"What's the most you've ever won at poker?" — 1) What can "the most" imply: money or some other prizes or both?; 2) Can I remove "the"?

Question

cambridge.org:
(1) What's the most you've ever won at poker?

I can't understand among what the questioner can imply us making a choice.
What does "the most" mean here:
(a) It can mean only money.
(b) It cannot mean money. It means a trip, a car, a house, etc.
(c) It can mean both money and other prizes.

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Also, I would like to ask whether I can remove "the" in (1):
(2) What's most you've ever won at poker?
Is (2) correct?
Does (2) mean the same as (1)?
If not, then why not?

oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com writes "the" can be left out in informal British English when "the most" means as in (1): "the largest in number or amount".
So based on this, (1) and (2) mean the same.
But I need your confirmation to it to be exactly certain.

Answer 1

This is not a matter of English, but a question of how poker games are played. There is nothing in the question that refers explicitly to money, but you may assume that it is asking about money, since poker is normally played for money. People don't (usually) get prizes when they play poker.

In this case "the" is required in British English. It is acceptable to leave out "the" in these examples:

Who ate most?

He has most.

but not in

This is the most money.

Or

What is most?

I think this is because "most money" would be understood as "a majority of money" and not "The largest amount of money". But I think the issue is subtle.