Poker is the indisputable king of card games which has been around since the early 1800s and come a long way to earn the status it holds today. Fast forward two centuries, and we can witness the most skillful gamblers competing for millions of dollars in the international arena, or try to win mind-blowing cash prizes ourselves at different tables at GG.Bet Casino without even leaving home.
Even though this is a game of skill, the element of luck is also involved, so you never know when fortune will favor you. This is what happened to the players from our list, whose poker hands brought them multi-million wins. Let’s learn the stories of these fortunate souls.
1. Antonio Esfandiari: $18.3 Million
Antonio Esfandiari is an Iranian-born star aptly known as ‘The Magician’ due to his dazzling tricks with poker chips. At The Big One for One Drop event in 2012, Antonio put the gambling world into a tizzy with his greatest trick when he managed to pocket the largest ever single tournament prize of a staggering $18,346,673. To get to the throne, Esfandiari had to beat 47 other millionaire players, and his $1,000,000 investment paid off 18 times when he vanquished Sam Trickett with three of a kind (5-5-5-7-J) in his hand.
2. Aaron Zang: $16.7 Million
Aaron Zang is a Chinese high-stakes player who found his passion for poker while being a student and placing stakes at an online casino site. In 2007, Aaron started his professional poker career and participated in numerous live tournaments before he took home an overwhelming $16,775,820 for winning the 2019 Triton Million for Charity with £1,050,000 buy-ins. Zang secured victory on a 54-player field and defeated Bryn Kenney on the final hand when his modest pocket 8 made a pair on the flop.
Despite finishing second, Bryn Kenney received a stunning $20,563,324, as the players initially agreed to split a huge £54 million prize pool. Thus, Kenney got its bigger part since he had a larger stack than his opponent.
3. Daniel Colman: $15.3 Million
This is another online poker wizard who decided to bring his skill to the actual tables, and rightly so! In June 2014, the US player won The Big One for One Drop event with $1,000,000 buy-ins and pocketed the jaw-dropping $15,306,668. Colman overcame 40 other professional players and then defeated the poker star Daniel Negreanu heads-up. On the final hand, his K-Q offsuit turned into a straight (10-J-Q-K-A), making Dan $15.3 million richer. Negreanu took home a consolation prize of $8.2 million, which is pretty impressive in itself.
4. Elton Tsang: $12.2 Million
Elton Tsang is a professional player from Hong Kong who is widely regarded as one of the most prominent Asian poker stars particularly because of his enormous win at the Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza in 2016. The $1,000,000 buy-in is always expected to yield big cash rewards, and that’s what happened to Elton.
On the way to victory, he defeated 25 other professionals, including Anatoly Gurtovoy during the heads-up game, and got one of largest payouts in poker history – $12,248,912. Although both players had a straight on the turn, Tsang beat his opponent with higher cards (2-3-4-5-6 vs. A-2-3-4-5).
5. Jamie Gold: $12 Million
Jamie Gold is an American TV producer who managed to win $12,000,000 while playing poker for fun at the WSOP Main Event in 2006. It was the largest live poker competition ever with 8,773 entrants purchasing buy-ins for $10,000. This resulted in the biggest prize pool in the game’s history – $82.5 million – which was distributed among the 873 best players, with the highest winning amount of $12,000,000.
On the epic final hand, the Gold’s Q-9 offsuit brought him a pair of Queens on the Q-8-5 flop, while his opponent Paul Wasicka had pocket tens, and neither the Ace nor 4 dealt afterwards changed the situation. Wasicka came in second and went home with $6.1 million.
Ranking Chart of Poker Hands
| Rank | Hand | Description | Probability | Combinations |
| 1 | Royal flush | Made out of 5 highest cards of the same suit: 10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace. | 30.9 to 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Straight flush | 5 cards of the same suit presented in a row (e.g. 5-6-7-8-9). | 3.4 to 1 | 36 |
| 3 | Four of a kind | Four identical cards of different suits (e.g. 7-7-7-7). | 594 to 1 | 624 |
| 4 | Full house | Three of a kind and a pair (e.g. K-K-K-Q-Q). | 37.5 to 1 | 3,744 |
| 5 | Flush | 5 random cards of the same suit (e.g. 3-8-J-7-10 of hearts). | 32.1 to 1 | 5,108 |
| 6 | Straight | 5 cards of different suits presented in numeric order (e.g. 4 of diamonds-5 of hearts-6 of spades-7 of clubs-8 of spades). | 20.6 to 1 | 10,200 |
| 7 | Three of a kind | Three identical cards of different suits (e.g. Q-Q-Q). | 19.7 to 1 | 54,912 |
| 8 | Two pairs | Two different pairs of the same card (e.g. K-K-10-10). | 3.2 to 1 | 123,552 |
| 9 | One pair | One pair of the same card (e.g. 8-8). | 1.2 to 1 | 1,098,240 |
| 10 | High card | The highest card in a hand without any matching cards. | 1 to 1 | 1,302,540 |
