Most professional poker players spend the lion’s share of their playing time in live games. The big-name tournament players are famous because of the television coverage of their live play. Lots of these players play online, but it’s not like the live tournament scene. Most celebrity poker players are sponsored by an online poker site. They wear the site’s logo in live events and play on the site for periodic promotions or whenever they want to.

Full Tilt Poker has professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham on their team.

PokerStars has Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rouso, and Humberto Brenes.

UltimateBet sponsors professionals Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Jim Worth, Devin Porter and Annie Duke.

There have been numerous big-name players who made a name for themselves winning on the WPT over the last five years. Until the WSOP brand started a circuit schedule, the WPT was the only big tournament schedule during the entire year. Here are the top five WPT players:

1. Gus Hansen has four WPT championship titles and numerous WPT cashes. Gus is 15th on the all-time WPT money list.

2. Carlo Mortensen is second on that list and has two WPT titles, including this year’s $3.9 million first prize at the $25,000 Five Star Classic.

3. Daniel Negreanu has two WPT championships and is atop the WPT money list because of his 10 WPT final tables.

4. Barry Greenstein has three WPT titles and comes in at 20th on the all-time money list.

5. Tuan Lee has risen to third on the all-time WPT money list by winning three WPT titles in just two seasons.