Cornel Cimpan

Total Winnings
$2,629,829

In the span of just nine months, Cornel Cimpan went from being a moderately successful poker grinder to one of just a dozen players with two WPT titles to their name. The Texas resident spent the better part of the past decade putting up results across the country, cashing in Los Angeles, Atlantic City, and Vegas, where a third place finish in a 2006 Festa al Lago prelim netted him over $82,000.

What was a career cash at the time paled in comparison to the scores Cimpan would post in 2009 though. When Cimpan won Season VII’s LA Poker Classic Main Event, he banked more than 20 times that, earning $1,686,760 for the win in one of the biggest poker events of the year. After beginning the final table on the short stack, Cimpan managed to rally to victory, defeating the likes of Chris Ferguson, Mike Sowers, and Chris Karragulyen along the way.

Cimpan followed that up with his second WPT title just a few months later. While his win at the Commerce required a come from behind victory, Cimpan’s success at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in Season VIII came a little easier. Cimpan was in control for much of the final table, though he did have to overcome a chip deficit in his heads-up battle with Soheil Shamseddin to pick up title number two and over $900,000. On the strength of those two wins and one other cash at Borgata, Cimpan is one of the top 25 most profitable players in the WPT’s ten-year history.