Deputy Editor
The life of a high-rolling poker pro can seem glamorous at times. But recent incidents have painted poker finances in a more sobering light.
Chiefly, the revelation that top tournament pro David Peters was struggling to pay a modest (by the standards of his seeming success) $50,000 loan made huge waves in the community. It gave credence to critics like Mike Matusow, who charged that the high-roller tournament community is a facade, and few players have been seriously successful.
The release of the “Triton Files,” which exposed poker tournament results via a data scrape, only added fuel to the fire. They revealed that only 28% of players in the pool showed a net profit.
Well, top tournament pro and CoinPoker ambassador Jeremy Ausmus gave poker fans a peek behind the curtain, revealing the number behind more than a decade of tournament results. His numbers give an actual look at the finances of a high-roller regular, painting a much clearer picture than publicly available tournament cashes.
The video is embedded in full at the bottom of this article. Now, onto the numbers.
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Jeremy Ausmus’ Key Numbers: $6.8 Million Profit, +43% ROI
Here are some of the key stats Ausmus shared from his no-limit hold’em tournament career:
- 1,434 entries
- $15,922,376 in buy-ins
- $22,807,670 in cashes
- $6,885,294 in profit
- +43.24% ROI
- 17.85% in the money
It’s important to outline a few caveats regarding Ausmus’ numbers and his poker career.
The data he revealed covers only no-limit hold’em tournament entries from 2011 through 2026. Since Ausmus plays a fair amount of non-NLHE events, especially in the summer, it doesn’t paint a full picture of his tournament results (hence the gap with his Card Player number of about $30 million).
The numbers Ausmus shared also omit pieces sold and swapped, which can add or subtract quite a lot of money. Ausmus himself has recently shared that he secured backing for his high-stakes action in response to the unpopular gambling tax change that punishes high-stakes and high-volume play.
As Ausmus acknowledged to begin the video, the sample of 1,434 tournaments is also relatively small. Generally speaking, about 1,000 tournaments is on the lower end of where players can start trying to derive some meaning from their results. It’s better to be closer to 5,000 or even 10,000.
Why has Ausmus not played more tournaments as a full-time pro over 15-plus years? He said he only began focusing on tournaments in 2019 or 2020, after many years prior as a live cash player.
Even given all that, the results provide a fascinating look at what success means at some of the highest levels of the game.
“I really, honestly crushed the game for a long time,” Ausmus said. “I’ve done well at the game, and I’ve been able to stay on top of things. All in all, I’m pretty happy with these results.”
What Do Jeremy Ausmus’ Poker Results Tell Us?
First, I want to thank Ausmus for being so transparent with his results. Everyone should give his stuff a look and/or a follow. A lot of poker content bores me, but Ausmus is putting out some really interesting stuff.
Let’s say Ausmus played about 80% of his volume since 2019. Since 2026 still isn’t over, it’s fair to assume he’s playing around 200 tournament entries per year.
The first thing I want to point out is that over a sample like that, variance is going to have a massive impact on a player’s yearly results. In other words, we need far more than one year of data before we know whether a player is one of the best in their fields. One year of good results can very likely be chalked up to a hot run.
Second, it’s undeniable that Ausmus has had an incredibly successful run. A 43% ROI is outstanding stuff, especially considering he often plays in some pretty tough fields in Las Vegas. Even if Ausmus has sold or swapped out a chunk of his action, it looks like he’s bringing in at least high six-figures per year when adding in any online winnings and non-NLHE results.
That’s a damn good living. Poker is very beatable, even at high levels, for strong players who put serious work into their games.
Comparing Gross Cashes With Poker Tournament Profits
I think most poker fans will agree that the most interesting piece of Ausmus’ reveal is the relationship between his gross cashes and net profit. People are constantly speculating about how much or how little poker pros are actually earning.
Gambling Insider recently covered this in a piece touching on the financial difficulties of seemingly very successful players like Maurice Hawkins.
I’ve seen some similar estimates out there that if a player has cashed for X, and you think they’re a winning player, a good rule of thumb is that 20-30% of X is their profit. Ausmus’ numbers jive with that, though he’d be on the high end. Remember, he said he’s profited about $6.9 million on about $22.8 million in cashes. That comes out to a hair above 30%.
According to the GI piece, Daniel Negreanu is right around the same ballpark.
Now, the most successful players at lower stakes can do better than this, but they’re playing in smaller games with bigger edges.
Tournament poker is a tough business, but the best players are making a nice living from it.
