Just two days ago, the poker world was met with the public complaint made by Dylan Linde , a prestigious high roller tournament player, against David Peters , another renowned competitor who has accumulated almost US$50 million in cashes. Dylan claims that Peters owes him thousands of dollars in buy-ins since last summer. This once again brought into debate the question of how profitable the life of high roller players truly is.
Many users began to respond to Linde’s post, alluding that it didn’t make much sense for a player with almost US$50 million in cashes to ruin his reputation for less than US$30,000. This opened the door for those who have long maintained, like Mike Mattusow , that high roller players often play at a loss just to participate in prestigious events. However, other players also spoke out against this theory.
User “Topo_G” wrote on his X account, quoting Linde’s original post:
“David Peters has $49.65M in cashes. If this story is true, and I suspect it is, it’s almost proof that all tournament players are broke. Poker was a fun game I found when I was young, I’m glad I got out before it completely swallowed me. ‘Poker Pros’ are messed up.”
Shaun Deeb , who has always taken the opposite stance on this thought, expressed himself on the matter: “While David Peters’ story is sad, I always laugh at all the comments trashing high roller MTT pros. It’s much more likely that their money problems come from big crypto losses rather than bad poker results. There’s much more honesty and wealth generated in MTTs than many realize, more than in any other poker format. I’m sorry, but the truth is if you’re breakeven it’s because you’re bad, not because everyone else is also breakeven or worse.”
Joshua Arieh , one of the most winning MTT players in history, joined the debate and wrote: “I find it comical that, because one MTT player lacks liquidity and cannot pay his debts, now all MTT players are playing at a loss. Today I even read that MTT players earn the same as a McDonald’s employee. I can almost guarantee that David Peters’ financial problems stem from other types of bets/investments and not from his inability to make money playing poker.”
