Over the years, poker players and some of the best poker sites made headlines on dozens of occasions. In some cases, the stories covered adverse topics like cheating scandals and similar subjects.
But in other instances, positive stories also get some attention. That includes coverage of major wins, exciting challenges, and of course – new records that have been set.
Over the years, many offline and online poker players, gambling venues, and related events managed to enter the Guinness World Records book, which is not an easy feat to accomplish.
What are the most surprising records broken in recent years? And what are the most interesting stories attached to those records? Let's take a look at some of the most exciting poker Guinness records!
5 Top Online Poker Records
So, what are the best poker-related records players all over the globe have set?
- The largest online poker tournaments – In land-based casinos, there is a limit to how many people can enter the premises simultaneously. That clearly limits the number of players who can participate in scheduled events. Online venues don't have to deal with this issue, and yet, the number of entries in online tournaments don't go over a few thousand at a time. But in 2015, a UK venue broke all previous records, with 253,692 people participating in the same event. After playing 470 hands, an Austrian player waked away with an amazing 10,000 USD prize.
- Most hands played in 8 hours – How many hands do you think you can play in one long online poker session? When taking into account various factors, like the time you'll need to analyze moves, make plans, and take a break – the number won't be very high. But in 2012, a Canadian poker player set his heart on proving you could make a lot of progress in eight short hours. By the end of his gambling session, Randy 'nanonoko' Lew played 14,548 hands. However, the fast pace he kept reduced the quality of his play, and he only managed to make a $20.72 profit by the end of the session.
- The largest prize pool for an online poker tournament - This a record that was broken fairly recently. Most tournaments offer guaranteed prizes worth a few thousand dollars, but between August 16-30, 2020, the prize pool at a prestigious poker event went as high as $27,559,500. In the event, 5,802 ecstatic players competed for the grand prize, which made the event rather popular. The gambling venue that organized the event received the official Guinness award on October 28, and players are waiting for more casinos to try and break this particular record.
- Most poker tables played in one hour – Playing one or two poker games back to back is hard enough, but can you imagine playing at dozens of tables in a short period of time? In 2009, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier from France, a former poker pro, played 62 tables in one hour – and no one was able to beat his record ever since.
- Most poker chips balanced on one finger – While this record has nothing to do with the online poker world, it was too funny to ignore! On July 10, 2020 – Guinness World Records Day – Rocco Mercurio from Italy managed to balance 200 poker chips on one finger. What an unexpected achievement!
In Conclusion
Online poker is always evolving and improving, and while doing so, it breaks records left and right! Which online poker record did you like the most?