Poker fans got a first-hand look into the murky world of high-stakes poker over the weekend when Stephen Chidwick was the subject of a reddit AMA (ask me anything).
Chidwick revealed how much of his almost $77 million in winnings he has actually pocketed. The English pro said the amount he has collected from the game is much lower than that total, offering some insight on how much goes to financial backers and other expenses.
“I don’t have exact numbers from the earlier part of my career but somewhere in the $5-10 million range,” he said in response to how much of his winnings he actually keeps.
Small Profit Margins
Chidwick’s profit numbers fall in line with comments from seven-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu. In April, he offered an analysis of the high-stakes segment of the industry and said these eye-popping win totals were “mostly a mirage.”
“No one playing these rates (is going) to have an ROI over $5 million in any given year,” Negreanu posted on X. “Profitable years like that will happen, but they are anomalies rather than the norm.”
In 1999 if you traveled the world playing the highest stakes tournaments, you couldn’t spend more than $250,000.
In 2013 that number rose to roughly $1.2 million.
In 2025, that number is roughly $12 million.
You need to cash for $12 million+ to turn a profit if you play all…
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) April 19, 2025
Many of those winnings are taken up by operational costs like travel, buy-ins, swapping action with other players, and taxes. Some have also estimated that many high-stakes players may have as low as 15% or even less of their own action in these nosebleed-stakes events.
Considering his total winnings and what he actually takes home, Chidwick has a profit margin of somewhere between 5% and 10%.
Bringing Out His Social Game
The high-stakes scene has seen criticism among poker fans at times for being boring. Critics describe players more like robots than players involved in a social game.
This paints a major contrast from the game seen on television during the poker boom of the 2000s, which featured interesting characters engaging in table chatter, prop bets, and other antics that kept fans tuned in.
High-stakes private games have become more popular as a result and some players are trying to become more social to find a seat in these games. Even some tournament series, such as Triton Poker, have turned to invitational events. This could be an incentive for players like Chidwick to embrace a more personable approach.
In September, he spoke about his own introverted personality and said he was making more of a concerted effort to be social and comfortable in the spotlight. He said self-doubt was a major part of why he was a quiet player.
“Driven by my desire to be the best poker player I could be, I started doing deeper inner work, peeling back the layers of my belief structure and examining what was uncovered,” he said. “Why did I feel like I had to be perfect to be worthy? What was I really seeking through my success? These were uncomfortable investigations that slowly but surely started to free me from my preconceived notions of who I was and who I should be.”
In September, Chidwick won the 2025 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju $200,000 short deck event for $3.4 million. Considering his profit margin outlined in the AMA, it seems likely he only took home about $170,000 to $340,000 of that total after considering backers and expenses.
