Many people out there dream about winning a million dollar prize in a poker game, but a look at the record of poker tournaments over the years reveals that many players have actually won much bigger prize money from the game.
Hence, the World Championship of Online Poker is the biggest poker tournament of this kind played on the Internet. Back in 2005, fifteen different WCOOP events generated more than $12 million in prize pool which made the WCOOP not only the biggest online poker tournament ever held, but also the third biggest poker tournament live or online ever. Esfandiari's biggest ever win came in 2012, when he won the 'Big One for One Drop' tournament at the WSOP. This saw him win a massive $18,346,673 – at the time, the largest ever live poker prize.
Has the thought of winning $5 million… $10 million… or even $18 million in one poker tournament ever crossed your mind? The simple truth is that such huge poker wins are actually possible.
The $10,000 Main Event in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been the largest poker tournament for the past 10 years and within these years, some of the biggest poker tournament winners have emerged from this tournament.
Most poker tournaments are held online these days. NewCasinosUK.com has hundreds of brand new casino sites which hold regular tournaments where players can enter and win some serious cash in the process.
Biggest Online Poker Tournament Winners Odds
When you get online, you'll realize that the biggest web based poker win ever was in the main event of the 2010 _Online Poker World Championship _(WCOOP). The tournament was hosted by PokerStars and had a buy-in of $5,200. Up to 2,443 players took part in it, and it garnered a prize pool of $12.22 million. At the end of the day, Tyson 'POTTERPOKER' Marks won the first prize of $2.3 million.
It's good to note that 12 of the 15 biggest poker wins are from the Main Event of the World Series Poker. Below, we're going to take you through the 5 biggest poker wins of all time, in regards to the prize money for first place.
5. 2014 WSOP Main Event
The 2014 tournament kicked off on the 5th of July and ran till the 14th. However, in November, the final 9 players came back to slug it out for the grand prize. The event involved a field of 6,683 at the beginning, with a pool of $62.8 million. But at the end, the grand prize was won by the Swedish poker player named Martin Jacobson. He went home with a cool $10 million and a bracelet. The second place was taken by Felix Stephensen, and he went home with $5.15 million.
4. 2006 WSOP Main Event
Of course, the main event of the 2006 World Series Poker is reputed as the largest tournament the world of poker has ever witnessed. This is because it had a total number of 8,773 entrants and an amazingly huge pool of up to $82,512,162. The number of players involved necessitated four different starting days. From the four groups, it was stripped down to two, and later to one, before getting to the final table with nine players on august 8.
The championship was won by Jamie Gold on the 10th of August, landing $12 million as the prize money. The second place was taken by Paul Wasicka and he won $6.1 million. From day four, Gold had a good chip lead, taking out 7 opponents out of the 8 at the final table. Before the final game, he was the clear chip leader and to knock out Paul and head home with his tens, he applied the Q-9 and table talk.
The Big 3
The 3 largest events in poker were never part of the WSOP main event – In fact, they are all events by the non-profit organisation known as One Drop Foundation.
The foundation was founded by Guy Laliberté – who's also the founder of Cirque du Soleil -and their mission is to provide crisis ridden parts of the world with safe drinking water. For every buy-in form in each of the events, $111,111 is donated to the foundation.
The biggest buy-in for the foundation was the $1 million buy-in for the Big One for One Drop yearly NLHE event which is also part of the WSOP. This event offers the world of poker not only the biggest buy-in, but the biggest pay out too. The Big One for One Drop event kicked off in 2012 and the largest of all single poker payouts happened on the debut edition.
3. 2014 Big One for One Drop
Dan Colman has the second largest win ever witnessed in the history of poker. The event garnered a total prize money pool of $37.3 million, and to go home with the $15.3 million first place prize money, Colman had to defeat up to 42 other contestants. Second place was taken by Daniel Negreanu who went home with about $8.29 million and that placed him at the top of the All Time Money List. This tournament made his total live winnings to exceed $36.5 million. This event also turned dramatic in the last hand because of the huge pot that Colman won from Negreanu in the past few hands with A-4.
2. 2018 Big One for One Drop
Number 2 of the highest poker wins of all time is the most recent in the list has a history that excites most enthusiasts.
The final event had Fedor Holz defeated by Justin Bonomo to win the $10 million first place prize money and add one more bracelet to the one that he has already won in the tournament. With this win, Bonomo was sent to the top of the All Time Money List, knocking Daniel Negreanu from the top spot that had been there since 2014. It placed Bonomo's all-time live winnings at a whopping $43 million.
1. 2012 Big One for One Drop
This respected event of the WSOP garnered 48 entries in 2012 with a prize pool of up to $42.67 million. The biggest win went to Antonio Esfandiari, and he went home with the $18.35 million prize money. This stands as the highest single pocket payout in the history of poker tournaments. One significant thing here is that during the final hand, Esfandiari hit a 7-5 offsuit to defeat Sam Trickett and his Q-6. Antonio was a very excited man after that, as anyone would be taking home almost $20 million!.
Other Poker Tournament Wins To Note
It's good to note that there are some non-NLHE tournaments that have garnered huge wins in the past too. The 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event had a win of $2 million grand prize after a long list of controversies.
My Overview Of The Biggest Buy-In Poker Tournaments Online
With so many poker sites offering weekly showcase tournaments that their players can cheaply qualify for, competition for those ‘big money' headlines has gotten quite intense. This article is set up to show you what the different options are for regular big money poker tournaments, and highlight the easiest fields, biggest prize pools and games with the most qualification options.
Instead of the straight top 10 list of the old version, I have grouped the tournaments this time around. PokerStars still have the biggest number of big buy-in tournaments… but only 1 entry covering them all. Next I have covered those bigger buy-in MTTs still open to US readers, before going on to cover some really great picks from around the small to mid-sized poker sites.
As usual, I'll give you my pick of the best of the bunch at the very end of this article.
Biggest Poker Tournaments Online – Planet Mark's Top Picks
#1 - The PokerStars Sunday Million
It would be impossible to have any other choice for regular big buy-in tourneys than the Sunday Million. This game is almost an institution! Every Sunday some 7000 players come together, either through qualifiers or buying in direct for $215, they battle for a $1,000,000+ prize pool which sees the winner with $150,000 or more, enough money to change your poker career for good.
What I love about this game is that so many players qualify via satellites (which run all week). This means the field is full of recreational players, making this easy compared with other bigger buy-in events.
There are many more reasons to check out PokerStars, though for me the Sunday Million is one of the big ones. Choose Affiliate Marketing Code from the menu at registration and enter PSP3108, you can then enter bonus code STARS600 when making your first deposit to claim up to 3 welcome bonuses at 100% match (up to $600 in total). Find out for yourself what makes this site the biggest and best online here.
Other Big Buy-In Tournaments At PokerStars.com
- Sunday Warm Up, $215 Entry, $500,000 Guaranteed
- Sunday 500, $530 Entry, $300K Guaranteed
- Sunday Storm, $11 Entry, $300K Guaranteed
5. 2014 WSOP Main Event
The 2014 tournament kicked off on the 5th of July and ran till the 14th. However, in November, the final 9 players came back to slug it out for the grand prize. The event involved a field of 6,683 at the beginning, with a pool of $62.8 million. But at the end, the grand prize was won by the Swedish poker player named Martin Jacobson. He went home with a cool $10 million and a bracelet. The second place was taken by Felix Stephensen, and he went home with $5.15 million.
4. 2006 WSOP Main Event
Of course, the main event of the 2006 World Series Poker is reputed as the largest tournament the world of poker has ever witnessed. This is because it had a total number of 8,773 entrants and an amazingly huge pool of up to $82,512,162. The number of players involved necessitated four different starting days. From the four groups, it was stripped down to two, and later to one, before getting to the final table with nine players on august 8.
The championship was won by Jamie Gold on the 10th of August, landing $12 million as the prize money. The second place was taken by Paul Wasicka and he won $6.1 million. From day four, Gold had a good chip lead, taking out 7 opponents out of the 8 at the final table. Before the final game, he was the clear chip leader and to knock out Paul and head home with his tens, he applied the Q-9 and table talk.
The Big 3
The 3 largest events in poker were never part of the WSOP main event – In fact, they are all events by the non-profit organisation known as One Drop Foundation.
The foundation was founded by Guy Laliberté – who's also the founder of Cirque du Soleil -and their mission is to provide crisis ridden parts of the world with safe drinking water. For every buy-in form in each of the events, $111,111 is donated to the foundation.
The biggest buy-in for the foundation was the $1 million buy-in for the Big One for One Drop yearly NLHE event which is also part of the WSOP. This event offers the world of poker not only the biggest buy-in, but the biggest pay out too. The Big One for One Drop event kicked off in 2012 and the largest of all single poker payouts happened on the debut edition.
3. 2014 Big One for One Drop
Dan Colman has the second largest win ever witnessed in the history of poker. The event garnered a total prize money pool of $37.3 million, and to go home with the $15.3 million first place prize money, Colman had to defeat up to 42 other contestants. Second place was taken by Daniel Negreanu who went home with about $8.29 million and that placed him at the top of the All Time Money List. This tournament made his total live winnings to exceed $36.5 million. This event also turned dramatic in the last hand because of the huge pot that Colman won from Negreanu in the past few hands with A-4.
2. 2018 Big One for One Drop
Number 2 of the highest poker wins of all time is the most recent in the list has a history that excites most enthusiasts.
The final event had Fedor Holz defeated by Justin Bonomo to win the $10 million first place prize money and add one more bracelet to the one that he has already won in the tournament. With this win, Bonomo was sent to the top of the All Time Money List, knocking Daniel Negreanu from the top spot that had been there since 2014. It placed Bonomo's all-time live winnings at a whopping $43 million.
1. 2012 Big One for One Drop
This respected event of the WSOP garnered 48 entries in 2012 with a prize pool of up to $42.67 million. The biggest win went to Antonio Esfandiari, and he went home with the $18.35 million prize money. This stands as the highest single pocket payout in the history of poker tournaments. One significant thing here is that during the final hand, Esfandiari hit a 7-5 offsuit to defeat Sam Trickett and his Q-6. Antonio was a very excited man after that, as anyone would be taking home almost $20 million!.
Other Poker Tournament Wins To Note
It's good to note that there are some non-NLHE tournaments that have garnered huge wins in the past too. The 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event had a win of $2 million grand prize after a long list of controversies.
My Overview Of The Biggest Buy-In Poker Tournaments Online
With so many poker sites offering weekly showcase tournaments that their players can cheaply qualify for, competition for those ‘big money' headlines has gotten quite intense. This article is set up to show you what the different options are for regular big money poker tournaments, and highlight the easiest fields, biggest prize pools and games with the most qualification options.
Instead of the straight top 10 list of the old version, I have grouped the tournaments this time around. PokerStars still have the biggest number of big buy-in tournaments… but only 1 entry covering them all. Next I have covered those bigger buy-in MTTs still open to US readers, before going on to cover some really great picks from around the small to mid-sized poker sites.
As usual, I'll give you my pick of the best of the bunch at the very end of this article.
Biggest Poker Tournaments Online – Planet Mark's Top Picks
#1 - The PokerStars Sunday Million
It would be impossible to have any other choice for regular big buy-in tourneys than the Sunday Million. This game is almost an institution! Every Sunday some 7000 players come together, either through qualifiers or buying in direct for $215, they battle for a $1,000,000+ prize pool which sees the winner with $150,000 or more, enough money to change your poker career for good.
What I love about this game is that so many players qualify via satellites (which run all week). This means the field is full of recreational players, making this easy compared with other bigger buy-in events.
There are many more reasons to check out PokerStars, though for me the Sunday Million is one of the big ones. Choose Affiliate Marketing Code from the menu at registration and enter PSP3108, you can then enter bonus code STARS600 when making your first deposit to claim up to 3 welcome bonuses at 100% match (up to $600 in total). Find out for yourself what makes this site the biggest and best online here.
Other Big Buy-In Tournaments At PokerStars.com
- Sunday Warm Up, $215 Entry, $500,000 Guaranteed
- Sunday 500, $530 Entry, $300K Guaranteed
- Sunday Storm, $11 Entry, $300K Guaranteed
Qualifying For The Million: One of the reasons that the Pokerstars Sunday Million + Sunday Warm Up continue to lead the way is that they make it extremely easy to qualify for your seat from just a few dollars (or even frequent player points). With SNGs, tournaments and even hyper-turbo games available you could be playing the big one sooner than you think! Check out Pokerstars.com today. I'll see you in the next Sunday Million.
#2 – Sunday Majors For US Players
US reader's choices are getting better, with the Winning Poker Network now providing more competition to the Chico Network and Carbon Poker (Merge). The guarantees for these events are a smaller than the global sites since there are fewer players online to support the big events. For bigger tournaments US readers should keep an eye on online poker events which these sites hold regularly. Free online slots win real money no deposit.
Here are the Sunday Majors and links to find out more (only one for the moment, see this article for an overview of US online tournaments (including the ACR $1 million guaranteed)
- Americas Cardroom Poker - $109 Entry, $25K Guaranteed.
#3 – Monthly ‘Whale' Tournament 888 Poker
This game gets promoted to 3rd on my list because it is probably the softest field you will find in any bigger buy-in game. The secret here is that 888 are just as big in the casino and betting world than they are in poker – meaning tons of cross over traffic coming to the poker room with little or no poker strategy knowledge.
The Whale itself is held every 4th Sunday and is a $250k guaranteed event with plenty of satellite qualifiers (these are in different ‘Steps') or a direct buy-in of $530. This compliments the $100k guaranteed Sunday Event which already attracts big fields.
I recommend you check out 888 Poker – they have really cool software and promos aimed more at regular / occasional players than the ‘pro grinders'… a great choice.
#4 – Party Poker Quarterly Million
Another regular game which attracts big fields and even bigger prize pools. Party Poker already have a $250k guaranteed Sunday event, and once per season they have a $1,000,000 guarantee with a $640 buy-in. Again there are plenty of qualifiers, which run for around 1 month in advance, ensuring that there are big fields.
Party attract many 1st time players with their big brand name, which makes this another game where players with a little strategy knowledge have a positive expectation. You can grab your 100% welcome bonus (max $500) with bonus code SNGPLANET over at PartyPoker.com now!
#5 – Full Tilt Poker $250k Guaranteed
Biggest Online Poker Tournament Winners Payout
This is another weekly tournament. Full Tilt Poker arrived back from their 14 month hiatus under the ownership of PokerStars, and they already have big enough traffic to host a quarter-million tournament every week with a $215 buy-in. There are other fun big buy-in tourneys, including the $240 ‘Sunday Brawl' which pays a bounty on every player's head.
Biggest Online Poker Tournament Winners 2020
There are plenty of other Sunday Majors to note, Titan Poker on the iPoker Network a have a soft €150k guaranteed Sunday game (called Sunday Special), and OnGame's RedKings have their own major with a $75k prize pool.
If you are looking for even bigger action, including tournaments with multi-million prize pools or games with $1000+ entry fees – then you should keep an eye on the schedule of online poker events. Most sites now run a tournament festival of their own, some have several different ones – these get big fields and some massive guarantees. You can see the latest events list and background to the biggest and best events in my dedicated Online Poker Events page here.
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