World Records in Poker Recognized by Guinness

8 years ago
Poker Guinness Records
22:20
26 Apr

Those who follow poker regularly are aware that Antonio Esfandiari holds the world record for the largest amount of prize money won in a poker tournament for his victory in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop in 2012 that earned a payday of $18.3 million for 'The Magician' and his backers.

Many thought that the Guinness World Record Book would require a new entry last year when the second version of the Big One for One Drop was played. However, only 42 players entered in the event's second running compared to 47 buy-ins in the inaugural tournament, allowing Esfandiari to keep his name etched in Guinness history.

There are a number of other notable records pertaining to poker that officials at Guinness have included in their compilation of world records. And many of those have now stood for a number of years.

ElkY and Lew

PokerStars Team Pro Bertrand Grospellier holds the distinction of playing the most online poker tables for one hour. 'ElkY' accomplished his feat by playing 62 SitnGo tables simultaneously at PokerStars while at the Monte Carlo Bay Resort in Monaco in April 2009.

Formerly a professional StarCraft gamer over a decade ago, Grospellier bought in to the massive mulit-tabling action at the $6.50 level and needed to turn a profit for the record to be official. With over five dozen tables in action, he timed out on a number of the games but managed to eke out a $23.67 profit and get his name in the record books where it has stayed for six years.

Speaking of PokerStars Team Pros who are part of Guinness history, we can't forget the achievement of Randy 'nanonoko' Lew, who holds the world record for playing the most online poker hands in an eight-hour time frame. Lew also had to finish his attempt in the black in order to satisfy the officials at Guinness and did so.

Lew played 24,493 hands and at one point was down $1,200, but jumped up to stakes of $5/$10 at some tables and persevered. He won $7.65 while playing between 25 and 40 tables simultaneously at a rate of just under 50 hands per minute.

PokerStars Records

While both of those pros sponsored by PokerStars enjoy their individual records, the poker site to which they are affiliated can also boast a claim to fame in a couple of categories. First among those is the record for most players at an online poker site when 307,016 players were spread out over 42,814 tables in September 2009.

The new record consisted of players seated at tournaments, SitnGos, and ring games at both real-money and free play action. The old record - also held by PokerStars and set in 2008 - was shattered by more than 100,000.

A second record by the world's top site is that of largest online poker tournament. A total of 225,000 players registered for the $1 buy-in event in June 2013. Incidentally, the number of entrants allowed was capped at the 225,000 total, as PokerStars had visions of breaking its own record in the future.

The following year, PokerStars attempted to do just that and put a cap on the entries at 230,000. But online poker players perhaps had better things to do on a Sunday in February, as only 211,619 turned out despite a nice overlay due to a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000. Look for the industry giant to make another world record attempt at a later date, and my money is on success being achieved.

Young and Talented

The World Series of Poker also has its thumbprint in the Guinness Book of World Records in the category of youngest player to ever win the coveted Main Event. That honor goes to Joe Cada, the 2009 champion, who was 21 years and 357 days old when he bested the field.

Cada was eight days shy of his 22nd birthday. If the WSOP didn't take a break and wait until November as was the norm in the old days, Cada would have been four months younger. However, perhaps the time off before the final table reconvened was a big reason why young Cada was able to win the title, being allowed to prepare and work on his game.

Last Longer

Iron men in the world of poker include Phil Laak, Barry Denson and Damon Shulenberger. But a bit of controversy exists among the first two players when it comes to the endurance record of longest marathon of poker-playing by an individual.

Laak achieved the record by playing 115 hours straight in 2010 at real-money poker and made a profit of $6,766 that he donated to charity. He was allowed a 5-minute break every hour and was also permitted to bank the breaks and rest for stretches longer than five minutes depending on his accumulated time.

In 2012, Barry Denson from the UK was able to smash that endurance record by five hours. An ex-soldier who likely knew a thing or two about dealing with sleep deprivation, Denson lasted 120 hours and 20 minutes. That's more than five days of straight poker.

However, Denson's feat was accomplished at play money action, which certainly doesn't compare to playing poker with money on the line. Keep in mind that both Randy Lew and Bertrand Grospellier were required to profit in order for the world record to count.

Shulenberger was the winner of the longest countinuous poker tournament set known as the Iron Man Challenge and hosted by the Asian Poker Tour in Manila, Philippines in December 2013. The action lasted 48 hours, 55 minutes, and 58.5 seconds before Shulenberger claimed victory and $18,240 in first place prize money.

And finally, although it has nothing to do with actually playing poker, it's interesting to note that Lady Gaga's smash hit “Poker Face” remained on the U.S. Hot Digital Songs chart for a record 83 weeks in 2009-10. Now that's endurance!


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Charles is a Chicago native and long time poker player who dusted off his journalism degree and began writing about poker following the events of Black Friday in 2011. He has written for a number of leading poker websites, offering his insights and expertise on subjects ranging from online poker leg...Read more

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