Chance Kornuth

Chance Kornuth is an American professional poker player born on June 24, 1986 from Las Vegas, Nevada. A three-time World Series of Poker bracelet holder and winner of the 2016 European Poker Tour High Roller. Also, he is the founder of “ChipLeader Coaching”. The company teaches mid-stakes pros to enhance their MTT, or Multi-table tournaments skills and cash games.

Chance Kornuth Early Life

He was born in Colorado and grew up with his brother named Adam. Adam was a great influence in his poker career as they played poker together online. His brother decided to stop playing yet Chance still continued with it. 

He was on the verge of completing his engineering degree at the University of Colorado, with just one semester left, when he made the decision to drop out. This choice led him to pursue a serious career in poker, where he started earning a substantial income.

Online poker was his first platform. Kornuth had cashed millions, increased his bankroll with Full Tilt and PokerStars. Yet until 2018, he decided to change his focus from online to live tournaments.

Chance Kornuth Poker Career

Chance played online from 2006 to December 2018 under several nicknames. ChaneCU for PokerStars and Chances Cards for Full Tilt Poker. He holds second place in the GPI ranking according to TheHendonMob.

His first live tournament was at the 2008 DeepStack Extravaganza III, Las Vegas at the $500 + 40 NLHE among 444 entries. He ranked 5th for $12,000. A few months later, he joined the Bellagio Weekly Tournaments and won a total of $48,890 for three events.  

Here are some of his best cashes so far: 

He claimed his first ever WSOP bracelet in 2010’ $5,000  Pot Limit Omaha Event #50 for $508,090. Chance actively participated in tournaments across the United States in the early 2010s mostly in Las Vegas. Furthermore, he won the $10,000 + 300 NLHE at the Belagio Cup for $526,224 among 175 entrants. 

In 2016, , Chance Kornuth won the $25,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions for $547,873. Next Kornuth was a a runner up in the EPT Dublin Main Event and cashed $407,405. Followed by a $394,991 win at the 10,000 + 300 NLHE – High Roller #2

Kornuth Continued to travel and play poker, bagging cashes in Spain, Bahamas, Australia and Canada.

In 2023, he had an impressive run in various World Series of Poker (WSOP) events. He secured a runner-up position in WSOP Event #2, the $25,000 NLHE, earning over $750,000. He also ranked fourth in Event #29, the $100,000 High Roller, where he pocketed more than $830,000. A few days later, he claimed fifth place in the $250,000 Super High Roller, adding more than $1,200,000 to his winnings. On his birthday, he cashed in for an additional $530,000, and he continued his success with payouts of $108,443 and $161,585 at the WSOP. In total, Kornuth amassed an impressive sum of over $3,000,000 in earnings during the first six months of 2023.

Chance Kornuth as a Poker Coach

As the founder and main instructor of Chip Leader Coaching, he is passionate about teaching and poker. He admitted before that he wanted to teach math to students and excitedly shared that he is proud of his students. Especially when they have evolved their poker playing skills to the next level and gain financial rewards. This is evident by Alex Foxen‘s poker journey.

Conclusion

Chance Kornuth is one of the most successful professional poker players today. With three WSOP bracelets, a WPT championship, an EPT victory, and a business that supports his love of poker and teaching. He still travels and cashes into different tournaments. 

Currently, he ranked second place in the Global Poker Index ranking according to TheHendonMob. Also, as per writing, ranked 65th in the All TIme Money List.