One of the biggest stories of 2012 was Antonio Esfandiari becoming poker’s all-time tournament money leaderat over $23.7 million. His haul this year included a win in the first ever Big One for One Drop, a $1 million buy-in charity event held during the 2012 World Series of Poker in which Esfandiari (pictured) edged out a sold out field of 48 players en route to an $18 million payday.

That victory propelled Esfandiari over the likes of Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth to assume the title of poker’s all-time tournament money leader. In fact, Ivey and Hellmuth, who sit in second and third, respectively, on the all-time money list, trail Esfandiari by $6 million.

In a recent interview with CardPlayer, Esfandiari pushed aside notions that being poker’s all-time money leader puts him in a very elite class of players: “It’s a fantastic honor, but I honestly don’t really feel like the all-time earnings leader because the bulk of those winnings really came from one tournament.” Esfandiari’s One Drop bracelet was one of two he claimed in 2012. The other came in a €1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament during the WSOP’s stop in Cannes in September and was good for $164,000.

Esfandiari is the WSOP’s all-time money leader by over 50%, as his $19.5 million in earnings far exceed the $12.1 million belonging to Hellmuth, who sits in second on the list. In fact, only four players have banked more than $10 million from WSOP tournaments during the course of their careers.

Seemingly, Esfandiari questioned how long he could reign supreme as tournament poker’s all-time money leader. He told CardPlayer, “There are guys near the top who have done it for years without a lot of huge scores. Personally, I’m not a guy who likes to travel around and play a lot of tournaments these days.” His first tournament score, according to the Hendon Mob, came in 2002 in an L.A. Poker Classic preliminary event.

The rise in popularity of High Roller events has helped many players rise up poker’s money list quickly. Take Erik Seidel (pictured), for example, who sits in fifth with $17.1 million in tournament earnings after recording over $3.5 million from two High Roller events in early 2011 in Las Vegas and Melbourne. He has had just one six-figure cash since September 2011 and won that year’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the last one held, for three-quarters of a million bucks.

Esfandiari wrapped up his interview with CardPlayer by saying, “I believe that those guys will continue to play a ton of High Roller events and, eventually, I’ll get passed. I may have won the biggest buy-in event of all time, but I don’t look forward to flying to Macau to put up $250,000 to play against a bunch of wizards like these other guys do. Unless I see some value in the tournament, like there was with the One Drop event, then I’m not really interested. I’m not really looking to gamble. There needs to be some kind of edge or else I’m probably not going to play it.”

Another One Drop event is scheduled for 2014. In the meantime, poker’s all-time tournament money list includes three former WSOP Main Event champs:

1. Antonio Esfandiari – $23,764,631
2. Phil Ivey – $17,517,475
3. Phil Hellmuth – $17,493,271
4. Sam Trickett – $17,470,283
5. Erik Seidel – $17,156,941
6. Daniel Negreanu – $16,340,580
7. John Juanda – $14,980,323
8. Michael Mizrachi – $14,291,439
9. Jamie Gold – $12,245,468
10. Joe Hachem – $11,776,100

What do you think? How long will Esfandiari remain the top dog on the tournament poker money list?

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.