Patrick Leonard’s Life: Net Worth, Biggest Profits, Losses and Private Life
Patrick Leonard is a British professional poker player, online tournament crusher, staking founder, and poker ambassador. He was born in 1989 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
In online poker, he is best known by the screen name “pads1161”. That name has become one of the most successful in modern MTT history. Leonard has more than $19 million in tracked online tournament earnings, more than $4 million in live tournament earnings, and a record-breaking haul of PokerStars COOP titles.
His net worth is not publicly confirmed. Tournament earnings are not profit, and poker players do not publish full financial records. But between online results, live results, staking, coaching, ambassador work, and business interests, Leonard is clearly one of the most successful British poker players of his generation.
The old version of the Patrick Leonard story was simple: online crusher turns live high roller. The 2026 version is bigger than that. Leonard is now one of the most decorated online tournament players ever, with 16 SCOOP titles, 13 WCOOP titles, and 29 combined PokerStars COOP titles.
Patrick Leonard | Key Facts 2026
| Personal | Poker | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Patrick Leonard, born 1989 | Known online as pads1161 | Co-founder of bitB Staking |
| Newcastle upon Tyne, England | $19M+ tracked online earnings | Coin Poker Ambassador |
| British professional poker player | $4M+ live tournament earnings | Staking, coaching, and poker business interests |
| Former journalism student | 16 SCOOP titles | One of poker’s most active public voices |
| Net worth not publicly confirmed | 13 WCOOP titles | 29 combined PokerStars COOP titles |
Who Is Patrick Leonard?

Patrick Leonard is one of the most successful online tournament players in poker history.
That is not a throwaway line. Online MTT poker is brutal. The fields are huge, the edges are thinner than they used to be, and the best players are fighting across dozens of tables at once. Leonard has stayed relevant through different eras of online poker, from the early PokerStars grind to the modern high-stakes COOP battlefield.
He is also not just a results-page player. Leonard has built a wider poker career around staking, coaching, ambassador work, and public commentary on the state of online poker.
For years, he has been one of the loudest and most honest voices in the game . Sometimes that means strategy. Sometimes it means backing players. Sometimes it means calling out problems in the online ecosystem. Either way, Leonard rarely feels like someone sitting quietly in the corner.
Patrick Leonard Net Worth 2026
Patrick Leonard’s exact net worth is not publicly confirmed.
That is the honest answer. Poker databases show tournament cashes, not profit. They do not show buy-ins, staking deals, swaps, make-up, taxes, coaching income, business equity, sponsorships, or losses.
What we can say is that Leonard has several serious income streams:
- Online tournaments – More than $19 million in tracked online tournament earnings.
- Live tournaments – More than $4 million in live tournament cashes.
- Staking – Leonard co-founded bitB Staking, one of the best-known poker staking groups.
- Ambassador work – He is an ambassador for Coinpoker
- Coaching and player development – bitB has backed and trained profitable poker players over the years.
So while putting a clean number on his net worth would be guesswork, Leonard is clearly a multi-million-dollar poker figure. The important part is that his wealth does not come from one lucky tournament. It comes from long-term performance and building around the game.
What Does Patrick Leonard Do for a Living?
Patrick Leonard makes his living through poker.
That includes playing, staking, coaching, ambassador work, and poker business. He is still best known as an online tournament player, but his career has never been limited to clicking buttons under the screen name “pads1161.”
His poker life can be split into three main areas:
-
- Playing – Leonard plays online tournaments, live high rollers, mixed games, and major festival events.
- Building – Through bitB Staking, he has helped back and develop other poker players.
- Representing – His CoinPoker role gives him another major platform in online poker.
That mix is important. Modern online poker is much harder than it was in the early 2010s. The players who last are usually not just grinding. They are adapting, building networks, creating value, and finding ways to stay ahead while the game keeps changing.
Patrick Leonard’s Online Poker Career
Leonard started playing online poker on PokerStars under the name pads1161.
His first tracked online results date back to 2009, but the real climb started a little later. By the early 2010s, Leonard had become one of the most respected online MTT grinders in the world.
His online results are now massive. He has more than $19 million in tracked online tournament earnings, with major scores across PokerStars, partypoker, GGPoker, and other platforms.
The biggest online score of his career came in 2020 during the pandemic-era online boom. Leonard finished second in the $25,000 WSOP Circuit Online High Roller Championship on GGPoker / Natural8 for $1,611,342.
That result still stands out because seven-figure online scores are rare. Online poker has huge fields, but most events do not produce prizes like that. Leonard got one of the biggest online paydays of the era.
Patrick Leonard’s SCOOP and WCOOP Titles
This is where Leonard’s online legacy gets heavy.
As of 2026, Leonard has won 16 SCOOP titles and 13 WCOOP titles on PokerStars. That gives him 29 combined COOP titles, putting him among the most decorated online tournament players ever.
His 2026 SCOOP was especially ridiculous. Leonard won six SCOOP titles in the same series, across different formats and buy-in levels. That is not normal. That is a man finding every door in the building and kicking them all open.
Patrick Leonard’s PokerStars COOP Record
| Series | Titles | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SCOOP | 16 | Record-setting total, including six titles in 2026 |
| WCOOP | 13 | Major wins across multiple formats |
| Total COOP Titles | 29 | One of the strongest online poker records ever |
The most impressive part is the range. Leonard is not only winning no-limit hold’em events. His record includes mixed games, draw games, PLO8, 8-game, PKO formats, turbo formats, and high rollers.
That matters because online poker has become more specialized. Many players crush one lane. Leonard has kept winning across several of them.
Patrick Leonard’s Live Tournament Career
Leonard’s live tournament results are not as huge as his online record, but they are still very strong.
He has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings, with results in Las Vegas, Europe, high rollers, WSOP events, and PokerGO Tour tournaments.
His first recorded live cash came in 2011, when he finished 47th in a $550 event at the Deep Stack Extravaganza at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
His biggest live score came in 2017, when he won the $10,000 Bellagio Cup for $475,940. That came during a wild Las Vegas heater where he won three major events in just a few days.
In January 2026, Leonard added another major live result by winning a $10,100 PokerGO Tour Last Chance event for $315,000. That win gave him his second PGT title and showed again that his game is not locked inside the online world.
Patrick Leonard’s Biggest Live Tournament Results
| Year | Event | Finish | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Bellagio Cup $10,000 NLH | 1st | $475,940 |
| 2017 | Aria $25,000 High Roller | 1st | $403,200 |
| 2017 | Aria $25,000 High Roller | 1st | $386,400 |
| 2026 | PGT Last Chance $10,100 NLH | 1st | $315,000 |
| 2016 | EPT Barcelona €10,000 High Roller | 7th | €169,700 |
| 2019 | WSOP $3,000 No Limit Hold’em | 4th | $114,347 |
Patrick Leonard and the WSOP
Patrick Leonard is a WSOP bracelet winner.
He won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2022, taking down the $1,000 Tag Team event alongside Espen Jorstad . The victory gave Leonard one of the few major live poker trophies missing from his already stacked online résumé.
Leonard has also recorded multiple WSOP cashes across live and online events, with deep runs in both no-limit hold’em and mixed-game formats.
One of his strongest individual live WSOP results came in 2019, when he finished fourth in a $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $114,347. He also reached another WSOP final table in Omaha Hi-Lo during the same summer.
In recent years, Leonard has continued widening his game beyond online no-limit hold’em. His WSOP schedule has included mixed games and non-hold’em formats, which fits the broader direction of his career and his record across SCOOP and WCOOP events.
With a bracelet already secured, huge online results, and one of the strongest COOP records in poker history, Leonard’s WSOP record now sits as part of a much wider tournament résumé rather than the missing piece it once was.
Patrick Leonard and bitB Staking
In 2016, Leonard co-founded bitB Staking.
That became one of the best-known poker staking groups in the world. The basic idea is simple: the stable backs profitable players, covers buy-ins, provides support and coaching, and then shares in the profits.
In reality, running a good staking group is much more complicated. It requires bankroll management, trust, player selection, coaching, data, discipline, and a strong enough network to survive the swings.
Leonard’s role with bitB is a major reason his poker story is bigger than his own tournament results. He has not only won himself. He has helped build an ecosystem around other players trying to win too.
Patrick Leonard, partypoker, and CoinPoker

Leonard became a partypoker ambassador in 2016 and quickly became one of the site’s most recognizable sponsored professionals.
The partnership made sense. Leonard was already one of the strongest online tournament players in the world, and he was willing to speak publicly about online poker, tournament structures, player experience, and the long-term health of the game. Whether people agreed with him or not, he was rarely afraid to share an opinion.
Following his time with partypoker, Leonard later joined CoinPoker as an ambassador. The cryptocurrency-based poker platform has become one of the more active operators in the online poker space, particularly among high-stakes players, and Leonard has been heavily involved in promoting the site and its tournament offerings.
Across both partnerships, Leonard has built a reputation as more than just a sponsored pro. He has remained an active player, coach, backer, and industry voice while continuing to compete at the highest levels of online poker.
The Barcelona Angle-Shooting Controversy
One of the most debated moments in Leonard’s live career came at the 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona Main Event.
In a hand against Luigi Andrea Shehadeh, Leonard said words to the effect of “you’ve got it, nice hand” while facing a river bet. He did not actually fold. Because those words were not binding, the hand continued.
Many people in the poker community felt it was angle shooting. The criticism was that Leonard made it sound like he had folded in order to get a reaction from his opponent.
Leonard later responded, saying he was using speech play and trying to make the hand more interesting during a slow stage of the tournament. He also said he was not trying to trick Shehadeh into exposing his cards.
The moment remains part of Leonard’s public poker story. It did not define his career, but it is still worth including because it was one of the few major controversies attached to him.
Is Patrick Leonard a Cash Game Player?
Patrick Leonard is mainly known as a tournament player.
His public record is built almost entirely around online MTTs and live tournaments. He has not built his reputation through televised cash games or public nosebleed cash-game sessions in the way some other poker names have.
That does not mean he never plays cash. It just means his documented poker legacy is tournament-based. Online tournaments made his name, COOP titles strengthened it, and live high roller results added the extra layer.
Patrick Leonard Career Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1989 | Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| 2009 | Begins recording online tournament results under the name pads1161 |
| 2011 | Records first live tournament cash in Las Vegas |
| 2016 | Becomes a partypoker ambassador and co-founds bitB Staking |
| 2017 | Wins three major Las Vegas events in a short span, including the Bellagio Cup |
| 2020 | Finishes second in the $25K WSOP Circuit Online High Roller for $1.61M |
| 2021 | Wins two SCOOP titles in two days on PokerStars |
| 2023 | Adds more major COOP titles and strengthens his all-time online record |
| 2025 | Continues adding SCOOP titles and WSOP cashes |
| 2026 | Wins six SCOOP titles and reaches 29 combined SCOOP/WCOOP titles |
What Is Patrick Leonard’s Legacy?

Patrick Leonard’s legacy is already secure in online poker.
There are players with bigger live tournament headlines. There are players with bracelets. There are players who became more famous to casual fans. But in the online MTT world, Leonard is one of the names that serious players know immediately.
The record speaks for itself: massive tracked online earnings, 29 combined PokerStars COOP titles, huge scores, high roller wins, and long-term relevance in a game that burns people out quickly.
The bigger point is that Leonard has adapted. He came through as an online no-limit hold’em crusher, then built into a broader player, businessman, backer, and voice in the game. That is why his profile still matters in 2026.
The bracelet is no longer missing, and the career around it is one of the strongest online tournament resumes poker has seen.
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