The $13 Million Dollar Men & the Race to Top the 2025 Money List

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Dec 13, 2025 6 min read

In a year of dominant poker performances — from Benny Glaser winning three bracelets in a single summer to Michael Mizrachi winning both the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and Poker Players Championship — three players stand out for the incredibly lucrative years on the tournament circuit.

Americans Jesse Lonis and Seth Davies, as well as Norway's Kayhan Mokri, the recent champion of the $250,000 Triton Invitational at WSOP Paradise, have each had eight-figure years of tournament poker.

Here's a look at how these three players have performed in 2025.

Decisive Final Push for Mokri?

If you told Kayhan Mokri he would only cash ten times in 2025, he probably wouldn't have minded.

And enjoy it he has, with six wins totalling a whopping $13.1 million, and two of them account for over $11.5 million in winnings. His late push has seen him overtake Jesse Lonis — more on him later — at the top of the 2025 Money List.

"The Americans - they have so much available for them!” he told PokerNews. “But I like to stay in Norway. It's great to stay home. I get to be with my family and my fiancé. That's why I enjoy the EPTs a lot. I live in Europe, enjoy traveling Europe in general, so for those reasons they're super convenient.

Mokri has been a regular on the European Poker Tour, highlighted by a run to sixth place in the European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event in 2022 and High Roller victories in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Cyprus.

"I enjoy the EPTs as much as any event. The Tritons are completely special, but I love EPTs. They're great. The staff are lovely and obviously I've been very blessed at the EPTs."

This year he added two EPT spadies to his collection, starting with victory in the EPT Monte-Carlo €10,000 Mystery Bounty before a return to the European Poker Tour in Barcelona saw him take down the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller Second Chance.

Victories in Estonia and Slovakia earlier in the year saw him add yet more silverware to his trophy cabinet.

People were starting to take notice of his winning ways, taking home over $3.8 million at Triton Jeju, winning a $150,000 tournament for the largest cash of his career.

But that would dwarf in comparison to his victory in the $250,000 Triton Invitational at WSOP Paradise, defeating Gabriel Andrade heads-up for $7,725,000.

"Getting invited to the Triton Invitational is one of the greatest honours you could get as a pro these days, especially for a tournament player," says Mokri.

Lonis, the Main Event Maestro

By the numbers, it's been hard to look past Jesse Lonis this year. Almost a half-century of cashes, with nine wins — in terms of sheer consistency, he's the best tournament poker player in 2025.

It's a sign of the player, when a maiden WSOP Circuit ring barely features in their list of 2025 highlights — even if it was won while attending a rap battle back in February!

A Spring spent grinding the PokerGO Tour and at the European Poker Tour in Monte-Carlo preceded a maiden Triton title in Montenegro.

He took down the $100,000 Triton Montenegro Main Event for $3,446,298, telling PokerNews he was just trying to stay "humble, grounded and focused."

By his high standards, Lonis had a quiet WSOP with just one six-figure cash in a bracelet event, with a 33rd-place finish in the $50,000 High Roller.

However, away from Paris and the Horseshoe, he bagged two titles: a Wynn $25,000 High Roller, and another victory on the PokerGO Tour, winning a $15,000 tournament as part of the ARIA High Roller Series.

A trip to the Onyx Super High Roller Series saw a return to high-profile victories, defeating Phil Ivey en route to winning the $102,000 Onyx SHRS NLH Invitational for $1,745,625

The Fall saw Lonis head to EPT Barcelona, finishing third in the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller for $823,527 and record another high profile on the Triton Poker Series. He finished third in the $100,000 Triton PLO Main Event in Jeju for $1,261,000 — the sixth seven-figure cash of his career.

Bracelet Headlines Marquee Year for Davies

Seth Davies' year can be split almost perfectly into three. The year began with Davies hoping to eradicate his name from the Best Without a Triton Title list with the Triton Jeju festival, before a solitary cash at EPT Monte-Carlo saw him finish third in the €100,000 Super High Roller for €931,900.

A return to the Triton fold was stunning, with Montenegro yielding some of the best results of his poker career. His victory in Event #6 netted him $1,490,741 and finally got the monkey off his back, with over $1 million and a Triton title added to his long list of poker accolades. Davies called it a "moment he'll never forget" thanks to the relationships he'd built with the entire Triton staff and tournament team.

This victory was immediately followed by a runner-up finish in the Triton Invitational for $4,190,000, and Davies closed out the festival with another runner-up finish in the Quattro Bounty Turbo for $296,824.

And all of this before the WSOP and another first. This time, a first bracelet for Davies in the biggest buy-in event of the summer. Davies took down the $250,000 Super High Roller for $4,752,551, after defeating Alex Foxen heads-up and topping a 63-player field.

Since the WSOP, Davies has had a quieter time of it. In recent weeks, he's increased his social media presence, keeping score of his wins and losses for his fans to follow along. However, he was candid on social media following what he called a "stone bagel" in the Triton events at the WSOP Paradise.

"It was really intense, very action-packed and unfortunately the action didn't go my way"

"It's not exactly the trip we planned when we set out for the Bahamas a week ago," he said. "I've been crazy lucky this year to have the year I've had already, so I guess I was due for something like this. That's how it goes sometimes; you've got to take your lumps."

The Triton schedule was a much more condensed version, owing to the fact that it abutted and overlapped with the rest of the WSOP Paradise festival, something Davies said led to a much more higher demand of his hours than normal.

"It was really intense, very action-packed and unfortunately the action didn't go my way. I don't think I played amazing this trip; I made a couple pretty glaring mistakes so definitely wouldn't give myself an A in the performance department, but it was a really demanding week."

However, Davies is still looking to "pull a rabbit out of a hat" and is eyeing up some big high rollers that remain in the WSOP Paradise schedule, and of course the WSOP Super Main Event.

"It's a gigantic $25,000 buy-in tournament, so maybe we'll run well in that. Then there's another big $25,000 and the $50,000 PLO — I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be fun; it's a different animal.

"So maybe we'll escape with some cash nonetheless, so if you are sweating, maybe we'll pull a rabbit out of a hat and somehow take a little bite out of these losses I've built up this week."

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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