‘High Stakes Poker’ Pots in Vegas Creeping Closer to World Records

^{Eric Wasserson, third from left in the tan hat, would soon pick up High Stakes Poker’s largest pot ever. (Photo: PokerGO / X.com)}

Eric Wasserson took down a record $4.26 million pot on "High Stakes Poker" on Aug. 31, becoming the highest live cash-game pot ever awarded on the show. During the seven-day run held at the PokerGO Studio on the Las Vegas Strip, the record for the biggest pot was broken twice — and Wasserson won both. 

He initially claimed $2,478,000 against Andrew Robl in another No-Limit Hold’em game. He then proceeded to smash that record against Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek.

The Stakes and the Players

"High Stakes Poker" is filmed in the PokerGO studio nestled next to the Aria, and commentary was by Ali Nejad and Nick Schulman. The game ended up going well above the advertised $500/$1000 game. Rick Salomon and Sameh Elamawy hit the felt as well. 

Wasserson is a well-known high-stakes player with over $9 million in live tournament cash earnings, including three WSOP cashes this summer. Moncek also has an impressive poker resume, with $8.3 million in live tournament earnings and 13 cashes at this year’s WSOP alone.

“He’s reaching for a lot of cranberries,” Ali said as Moncek bet out $330,00 on the turn. Cranberries are what poker players call $25,000 chips due to their crimson color.

The hand unfolded when Wasserson had 9 and 7 suited of diamonds, and Texas Mike had 10 and 7 of clubs. The flop was 9 of clubs, King of diamonds, and an Ace of diamonds. A 4 of hearts came on the turn along with a $330,000 bet. The river showed a 5 of diamonds, giving Wasserson a flush and leaving Texas Mike’s only chance to win by attempting a stone-cold bluff of all-in for $1.607 million. Wasserson called winning the pot.

‘This Is Insane’

As Ali and Nick reacted to the staggering size of the pot, it’s amazing to think that even larger pots have been recorded in poker.

Here are seven of the largest pots in poker history, along with where they happened, when, and the players who battled for them:

Both Ketola and Wasserson broke their own records within days of achieving their first one. Ketola won $10.99 million and, just 4 days later, beat Li for $12.7 million.

 Wasserson made High Stakes Poker twice in three days, first beating Robl and then Moncek, who ended up down $296,500 after quickly recovering with a $2.3 million win the very next hand against Robl with pocket kings. 

 The $4.26 million pot capped off a remarkable week for High Stakes Poker, with Wasserson rewriting the record books twice. Now the question is: what will happen next time?