Poker is one of the most popular casino games in the world, and almost every casino player has an idea of how the game is played. Its popularity has inspired people to set up their poker tables at home to play the game anytime they want. Aside from that, it also encouraged players to play competitively and participate in various tournaments.
In these tournaments, all expert poker players would gather and hope to win a large pool of money at the end of the event. Each participant would prepare endlessly so they can outsmart their opponents on the table. It goes to show that winning a game of poker is no easy feat, and people would train for a long time just to be considered as a veteran.
Despite that, the biggest wins in poker have motivated and inspired a lot of people to improve their gameplay. To give you an idea, here is a poker wins list to get a glimpse of how these remarkable people took home the prize bag:
Sam Trickett – $10,112,001
The fifth person who earned the spot in the biggest poker wins of all time is Sam Trickett. He is an English professional poker player who won $10,112,001 after losing to Antonio Esfandiari in the 2012 World Series of Poker. In this match, Esfandiari and Trickett were going all-in with their bets, and the show of hands was the climax. Trickett’s hand was in a difficult situation, and all he needed was for the river card to be in his favour.
Jamie Gold – $12,000,000
In the 2006 World Series of Poker, the world bowed their heads to the legendary victory of Jamie Gold. In just one night, he was able to change his fate of being a non-professional poker player to the fourth biggest winner in history. With his unorthodox techniques and quirks, Gold got to eliminate 7 of his 8 opponents during the final round! Gold brought home the gold bracelet as well as the staggering money bag worth 12 million dollars.
Elton Tsang – $12,248,912
Chinese-Canadian poker player, Elton Tsang, has made himself known in the world of poker after winning $12,248,912 in the 2016 Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza. This is considered the third-highest payout in poker history, which made Tsang one of the best Asian poker players in the world.
On the night of the tournament against Gurtovoy, Tsang decided to use an aggressive play style to outwit his opponent. With this strategy, Tsang was constantly raising the bet, which put pressure on Gurtovoy. In the end, Tsang’s hand had 6-of-clovers and 5-of-hearts which beat the Q-3-4-2 hand of Gurtovoy.
Daniel Colman – $1,000,000
Before becoming the world’s second-biggest poker winner, Daniel Colman started as a casual casino online player. With the username of ‘mrGR33N13’, the American player created a good online reputation for himself since he joined hyper-turbo tournaments. In just nine months, Colman managed to win a whopping total of $1,000,000.
After years of playing through a small computer screen, Colman decided to try playing live in The Big One for One Drop Tournament in 2014. Little did he know that this was the moment when his life would change forever.
During the game against Daniel Negreanu, Colman made use of his online background and read the playing table correctly. On top of that, Colman decided to use an aggressive playstyle and used his stack advantage against Negreanu. As a result, Negreanu made an overbet that is 3x the pot with a straight on the table.
Antonio Esfandiari
Sitting at the top is Antonio Esfandiari, an Iranian professional poker player who won $18,346,673 in the 2012 World Series of Poker. Going against Trickett, Esfandiari was confident to win that day because he was ‘manifesting it’ as stated in his interviews post-tournament. As he played against 47 other players, Esfandiari kept a cool and levelled head as well as ‘one-time prayers’, which summed up his victory.
Before the record-breaking tournament in 2012, Esfandiari already had experience in winning. This happened in the 2004 Tournament of World Series Poker $2,000 Pot Limit Hold ‘Em, which shows that his total winnings amounted to $23,345,828!
Antonio Esfandiari worked as a performing magician before he started his poker career. The moment he started playing, Esfandiari decided to keep ‘the magician’ as his nickname because of the cheap tricks hidden inside his sleeves.
Biggest poker tournaments in the world
Seeing the different high-rolling payouts motivates you to play better and aspire to become part of poker history in the future. But before that, you need to know the biggest poker tournaments in the world. Watching the games from these events will help improve your play style and let you become a better player.
Check out the list of the biggest poker tournaments in the world below:
World Series of Poker
Experience the luxurious tournament of the famous World Series of Poker held annually in Las Vegas. This worldwide tournament began around 1970 and has since been sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. The company has also been annually hosting a series of poker variants since then. On top of that, poker fans all over the world would travel to Las Vegas just to watch the heart-stopping competitions.
World Poker Tour Championships
Since 2002, people have been dreaming of entering the World Poker Tour Championship because of the coveted prize of becoming a member of the WPT Champions Club. This competition spans for days and a series of games would commence until most players have been eliminated.
World Championship of Online Poker
Aside from live tournaments, the World Championship of Online Poker is the highest online competition for all poker players. This started around 2002 and is sponsored by PokerStars.