Everyone knows who final-tables, but has anyone compiled a ranking based on the sum of a player's top two ME finishes, say during the Rio era? Thus Mark Newhouse's score would be 18, likely placing him at the top.

Joe Cada won one and got 5th in another. Its gotta be him right?

Dan Harrington finished 3rd and 4th back years in 2003 and 2004 but they were still at Binions then.

Oops I forgot about Cada's second final table not very long ago. The category should probably be expanded to 21st century so Harrington's achievement gets recognized. Maybe Newhouse comes in at 3rd then.

Phil Ivey should be mentioned as well. Between 2002 and 2009 he had 4 top 25 finishes in the Main Event. With 7th and 10th his best two.

So Newhouse is at best 4th in the list. A weighted ranking would be better, the most natural one simply being Main Event earnings. It'd be cool if Hendon Mob added some advanced search capabilities that let users bring up rankings like that for specific tournaments like the Main.

That would mean Jamie Gold's top two of $12mil for first plus zero for no other ME cash > Joe Cada's $8.5mil for first + $2.1mil for fifth. Not sure if we want to go there..

totally forgot cada FT TWICE post 05 boom

pretty impressive ig, tough to do

GREG RAYMER WON IT IN 2004 and was 25th in 2005 - that's pretty strong and deserves recognition also.

Dennis Phillips finished 3rd in the original November 9 year of 2008 and 45th in 2009

Other multi-deep runs off the top of my head:

John Cynn
Antoine Saout
Ben Lamb
Alex Livingston
Steve Gee
Benjamin Pollack
Jamie Robbins

Field size has to be a consideration. Fields grew massively after 2003-2004.

If you're going to do a weighted ranking, then you've got to go by field size. Joe Cada's main event success is probably #1, then Mark Newhouse is #2, then Dan Harrington (even though he got 3rd and 4th, which is far better than 9th and 9th like Newhouse) but field sizes were MUCH SMALLER.

I could concede and say Cada then Harrington, then Newhouse, then Ivey though.

John Cynn's Main Event resume is for sure more impressive than Newhouse and Ivey.

2016 - 11th out of 6,737
2018 - 1st out of 7,874

You can't take two 9th places over that. I just think maybe people don't realize Cynn finished 11th in 2016 because he wasn't really featured in that telecast. It was all about Qui, Vayo, Josephy, Benger, and Kassouf. Cynn wasn't a name at the time. His bustout was a footnote.

Alex Livingston finishing 13th/6,352 in 2013 and 3rd/8,569 in 2018 is also a crazy pair of runs given field sizes and quality of fields. You can't take Ivey's best two over that.

Lamb and Saout both have stronger resumes than Ivey and Newhouse as well.

Ben Lamb
2009 - 14th/6,494
2011 - 3rd/6,865
2017 - 9th/7,221

Antoine Saout
2009 - 3rd/6,494
2016 - 25th/6,737
2017 - 5th/7,221

I could be mistaken, but I believe these are the only two players to have made the final 27 three times in the post-Moneymaker era. It's a crazy achievement. Ivey would count if you include 2003, though that field was much smaller than 2005 and 2009 when he made two other deep runs.

Mr. Dogface, did you research these or did you know them all off the top of your head? I ask because I didn't do any research.

What about Mike Matusow?
9th in 2005
30th in 2008

plus he cashed in 2019 and 2021

The elephant in the room...if poker is still a viable human activity 500 years from now, the year 2003 will be like 1492 is to us now.

Chris Moneymaker
2003 - 1st/839
2021 - 260th/6,650