LAS VEGAS - John Cynn defeated Tony Miles heads-up to win the 2018 World Series of Poker main event early Sunday morning, claiming poker's world championship and $8.8 million. Elected to the Poker Hall of Fame (#/#) This denotes a bracelet winner. The first number is the number of bracelets won in the 2018 WSOP. The second number is the total number of bracelets won. Both numbers represent totals as of that point during the tournament. Place What place each player at the final table finished Name. A man identified only as Harold M. Of Lakewood won $1 million after he bet chump change on a 6-Card Bonus in Three Card Poker at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.

Over the past two weeks 7,874 competitors (myself included) paid $10,000 to enter the main event of the World Series of Poker. Who would win the money? And how much of the winnings would they actually get to keep?

One important note: I do need to point out that many of the players in the tournament were “backed.” Poker tournaments have a high variance (luck factor). Thus, many tournament players sell portions of their action to investors to lower their risk. It is quite likely that most (if not all) of the winners were backed and will, in the end, only enjoy a portion of their winnings. I ignore backing in this analysis (because the full details are rarely publicized). Now, on to the winners.

Congratulations to John Cynn of Evanston, Illinois for winning the 2018 WSOP Main Event and a cool $8,800,000. After a mammoth 10-hour heads-up battle against Tony Miles (where the chip lead went back and forth), Mr. Cynn finally prevailed when his king-jack flopped trips and all Mr. Miles could muster was queen-high. Mr. Cynn will pay federal income tax, self-employment tax (all nine of the final players are professional gamblers), and Illinois income tax. Of his winnings he’ll lose an estimated $3,860,183 to tax (keeping $4,939,817), a tax burden of 43.87%. Mr. Cynn definitely benefits from tax reform; had he had the same winnings in 2017 he would have owed $4,094,676 so he saves $234,493. Another way of looking at this is his tax burden last year would have been 46.53%. Mr. Cynn has the second highest tax burden of the final nine.

The aforementioned Tony Miles finished in second place. A resident of Jacksonville, Florida, Mr. Miles benefits from Florida’s lack of a personal income tax. Mr. Miles, like all of the Americans at the final table, will owe federal income tax and self-employment tax; he’ll owe an estimated $1,939,341 (38.79%) of his winnings.

Finishing in third place and winning $3,750,000 was Michael Dyer of Houston. Mr. Dyer had the chip lead for the first part of the final table but ran into a full house of held by Mr. Miles. The Texan avoids state income tax but will still lose an estimated $1,449,275 to federal tax (38.65%). Mr. Dyer has the lowest tax burden of the six Americans at the final table (and the second-lowest tax burden overall).

Nicolas Manion of Muskegon, Michigan started the final nine with the chip lead but couldn’t make it through; he ended up in fourth place for $2,825,000. Mr. Manion is the only individual who will end up paying three taxes: federal, state, and city. Michigan has a flat income tax of 4.25% and Muskegon has a city income tax of 0.5%. Still, Mr. Manion is better off in 2018 than if he had won this in 2017; he’ll lose only an estimated $1,217,323 to tax (43.09%).

Joe Cada finished fifth for $2,150,000. If that name sounds familiar, it should: Mr. Cada won the Main Event in 2009. This time around Mr. Cada’s pocket tens lost a classic race against Mr. Miles’s ace-king. Thanks to tax reform, Mr. Cada loses only 40.59% of his winnings to tax ($872,635) compared to 42% back in 2009. Mr. Cada, a resident of Shelby Township, Michigan, owes federal and Michigan tax.

Aram Zobian of Cranston, Rhode Island, ended up in sixth place for $1,800,000. A professional poker player, Mr. Zobian will owe federal and Rhode Island tax. Rhode Island has marginal tax rates up to 5.99%, so it’s in the middle of the pack for states. Overall, Mr. Zobian will owe an estimated $721,821 in tax (40.10%).

Alex Lynskey of Melbourne, Australia finished in seventh place. While the US and Australia have a tax treaty, it does not cover gambling. Thus, of Mr. Lynskey’s $1,500,000 of winnings, he loses 30% off the top to the IRS ($450,000). Australia does not tax gambling winnings for amateur gamblers but it does tax gambling winnings of professional gamblers. The Australian tax system somewhat mirrors ours in that are marginal rates; however, Australia’s top rate is 45% compared to our 37%. The US-Australia Tax Treaty does specify that a foreign tax credit can be taken for taxes paid to the other country. Mr. Lynskey would have paid an estimated $666,296 to the Australian Taxation Office; given the US tax he’s paid that number is reduced to $216,296 (or $292,000 Australian).

In eighth place was Artem Metalidi of Kiev, Ukraine. Mr. Metalidi will pay the least tax of any of the final nine, both in dollars and by percentage. Ukraine has a flat tax rate of 18% plus a 1.5% military tax (a total of 19.5%). Mr. Metalidi will lose only an estimated $243,750 of his $1,250,000 to tax. None of that is going to the IRS: The tax treaty between the Ukraine and the United States exempts gambling winnings from taxation.

Antoine Labat, a professional poker player from Vincenna, France, finished in ninth place. He earned an even $1 million, but that’s before taxes. The United States and France have a tax treaty exempting gambling winnings, so he lost nothing to Uncle Sam. However, France is anything but a low-tax environment. While 2018 French tax rates have not been announced (they’re not announced until late in the year), based on 2017 rates Mr. Labat will lose $432,574 (€369,721) of his $1 million (€854,701) winnings to taxes.

Here’s a table summarizing the tax bite:

That means 39.01% of the winnings of the final nine will go to taxes. That’s up from 2017 because last year four of the final nine faced no taxation (they were all residents of the United Kingdom which does not tax gambling winnings).

Here’s a second table with the winners sorted by their estimated take-home winnings:

Mr. Metalidi finished in eighth place but based on after-tax winnings he finished in seventh place. The Ukraine’s low flat-rate income tax gives him a benefit over the relatively high taxes in Australia.

Wsop Winnings 2018

But the true winner this year was the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS’s take of $9,811,437 exceeds the combined after-tax winnings of the first and second place winners ($8,000,476) and nearly exceeds the top three! Taxes may be what we pay for a civilized society, but we sure pay a lot of them. One truism this year (as usual) is that the house (the IRS) always wins.

Tags: WSOP

LAS VEGAS -- John Cynn defeated Tony Miles heads-up to win the 2018 World Series of Poker main event early Sunday morning, claiming poker's world championship and $8.8 million.

Cynn, 33, of Indianapolis, played 10 full days of poker over the past two weeks at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino to turn his $10,000 buy-in into one of the richest prizes in poker, triumphing over a field of 7,874 players.

Though he was still wrapped up in the emotion of his victory, Cynn made it clear that while the money will change his life, he doesn't want to change who he is as a person.

'The money is very significant, but I do like to think that I don't need the money to be happy,' said Cynn. 'But at the same time, practically, it's going to make things a lot easier -- things I want to do in life ... even to my parents, this is money that they never could've imagined. It's definitely going to be life-changing.'

The heads-up battle between Cynn and Miles lasted almost 10½ hours, with records set for the most hands played heads-up to close out a WSOP main event (199) and the most total hands at a WSOP main event final table (442).

On the final hand, Cynn raised to 9 million with Kc-Jc before the flop, Miles reraised to 34 million with Qc-8h, and Cynn called. After a flop of Kh-Kd-5h, Miles bet 32 million and Cynn called. On the 8d turn, Miles went all-in for 114 million. After thinking for a minute, Cynn dropped in his chips to indicate a call, and it was all over.

Wsop 2018 Winners List

Miles, who entered the day as the chip leader, earned $5 million for his second-place finish. Though he was clearly disappointed with the result, he already had some perspective of how special a moment he had just been involved in.

'We've been playing on little to no sleep -- the nerves and the angst that you feel at night, it's almost impossible to get a good night's rest,' he said. 'Then you come in here and you have to battle for 12 hours heads-up. It was a war, and it was amazing. I'm sure it'll go down and be chronicled in history as one of the best heads-up matches ever. I have a ton of respect for him. He's going to be a great champion, and I'm really happy for him.'

Cynn was similarly exhausted, and in the final hours, he said he really started to feel the effects of having to push through the latter stages of the 10-day poker marathon and an intense final day.

Poker Winners 2018 Results

'I'm pretty beat. I'm pretty exhausted,' he admitted. 'I think every day, somehow you get more exhausted but also a little bit sharper just because your adrenaline keeps you going.'

Poker Winners 2018 Winners

Cynn entered this tournament with just shy of $1 million in career poker tournament earnings -- the bulk of which came from his 11th-place finish in the 2016 main event, for which he earned $650,000.

The final day of play began with three players, but it took just 18 hands for Michael Dyer to have his all-in bet called. His Ah-Td failed to catch up to Miles' As-Jh, and Dyer took home $3.75 million for his third-place finish.

Poker Winner 2019

From there, it became a battle of wills between Cynn and Miles. They traded the lead back and forth numerous times over the course of 199 hands of heads-up play, but even though Cynn found himself at a significant disadvantage several times during the match, Miles was the player at risk in all three hands in which there was an all-in and call.

The first was a river call by Cynn, who had two pair against Miles' three of a kind. The second all-in was a battle of draws that ended in an unlikely chopped pot.

Biggest Poker Winners 2018

The third all-in call sealed the title for Cynn.