Barny Boatman: Two-Time WSOP Bracelet Winner and EPT Paris Champion
POKER HALL OF FAME
Inducted 2014
Barny Boatman is a British professional poker player, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and European Poker Tour Main Event champion whose career has spanned several eras of modern tournament poker.
One of the four original members of the Hendon Mob, Boatman became a familiar figure in British poker before the global poker boom and remained competitive long after the game developed into an international tournament industry. His biggest victory came in 2024, when he won the €5,300 EPT Paris Main Event for €1,287,800 and became the oldest EPT Main Event champion in tour history.
As of September 5, 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Barny Boatman with $5,789,346 in recorded live tournament earnings. His record includes two WSOP bracelets, an EPT Main Event title and results across no-limit hold'em, Omaha, mixed games and other formats.
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Who Is Barny Boatman?
Barny Boatman is an English poker player from London and one of the best-known members of the generation that helped establish professional poker as a recognizable part of British popular culture.
The World Series of Poker has listed London as his birthplace, while The Hendon Mob lists his residence as Hendon, England. Before poker became his primary competitive pursuit, Boatman worked in several fields, including journalism.
His connection to poker became especially important during the 1990s. Boatman, his younger brother Ross Boatman, Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani began playing and traveling together in the British poker scene. The group became known as the Hendon Mob, a name that eventually became closely associated with both the players and the tournament-results database that grew into one of poker's most widely used statistical resources.
Boatman also appeared on Late Night Poker, the British television program that helped introduce viewers to a more intimate form of televised poker before the worldwide poker boom of the 2000s. His involvement included appearances as both a player and commentator.
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Barny Boatman and the Hendon Mob
The original Hendon Mob consisted of Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman, Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani.
The four players developed their reputation through London's poker scene, international tournament travel and television appearances. Their personalities and results made them recognizable at a time when relatively few European poker players had become widely known outside casino cardrooms.
The Hendon Mob name later became even more significant because of the tournament database associated with it. The database tracks live poker results from around the world and remains one of the primary public resources for researching player earnings and tournament histories.
Boatman's place in the group is therefore part of a broader poker legacy. He was not simply a successful tournament player carrying the Hendon Mob name; he belonged to a group that helped build an identifiable British poker culture before poker television, online qualifiers and large international tournament tours dramatically expanded the game's audience.
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Barny Boatman's First WSOP Bracelet
Boatman had already accumulated years of tournament experience and numerous World Series of Poker cashes before finally winning his first bracelet in 2013.
The breakthrough came in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2013 WSOP. The tournament attracted 2,247 entries and generated a prize pool of more than $3 million.
Boatman defeated Brian O'Donoghue heads-up to win the bracelet and $546,080.
The victory carried additional significance because Boatman had previously come close to winning at the WSOP without finishing the job. His first recorded WSOP cash dated to 2000, and he had reached multiple final tables before the 2013 breakthrough.
The win established Boatman as a WSOP champion after more than a decade of competing at the series.
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How Many WSOP Bracelets Does Barny Boatman Have?
Barny Boatman has two World Series of Poker bracelets.
According to the World Series of Poker player database, Boatman has two bracelets and no WSOP Circuit rings.
His bracelet victories are:
2013 — $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas
2015 — €550 Pot-Limit Omaha at WSOP Europe in Berlin
The second bracelet demonstrated the range in Boatman's tournament game. Rather than winning another no-limit hold'em event, he captured a Pot-Limit Omaha title at the 2015 WSOP Europe.
Boatman defeated Grzegorz Grochulski heads-up in that tournament and earned €54,725. Shannon Shorr finished third.
His results across hold'em, Omaha and mixed-game tournaments have reinforced his reputation as an all-around player rather than a specialist in a single format.
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Boatman's Near Misses and Major Tournament Results
Boatman's tournament résumé includes several significant finishes outside his bracelet victories.
In 2011, he reached the final table of the EPT San Remo Main Event and finished fourth for €225,000. At the time, it represented one of the largest scores of his career.
He made another major WSOP run in 2015, finishing third in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $204,464.
Later in his career, Boatman continued producing deep runs against large international fields. In 2022, he finished third in the WSOP $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha event and later placed seventh in the €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event.
Those results provided evidence that his tournament career remained competitive well beyond the period when the Hendon Mob first became prominent.
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Barny Boatman Wins the 2024 EPT Paris Main Event
Boatman's defining tournament victory came at the 2024 European Poker Tour Paris festival.
The €5,300 EPT Main Event attracted 1,747 entries and produced a prize pool of €8,385,600. Boatman navigated the six-day tournament before defeating Germany's David Kaufmann heads-up for the championship.
The victory earned Boatman €1,287,800.
It was the first seven-figure tournament score of his career and, when converted to U.S. dollars for tournament-database purposes, remains his largest recorded live cash.
Boatman was 68 when he won the title, making him the oldest EPT Main Event champion in the tour's history.
The significance of the result extended beyond the prize money. The European Poker Tour has produced generations of elite international players since its launch in 2004. Boatman's victory came approximately a quarter-century after his earliest recorded live tournament results and demonstrated unusual competitive longevity.
He defeated a final table that included Aleksejs Ponakovs, Eric Afriat, Peter Jorgne and eventual runner-up Kaufmann.
The title also completed a notable collection of major achievements for Boatman: WSOP success in both Las Vegas and Europe combined with victory in one of the European Poker Tour's flagship Main Events.
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PokerStars Team Pro and Departure
Shortly after winning EPT Paris, Boatman's career entered another chapter.
PokerStars announced in March 2024 that Boatman had joined Team PokerStars Pro. The partnership connected one of British poker's early television-era personalities with the brand most closely associated with the modern European Poker Tour.
Boatman remained a PokerStars ambassador for a little more than a year.
In July 2025, he announced that he was no longer a member of Team PokerStars. His departure ended the sponsorship relationship but did not signal the end of his playing career.
Tournament results since then show that Boatman has remained active.
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Is Barny Boatman Still Playing Poker?
Yes. Barny Boatman remains active in live tournament poker.
His recorded 2026 results include cashes in England, Ireland, Spain and France across several poker formats.
Boatman finished third in a £1,000 seven-max high roller during the 2026 PartyPoker Tour Manchester festival and also won a Crazy Pineapple bounty event at the same series.
His August 2026 trip to EPT Barcelona produced four recorded cashes in approximately one week:
182nd in the €5,300 EPT Main Event for €11,400
Fifth in a €1,050 No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo hyper turbo for €5,380
20th in a €1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha event for €2,420
Ninth in a €1,100 8-Game event for €1,950
Those results are particularly representative of Boatman's career. Even decades after establishing himself as a professional, he continues playing both major no-limit hold'em tournaments and specialist formats including Omaha and mixed games.
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How Much Has Barny Boatman Won in Poker?
As of September 5, 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Barny Boatman with $5,789,346 in live tournament earnings.
Tournament earnings change whenever a player records another qualifying result, so that total should be treated as a snapshot rather than a permanent career figure.
The Hendon Mob lists his largest live cash as $1,388,059, the converted value assigned to his €1,287,800 victory in the 2024 EPT Paris Main Event.
His other major scores include the $546,080 he earned for his first WSOP bracelet in 2013 and €225,000 for finishing fourth in the 2011 EPT San Remo Main Event.
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What Type of Poker Does Barny Boatman Play?
Boatman's tournament history shows considerable variety.
No-limit hold'em has produced some of his biggest results, including his first WSOP bracelet and EPT Paris championship, but he has also achieved notable success in Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, mixed games and stud variants.
His second WSOP bracelet came in Pot-Limit Omaha, and his later tournament schedule continued to include Omaha and mixed-game events.
That versatility has been a recurring characteristic of Boatman's career. He developed during an era when accomplished European professionals commonly competed across multiple poker disciplines rather than concentrating almost exclusively on no-limit hold'em.
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Why Barny Boatman Matters in Poker
Barny Boatman's significance is built on more than tournament winnings.
He belongs to a generation that helped move British poker from casino cardrooms into television and, eventually, a much larger international audience. The Hendon Mob became part of poker culture before its database became an essential reference point for following tournament results.
Boatman then added tournament accomplishments that gave his career lasting competitive credibility.
Two WSOP bracelets would represent a substantial career on their own. Winning an EPT Main Event at 68, more than two decades after his first WSOP cash, added another dimension to his record.
His continued results through 2026 also make it inaccurate to view Boatman only as a historical figure from poker's earlier television era. He remains an active tournament player competing across multiple poker formats and international festivals.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many WSOP bracelets does Barny Boatman have?
Barny Boatman has two World Series of Poker bracelets. He won his first in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event in 2013 and his second in a €550 Pot-Limit Omaha event at WSOP Europe in 2015.
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Did Barny Boatman win an EPT Main Event?
Yes. Boatman won the €5,300 EPT Paris Main Event in February 2024. He defeated a field of 1,747 entries and earned €1,287,800.
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Is Barny Boatman the oldest EPT Main Event champion?
Yes. Boatman was 68 when he won EPT Paris in 2024, making him the oldest Main Event champion in European Poker Tour history.
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How much has Barny Boatman won in live poker tournaments?
As of September 5, 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Boatman with $5,789,346 in live tournament earnings. The figure can change as additional results are recorded.
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What is Barny Boatman's biggest poker win?
Boatman's largest tournament victory came in the 2024 EPT Paris Main Event. He earned €1,287,800, which The Hendon Mob records as a $1,388,059 live cash after currency conversion.
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Is Barny Boatman a member of the Hendon Mob?
Yes. Barny Boatman is one of the four original Hendon Mob members alongside Ross Boatman, Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani.
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Does Barny Boatman have any WSOP Circuit rings?
No. The World Series of Poker currently lists Boatman with two WSOP bracelets and zero Circuit rings.
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Was Barny Boatman a PokerStars Team Pro?
Yes. PokerStars announced Boatman as a Team Pro in March 2024 following his EPT Paris victory. He announced his departure from PokerStars in July 2025.
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Is Barny Boatman still active in poker?
Yes. Boatman's tournament record includes multiple live cashes during 2026, including results at EPT Barcelona and the PartyPoker Tour Manchester.
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What poker games does Barny Boatman play?
Boatman has recorded tournament success in no-limit hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, stud and mixed-game formats. His two WSOP bracelets came in no-limit hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha.