Million Dollar Poker Game
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).
- September 10th, 2007 GAMELOFT TEAMS UP WITH POKER CHAMPION GUS HANSEN FOR MILLION DOLLAR POKER GAME Four Time World Poker Tour Winner Applies Strateg.
- “The million dollar cash game was the biggest cash game I have ever been involved with. They started with roughly $8 million, about a million per person, on the table. And at one point there was.
- Million Dollar Challenge is a poker game show where amateur poker players attempt to defeat celebrities, professional poker players and, eventually, Daniel Negreanu in order to win the show's grand prize, $1 million.
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]
Awake The Million Dollar Game
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.
A one-of-a-kind poker game series where amateur poker players attempt to defeat celebrities and eventually their coach and antagonist, poker legend and TeamPokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu for a chance to win the grand prize of $1,000,000.
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
Million Dollar Hand Game
In this classic moment from the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game, pros Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan battle over what was the largest cash game pot in televised poker history.
Million Dollar Poker Cash Game
Phil Ivey starts the hand with $1.13 million in cash, more than double Tom Dwan’s $538k. Dwan, on the button, draws a 6-7 of hearts, while Ivey draws Ace-2 offsuit. Ivey raised to $23k, and after a fold by the only other man left at the table, Dwan called.
Before the flop, Dwan and Ivey had roughly equal chances of winning, and a flop of J-3-5 gave each player an inside straight draw.
Ivey bet $35k, which Dwan called, and the dealer than turned over the worst possible card for Ivey. (At this moment, the commentators went berserk.) A 4 of hearts gave Dwan the higher straight, and ruined any chance of Ivey lucking into a flush.
Ivey was unknowingly dead, but bet $90k. Dwan raised Ivey another $142k, and Ivey responded by going all in.
Dwan called to make the pot worth a record $1,108,500. After he flipped his winning cards, Ivey coolly responded with a “wow, good hand.”