering number.

Frequently asked questions

Does the All Time Money List include online poker?

It is built from live tournament results. Online tournament rankings exist separately, and cash game winnings are not part of it.

Does the list show profit or just winnings?

Winnings only. It does not subtract buy-ins, so it cannot tell you how much a player actually made after their costs.

Can I look up my own results?

If you have cashed in live tournaments that were recorded in the database, you will appear with your own profile and total. You can also browse your country's list to see where you stand nationally.

Is being number one on the ATML the same as being the best player?

No. It shows who has accumulated the most prize money, which favours players who have played many large buy-in events in the modern era. Titles, consistency, online results and profit tell other parts of the story.

Do the rankings change?

Constantly. Every new recorded result can move someone up or down, so always check the live list for current positions rather than relying on a number you read somewhere.