For the last eight years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play).
The largest pot in online poker history has been broken once again for the third time in recent week. This time it was a $617,968.50 pot played between Tom Dawn, known better in the poker community but his handle Durrr and his opponent LarsLuzak. The hand ended with Durrr making a sick all in call for his remain $200K with just two pair. In one particular big game last week, the show surpassed its record for the biggest pot in LATB history when a hand went down that resulted in a pot of $438,900 being shipped to a LATB regular. Moments ago, a few lucky railbirds witnessed Patrik Antonius win the largest pot in online poker history. Fresh off his recent battering of Tom 'durrrr” Dwan, mystery Swede 'Isildur1' took to.
The first tournament to reach a million dollar prize pool was the 1983 WSOP Main Event. The WSOP Main Event of 2004 had the first prize pool of above $10,000,000.
The largest non Hold'em Tournament has been the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE with a prize pool of $7,104,000 and the first prize of $1,989,120 going to Scotty Nguyen.[1]
Biggest Poker Pot In History
Below are the 30 largest poker tournaments with respect to the prize pool in United States dollars and not number of entrants. This list includes live and online poker.
Currently, 14 of the 15 largest prize pools in history have been WSOP Main Events. The second largest prize pool outside of the Main Event is the 2012 WSOP event known as The Big One for One Drop, held from July 1–3. It featured a buy-in of US$1 million, the largest in poker history. Of the buy-in, $111,111 was a charitable donation to the One Drop Foundation, and the WSOP took no rake. All 48 seats available for that event were filled, resulting in a prize pool of $42,666,672, with over 5 million dollars donated.[2] The second largest pool for any event outside of the WSOP was the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge, with a HK$2 million (US$260,000) buy-in plus a rebuy option. The event drew a field of 73, of which 21 made a rebuy, resulting in a prize pool of HK$182,360,000 (slightly over US$23.5 million).[3]
All of the 30 richest tournaments to date were played in No Limit Hold'em.
| Event | Prize Pool (US$) | Winner | 1st Prize | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 WSOP Main Event | $82,512,162 | Jamie Gold | $12,000,000 | [4][5] |
| 2019 WSOP Main Event | $80,548,600 | Hossein Ensan | $10,000,000 | [6] |
| 2018 WSOP Main Event | $74,015,600 | John Cynn | $8,800,000 | [7] |
| 2010 WSOP Main Event | $68,799,059 | Jonathan Duhamel | $8,944,310 | [8] |
| 2017 WSOP Main Event | $67,877,400 | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 | [9] |
| 2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million | $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) | Aaron Zang | $16,775,820* (£13,779,491) | [10] |
| 2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million | $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) | Bryn Kenney* | $20,563,324* (£16,775,820) (2nd place) | [10] |
| 2011 WSOP Main Event | $64,531,000 | Pius Heinz | $8,711,956 | [11] |
| 2008 WSOP Main Event | $64,333,600 | Peter Eastgate | $9,152,416 | [12] |
| 2016 WSOP Main Event | $63,327,800 | Qui Nguyen | $8,005,310 | [13] |
| 2014 WSOP Main Event | $62,820,200 | Martin Jacobson | $10,000,000 | [14] |
| 2012 WSOP Main Event | $62,021,200 | Greg Merson | $8,527,982 | [15] |
| 2009 WSOP Main Event | $61,043,600 | Joe Cada | $8,547,042 | [16] |
| 2015 WSOP Main Event | $60,348,000 | Joe McKeehen | $7,680,021 | [17] |
| 2007 WSOP Main Event | $59,784,954 | Jerry Yang | $8,250,000 | [18] |
| 2013 WSOP Main Event | $59,708,800 | Ryan Riess | $8,359,531 | [19] |
| 2005 WSOP Main Event | $52,818,610 | Joe Hachem | $7,500,000 | [20] |
| 2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop | $42,666,672 | Antonio Esfandiari | $18,346,673 | [21] |
| 2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop | $37,333,338 | Dan Colman | $15,306,668 | [22] |
| 2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza | $27,437,564 | Elton Tsang | $12,248,912 | [23] |
| 2019 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship | $26,455,500 | Ramon Colillas | $5,100,000 | [24] |
| 2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop | $24,840,000 | Justin Bonomo | $10,000,000 | [25] |
| 2004 WSOP Main Event | $24,224,400 | Greg Raymer | $5,000,000 | [26] |
| 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller | $23,511,128 | Stanley Choi | $6,465,560 | [27] |
| Super High Roller Bowl 2015 | $21,500,000 | Brian Rast | $7,525,000 | [28] |
| 2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop | $19,316,565 | Fedor Holz | $4,981,775 | [29] |
| 2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller | $17,891,148 | Anthony Gregg | $4,830,619 | [30] |
| Super High Roller Bowl 2017 | $16,800,000 | Christoph Vogelsang | $6,000,000 | [31] |
| 2007 WPT Championship | $15,495,750 | Carlos Mortensen | $3,970,415 | [32] |
| 2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event | $15,376,897 | Niklas Heinecker | $4,456,885 | [33] |
| 2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure | $15,132,000 | Galen Hall | $2,300,000 | [34] |
| * | Due to a prize splitting deal Aaron Zang received £13,779,491 ($16,775,820) for 1st, original payout for 1st was £19,000,000 ($23,100,000). Bryn Kenney received a larger cash prize of £16,775,820 ($20,563,324) for 2nd place. |
Notes[edit]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Dalla, Nolan (June 30, 2012). 'The Biggest One—World's Most Spectacular Poker Extravaganza Starts Sunday'. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
- ^Peters, Donnie (August 31, 2012). 'Stanley Choi Wins Macau High Stakes Challenge for US$6,465,746'. PokerNews.com. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
- ^'2006 WSOP Main Event payouts'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=541550
- ^[1]
- ^wsop.com
- ^http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/payouts.asp?grid=1352&tid=15673
- ^ abhttps://triton-series.com/triton-super-high-roller-series-london-2019/
- ^'PIUS HEINZ WINS 2011 WSOP MAIN EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP'. WSOP. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^'Level 4 concludes: officially the largest main event in the last five years'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^Poker News Daily
- ^pokernews.com
- ^'2009 WSOP main event prize pool'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^'Event #68: No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT'. 2015 World Series op Poker Chip Counts. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^'2013 44th Annual World Series of Poker, Event #62: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 20, 2013. Click on the 'Prizepool' tab for the first prize.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Dalla, Nolan (July 3, 2012). 'Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Amazing Trick by Winning One Drop'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^[2]
- ^[3]
- ^[4]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^[5]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^pokerstarsblog.com
Since the poker boom that started in 2003 the game, and the way it is played, has changed dramatically. Some of the most decorated stars in the game such as 13-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth have been forced to adapt and reinvent their tactics amid the influx of new and exciting talent. The modern game is awash with poker pros raised on an internet diet of fast hands and advanced play, where the pre-flop minimum raise is now standard rather than seen as a donk move. It is only natural that this new generation that like their poker hard and fast have accumulated some impressively high pots in their time. Here, we take a look at three of the biggest pots in online poker history.
Players: Isildur1 v Patrik Antonius
Pot Total: $1,360,000
How it Happened:
In a busy week of poker history, the world record for largest online pot was broken again and again. Indeed, this was not the first time revered professional Patrik Antonius and online legend Isildur1 – or Viktor Blom as he’s known among the day walkers – had broken the record in their intense series of online heads-up encounters.
The game was Omaha and the pre-flop action saw the pot escalate to just over $160,000 before delivering a 4-5-2 rainbow flop. Antonius flopped the low straight with his A-3-K-K whilst Isildur1 had a big wrap with his 6-7-8-9. Antonius led out for $91,000 and Isildur1 re-raised to $435,000. By the time Antonius shoved, Isildur1 was already pot-committed and called as a marginal underdog. A 5 on the turn didn’t help, in fact giving Antonius a draw to the nut flush killing some of Isildur1’s outs, and as a blank river fell the Finn scooped the whole lot.
Players: Trex313 v Patatino
Pot Total: $610,000
Largest Poker Pot In History
How it Happened:
You may not have heard of this pair of online high stakes gamblers but they briefly held the record for largest online cash game pot ever. Also at the table were online legend Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond and Tow ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, but they took a back seat for this $610,000 ride – and the hands in question were really not that special.
It was actually OMGClayAiken that took the early betting lead, raising to $5,000 pre-flop and then leading out for $9,200 on the flop after Hac ‘Trex313’ Dang and Patatino called his original raise. From here, Patatino (rumoured to be Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté) re-raised to $35,000 and Trex313 went on to make it $88,000 at which point OMGClayAiken called it a day. Patatino then went all in and Trex313 called on a T♦ 6♦ 8♣ flop. You could be mistaken for assuming it was a case of set over set, but the actual hands were far inferior. Patatino was holding Q♦ 2♦ for a queen-high flush draw, but remarkably that was enough to make him a firm favourite. Trex313’s J♦ 9♦ left him with just an up and down straight draw, his flush draw now irrelevant. The turn was an offsuit 2, and river was a blank leaving Patatino to net well over half a million dollars in a single pot with bottom pair.
Players: Urindanger v Durrrr
Pot Total: $723,000
How it Happened:
Nowadays most poker enthusiast are familiar with Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan. His unique style, not just his hyper-aggressive play but his general persona and freaky stare down technique, is certainly enough to create a lasting memory. He is never afraid of calling down an opponent lightly if he believes he is in the lead – just take a look at this call with 9-high to see what we mean. Naturally, this has led to Durrrr being involved in some monster pots over the years, and when he locked horns with Di ‘Urindanger’ Dang he entered an unforgettable hand.
In contrast to Durrrr’s maniac style, the hand more or less played itself out. After some pre-flop flirting that saw the pot total $90,000, the rather innocuous-looking 5-9-4 flop quickly saw both players shoving all of their chips onto the green felt. Durrrr showed K-K but ones suspects he may have already known what was awaiting him as his opponent flipped the pocket rockets. The turn and river offered no change to this cooler and Urindanger’s aces earned him nearly three quarters of a million dollars.
