Biggest Poker Blow-Ups

Imagine climbing Mount Everest, getting within arm’s reach of the summit, and deciding to stop for a smoke and a selfie. All of a sudden a storm screams in and you find yourself flailing around blindly in the snow and the elusive peak you’ve always dreamed of conquering disappears from sight.

In the world of poker there have been umpteen instances of players risking far too much with the Main Event title, bracelet, and millions of dollars just within grasp…and then the inexplicable happens.

Nerves, arrogance, tiredness, the red mist of tilt? The WSOPhas seen it all, so let’s take a look at the three biggest blow-ups in Main Event history!

1993 and John Bonetti

Let’s head back to the last century and see how three-time bracelet winner John Bonetti managed to turn a shot at the title into a 3rd place ‘disaster’.

Bonetti was one of poker’s first real characters, being described as a "ball-busting, cantankerous curmudgeon," but also gaining the respect and love of fellow players with his charm and humour.

After his death in 2008, two-time bracelet winner Mark Seifremembered Bonetti this way in a pokernews report:

The way Bonetti said it had the whole table cracking up. Seif also stated that Bonetti "... was fearless. He would play literally any two cards."

This may go some way towards explaining his 1993 play, when the final table was three-handed, Bonetti facing Jim Bechtel and the very short-stacked dentist Glenn Cozen.

This was before the days of hole-card cams, but Bonetti was holding AKo when Bechtel raised it to 35k pre-flop with the blinds at 5k/10k. Cozen, who had a pocket pair of some value, decided only to call despite being down to 60k – a shove moment if ever there was one.

And now Bonetti for some reason only decided to call with his AdKc, instead of re-raising to try to get rid of Bechtel and take on Cozens heads-up. A huge mistake as it turned out, when the flop came…

K♣ 6♠ 4♦

Top pair top kicker for Bonetti who instantly bet out 180k and saw Cozen folding immediately. Despite having a tiny stack left against the million-plus stacks of the other two this would, however, prove to be a remarkably good decision!

With Bechtel only calling, the turn card came

K♠ 6♠ 4♦ (J♠)

And now Bonetti, in the worst decision of his poker life -indeed the ”worst play in poker history” according to poker historian Mike Paulle – shoved his stack into the centre only to see Bachtel quickly call and turned over the 6♣ 6♥

Bonetti’s A♦ K♣ was drawing dead, a river king would fill Bechtel’s boat, and so his dreams of a 2nd WSOP bracelet had suddenly hit the rails in dramatic fashion, leaving short-stack Cozen $210,000 better off, having all but resigned himself to being blinded out in short order.

“I guess it was my time to fall!” said a remarkably unphased Bonetti in an interview immediately afterwards. “I don’t feel I made a mistake. In this game… luck and skill…if luck overcomes skill then there’s nothing you can do about it.”

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2005 and Scott Lazar

In poker there is generally only one man regarded as ‘the magician’, and that’s Antonio Esfandiari, but back in 2005 the WSOP witnessed a deep-run by another aspiring member of the magic club, Scott Lazar.

Lazar worked in the movie industry in California and spent his spare time polishing his trickery and playing mid-stake poker tournaments in LA and Vegas. 2005, however, was a life-changer for the always-smiling American – but it could have been much better had he held his nerve in a crucial moment on the final table.

Down to 6-handed play and blinds at 80k/160k, Lazar had already made some dubious decisions, but was still sitting in 5th place – two hands later he would be hitting the rail.

With Andy Black the Buddhist monk sitting on 17.8 million chips, Lazar’s 5.7 million certainly wasn’t a short stack at these blinds, an M factor of 25 still giving him plenty of scope to play. And play he did – horribly!

With play folded round to Lazar’s small blind, he made it 500k to go and Joe Hachem, the short stack, shoved all-in – only for Lazar to instacall!

A decent play with a good hand, but the problem was that Lazar was holding the very marginal K♠9♠ and Hachem had found the premium A♠Q♠. As the commentators said:

With the board running out 10♠ 4♠ A♥ 5♣ J♣ Lazar had just doubled up the short-stacked Hachem and seen his own stack cut in half. And there was worse to come….

On the very next hand, on the button, Lazar opened for 350k and this time Andy Black on the big blind very quickly shoved all-in. Lazar, obviously struggling to control his emotions insta-called saying “I’ll give you a gamble!” and… once again turned over a decent but not premium hand, the Q♣ 10♦ and found himself in trouble when Black showed his J♠ J♣. The ‘gamble’ of Lazar saw him a 29% dog against Black’s fishhooks.

The board was no help to the would-be magician, running out 3♣ 5♠ 8♠ 4♣ K♥. Lazar saw his title dreams explode in less than 5 minutes.“Self-destructed,” was the commentators lament as the rest of the table commiserated and congratulated Lazar, who nevertheless walked off with $1.5million for his otherwise excellent play.

To this day, Lazar has no regrets those hands, answering the question with a hearty ‘Hell no!” and explaining that the final table had brought him a close friendship with eventual winner Joe Hachem who has since helped him through “some low points” in his life.

“Sure I’d like to have some more pieces of paper in the bank,” he joked in a Pokernews interview, “but so would everyone else!” Lazar’s play may not have been magic, but his approach to life certainly appears to be!

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2007 and Philip Hilm

Heading into the 9-man final table in pole position with 22million chips, Hilm was considered to be one of the big favorites to take down the title, but it wasn’t to be. The German suffered what has been described as ‘the biggest meltdown in Main Event history’ going from hero to busto in just 15 hands.

What possesses a player to recklessly throw away such an opportunity? Well, Hilm himself doesn’t see it as bad decisions – he had decided he would either win the thing outright or die trying! The money, he said, wasn’t a factor – the jumps from half a million to one or two million not interesting him the way it did the more cagey players.

In any event, there was one brutal hand which pretty much decided which way the final table would go, when Hilm and Jerry Yang locked horns….

Yang decided to open for 1million with the blinds at 120k/240k, holding the A♦ K♠. Having just lost a big pot to Yang, Hilm looked down at the 8♦ 5♦ and rather than taking the commentary booth’s advice of “If I was Philip I would lick my wounds a little longer”, the uber-aggressive German decided to call from the small blind – a highly questionable decision under any circumstances, let alone with a $8.25million prize waiting at the end of the day.

The flop came J♦ K♦ 5♣ and Yang had paired his king with Hilm sitting on the flush draw with bottom pair. Hilm checked and Yang quickly bet out 2million into the 2.5million pot and a stern-faced Hilm chose to call. The turn brought the….

J♦ K♦ 5♣ (2♥)

…and Hilm’s check once again was met with a big bet, this time 4million from the only player at the table able to match Hilm’s generally aggressive approach to the final table.

“How deep does Philip Hilm want to get in?” asked the commentator, and amost immediately got a reply. “All in” said Hilm, and “All the way!” was the booth’s excited response.

Just as the commentary booth were discussing Hilm’s belief that Yang might not have the guts to call, the Laotian-born Californian stood up and said, “I call!” and suddenly Hilm’s Main Event life was at risk.

Amidst some ridiculous dancing from Hevad Khan, which brought smiles from Hilm if no-one else, the dealer served up the river…

J♦ K♦ 5♣ 2♥ (6♣)

…and Yang danced with joy while Hilm’s meltdown was complete, going from hero to almost zero in the flash of an eye on the poker timescale.

One of the most remarkable blow-ups in poker history and a hand which pretty much finished Hilm’s poker career. He would later go on to invest his winnings in property development and almost completely avoid the green felt for the next eight years.

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Those were some pretty rough busts, but it happens to everyone at some point. Hopefully you haven't hit the rail as hard as these pros, but if you have, don't hesitate to share a story. Misery loves company, and we all sympathize.