A lot has happened throughout online poker history that has spanned over two decades. It has reached high highs and very low lows with the black Friday scandal being arguably Poker’s lowest ebb in its history that has spanned over two decades.
The online poker world has been making strides to recover from that time and over the years online poker tournaments have seen players win huge pots.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the biggest online poker pots played and won in poker history of online poker games.
Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom vs. Patrik Antonius ($878,959) (2009)
Patrick Antonius and Viktor Blom used to like playing outrageously big PLO pots on Full Tilt Poker. This $878,959 hand was no exception as he beat the Finnish pro.
Isildur, as usual, opened to $3,000 on the button at $500/$1,000 stakes. They saw a flip of 5 7 Q, and Isildur raised to $5,000 before his opponent raised to $21,000. Isildur made the decision. The A was the turn, and the action quickly heated up. Antonius bet $48,000, which Isildur raised to $192,000 before Antonius folded for a total of $416,000 dollars.
Both players held the top two-pair (A-Q), but Antonius also had a gut-shot straight (6-9) and the nut flush draw. Isildur’s only option was to chop the hand, but it didn’t work out as the off-suit 8 dropped on the river, giving Antonius a straight.
Ali Imsirovic vs. Tan Xuan ($974,631) (2020)
During the summer WSOP Online Bracelet Series, GGPoker and its sister site, Natural8, hosted some of the largest pots in online poker history. In August, the up-and-coming poker network featured the biggest No-Limit Hold’em pot ever witnessed on the internet.
Ali Imsirovic, one of the game’s best young players, took advantage of a lucky river card to win a $974,631 pot. The stakes were ridiculously high – $500/$1,000 with a $200 ante. Imsirovic three-bet before the flip with A-K, and Xhuan called with a suited 9-7. The flop resulted with a 5-5-9. Imsirovic refused to fold his ace-high when Xuan raised the check to $53,700 from the $15,425 continuation bet.
Imsirovic called off another $101,046 when the jack of spades on the turn gave him a flush draw and two over-cards. He destroyed that flush on the river (8), and Xuan shipped all-in for $309,719.
Phil Ivey vs. Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom ($1,127,955) (2009)
One thing about this hand is that we don’t know what Phil Ivey had because he never showed his cards.
Still, Ivey was most certainly holding a complete house of some kind as he paid out a succession of bets on a KJJ105 board, only to lose the pot to Isildur1’s king’s full.
This pot became very swollen, and looking by it, you’d assume Blom murdered Ivey for millions of dollars.
The reality is that Ivey defeated Blom for a lot of money and made more than $20 million during his stint at poker’s most famous online site.
Patrik Antonius vs. Viktor ‘Isildur1’ ($1,375,999) (2009)
The iconic “Isildur1,” Viktor Blom, played numerous massive pots with full tilt poker, but none greater than the hand above against the great Patrik Antonius in 2009.
“Isildur1” started the Pot-Limit Omaha pot at $500/$1,000 stakes with a typical pot-sized raise to $3,000 from the button. The three-bet ($9,000), four-bet ($27,000), and five-bet ($81,000) followed. They bet on the flip, which came up 4-5-2. Antonius upped the pot to $435,000 after leading for $91,000, leaving $162,475 behind. Antonius went all-in and was called.
Blom displayed 6-7-8-9 (open-ended straight draw), whereas Antonius flopped A-3-K-K. (made straight). The board ran out 5-9, leaving Antonius with a clean hand and the $1,375,999 pot.
Antanas “TonyG” Guoga vs. Leon “Tsoukernik” Tsoukernik (2022)
The majority of the pots on this list were won by professional poker players, however the second largest online poker pot of all time was won by two businessmen.
The famed Tony G participated in a large PLO game with the likes of Rob Yong and Leon Tsoukernik, with stakes similar to those seen in live games.
The game took place at Coin Poker, a crypto poker site where all games are played in digital money and the action moves quickly.
Both players are known for their extremely aggressive approach to the game, so it’s no surprise that more than $1.8 million was placed in the middle before the flop.
Tony ended up flipping a flush draw, but thankfully for the proprietor of the famed Kings Casino in Rozvadov, the turn and river provided little assistance.
Both are renowned for their lax approach to money and a pleasant, if competitive, manner at the tables, so they probably split the pot and a few laughs.
HannibalGetya vs. Antanas “TonyG” Guoga (2022)
Except for the one TonyG split with Leon, combining all of the above listed pots would provide just slightly more than this single largest online poker pot of all time.
Poker aficionados witnessed TonyG in real-time playing an unbelievable $5,000/10,000 PLO game with $2,000 antes at Coin Poker, stakes never seen before online.
Not only were the stakes huge, but Tony and his two opponents were seated with millions of dollars on the table when this remarkable poker hand occurred.
During a pre-flop raising fight amongst the three, the pot was already $448,000 when the flip of AQ10 was given, resulting in a lot of activity.
TonyG was the only one to call HannibalGetya’s $225,000 opening stake. Another heart in the shape of an 8 landed on the turn, allowing for two flush draws.
Tony’s adversary bet the entire amount, which Guoga swiftly upped to $3.42 million. HannibalGetya called the shove, and the 4 struck the river to win the largest online poker pot ever.
This card plainly had no effect on either player.
Tony’s opponent, on the other hand, held A4Q3 for a flopped two-pair and nut flush draw, a very good hand in its own right.
Despite the fact that Tony faded quite a few outs on this river, he ended up winning the greatest pot in poker history, and most certainly the biggest pot of his personal poker career.
