Online stakes getting higher

Bloggers / Matthew Pitt / 10 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

The stakes will be extremely high when the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event gets underway next month, with the winner set to take home the second-largest tournament payday ever of over $9million, writes Rob Eddy.

Not that it makes it any easier, with all eyes of the poker-loving world on the 'November Nine', but some of the pressure has to be eased by the fact that the players are guaranteed nearly a $1million, even if they are bust out on the first hand.

That has got to be at least a small crumb of comfort to those players that have done brilliantly to make it this far, particularly as not one of them was a household name at the start of the tournament.

High stakes action online is now really beginning to take off and we must be approaching the first $1million pot, given the fact that the previous record for the biggest online no-limit hold'em pot was broken not once, not twice, not even three times - but four times in less than a day.

The previous best had been $610,000, won amazingly with a pair of twos, but the benchmark was raised to $617,968 when Tom 'durrr' Dwan's top two pair beat a missed straight from 'LarsLuzak'.

That record did not last long though as recent World Series of Poker Europe champion John Juanda took down a pot of $678,069 against 'durrr' when he hit a king on the river to make a set and cracking his opponent's pocket aces.

The new high lasted all of three minutes as the 'Tiger Woods of Poker', Phil Ivey, flopped a set of tens, which managed to hold up against Juanda's second-nut flush draw and land a pot of $687,622.

But that was not the end of it, and not of Dwan's bad luck either as, nine hours later, he thought his pocket kings were good on a flop of 5c 9h 4h, only to be horrified when 'Urindanger' turned over bullets (which held up) to set a new high of $723,938.

Now admittedly these guys can probably afford it but knowing you can lose that kind of money on a single hand has got to take some stones to play - and unfortunately I neither have them or (more to the point) the money to play in that kind of league. Maybe in 2, 3, or even 5 decades time.

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