Jeremy Ausmus Reveals Real Poker Numbers: $16M in Buy-Ins, $23M in Cashes, 43% ROI

Jeremy Ausmus Opens Up His Personal Poker Ledger

How much do elite professional poker players really earn? Jeremy Ausmus recently unveiled his own live tournament database, showcasing figures that go beyond what public records like the Hendon Mob display. His data includes buy-ins, ROI, and insights into where he believes professionals truly have an edge.

Tournament results of professional players are public, but they often paint an inaccurate picture of actual earnings from poker. While the Hendon Mob database might show millions in cashes, it doesn't reveal the millions spent on buy-ins, sold percentages, swaps, cash game outcomes, or online results. Ausmus decided to share some of his personal data, which he has tracked since 2011. The result is a look at over a decade of his live no-limit hold'em tournaments.

The numbers are significant enough to highlight the disparity between public perception and the economics of a professional career. Ausmus starts with a simple question: how much do professional poker players really make? There is no straightforward answer. It depends on stakes, format, game quality, and whether the player spends most of their time in cash games or tournaments. Public databases mainly focus on tournament cashes and say nothing about the number of entries required to achieve them.

"Common databases show only one side of the story," Ausmus notes when discussing Hendon Mob. Public figures also omit cash game results and significant portions of online careers. Instead of simply looking at lifetime winnings, he opened his spreadsheet and shared an honest view with fans.

1,434 Entries and Approximately $16 Million in Buy-Ins

Ausmus has been tracking his live no-limit tournaments since 2011. Before this, he played significantly more online, and in the early years of the database, he was primarily a cash game player. Over the tracked period, he accumulated 1,434 tournament entries. The total value of his buy-ins reached approximately $16 million, while cashes edged just below $23 million. The difference in his database is around $7 million, with a classic ROI of about 43%. In other words, based on recorded tournament results, he saw approximately $143 returned for every $100 invested.

The average buy-in over the entire period was about $11,100, reflecting a mix of regular events and tournaments where Ausmus regularly competes against the world's best players. This is where his analysis becomes more interesting than the sheer seven-figure number.

Classic ROI, he notes, has a major weakness: it can be hugely skewed by a single big cash at high stakes or a series of failures in the most expensive events. Thus, Ausmus also tracks a metric he calls return on entries. Instead of calculating money, it converts results into the number of buy-ins won. In his case, this amounts to approximately 1,055 winning buy-ins from 1,434 entries, equaling nearly 74% return on entries.

The logic echoes that of a cash game player who tracks not just dollars earned but win rate in big blinds. If someone mixes $1/$2 and $5/$10, the dollar outcome will be disproportionately influenced by the higher-stakes game. The number of big blinds won reveals more about a player's proficiency across stakes.

Ausmus's numbers reveal another insight: the lower the stakes, the better his results in terms of buy-ins. In the largest and toughest tournaments, his edge naturally decreases.

High Stakes Did Not Start with a Winning Streak

The career graph also highlights something that result databases can easily obscure. When Ausmus transitioned more prominently to high-stakes tournaments around 2020, the initial phase didn't look ideal. The first year or two went poorly until strong subsequent years significantly boosted his curve. This is a reminder of what a sample size means in tournament poker.

Over 1,400 live entries may seem vast, but for an online grinder, it still constitutes a relatively small sample. In live poker, it's not realistic to reach 5,000 or 10,000 tournaments in the same way as online.

Another metric in his database shows an approximately 18% ITM. However, Ausmus attributes less weight to it compared to recreational players. The reason is simple. A player might cash frequently but play in a style that seldom allows building a stack necessary to attack top finishes. Conversely, a more aggressive player could have numerous busts, but a few deep runs can create a much better financial outcome.

He cites Shaun Deeb as an example, who during one WSOP summer, cashed a minor percentage of his entries, but thanks to a first, a second place, and another significant deep run, he ended up in profit. Therefore, the cash percentage alone may not say much about who the most profitable tournament player is.

Seven Million Does Not Mean Seven Million in the Pocket

The biggest figure comes with the most crucial warning. The gap between approximately $16 million in buy-ins and $23 million in cashes is not Jeremy Ausmus's precise personal profit. In large tournaments, he sells portions of his action and makes swaps with other players. When a huge cash occurs, part of the winnings goes to investors or players with whom he swapped percentages.

Ausmus says that his actual personal profit from live NLHE tournaments is likely lower than the table figure. Moreover, cash games, PLO, mixed games, and much of his online career aren't accounted for. This detail best illustrates why a professional's lifetime cashes aren't simply equivalent to their poker earnings.

Ausmus does not claim that his numbers make him the best player in the world. He himself notes that he doesn't travel to every Triton or seek the toughest possible line-ups at every opportunity. Yet, he rejects the notion that everything can be explained solely by run-good. His past results online and in live cash games consistently kept him ahead of the competition.

The combination of buy-ins, cashes, varying stakes, and results progression offers a more comprehensive picture than a single number on Hendon Mob. In his video, Ausmus goes even further — explaining why he views return on entries as one of the best metrics for tournament professionals, how he reads his own results curve, and where he believes the biggest difference arises between average ROI and real edge in specific tournaments.