It’s not everyday where you witness a player take over an all-time record. Players obsess over their Hendon Mob profiles to track their progress as players. The geniuses of the database allow players to claim all sorts of bragging rights: most cashes, most wins, most money from a particular tour or casino.
Spencer Champlin quietly rose to the all-time money leader from Maine ($2,675,603) in a preliminary event a couple weeks ago at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. He tops Matt Woodward by $20,477.
“It feels pretty good,” Champlin said. “It’s been on my radar for a little while and just came to fruition.” He’s picked up three more cashes and final table in the ballroom since and is building for a deep run in the World Poker Tour SHR Poker Showdown Championship on Day 1B.
Champlin earned his way up the leaderboard slowly with an average cash of $7,698, his largest cash is $234,887 and most of his buy-ins are between $400 and $1,600 – what does that tell you?
It means that he’s a grinder’s grinder. “I’ve been doing this for eight years and before that I had desk job,” he said.
“I was playing on the side and did that long enough until I was confident enough that I could make a run at doing this full time and it’s worked out since then,” Champlin added.
Chipping away at a leaderboard like that can grind away at players. Champlin spends more than 40 weeks a year on the road playing.
Woodward still plays and cashed as recently as the 2023 WSOP, but most of his results come from 2007-2018. He and Champlin are the only two players over $2 million, Leonard Cortellino is third with $1.57 million and then it’s a steep drop to Randolph Spain with $553,408 for Maine’s all-time standings.
“I still love it,” he said. “There are definitely emotional and financial swings but after a while you just become adjusted to it. You start to appreciate the freedom it gives you.”
“I try to stay even-keeled and trust the process,” he added. “I know the results will come eventually if I stick to that mindset.”
Champlin’s largest WPT cash came last year. “I came close last year at Choctaw when I bubbled the final table in seventh place,” he said. “To run deep in one is a good feeling and I’m looking improve on that.”
All photos courtesy of World Poker Tour. Lead photo by Joe Giron.
