The Biggest Pot in Poker History, Pot by Pot

The record pots, in order

Each pot below was called a record when it was played or later: the biggest on its show, in its country or anywhere. The list leaves out pots counted in euros. It also leaves out later records that were set and passed on a single show.

The two 2026 pots are smaller than 2025’s $12.7 million and still records, because one counts only cash games and the other only US television.

Watch every record pot

Our video plays each pot in order on the broadcasts’ own footage, from High Stakes Poker in 2006 to the records of 2026.

Which pot is the biggest? It depends on what you count

The four pots that hold a record today were all played to the last card. Three of the records count different pots: every pot ever broadcast, only cash games or only US television. The fourth is Guinness’s page, which still lists 2009’s pot.

Every record here was filmed. Pots from games nobody filmed get talked about but never counted, because there is nothing to watch. The one people ask about is a $9 million pot Andrew Robl won from Tom Dwan at the ARIA in Las Vegas. Jean-Robert Bellande told the story at the table on High Stakes Poker in 2023, and Robl said it was the biggest pot he had ever won in a cash game. No footage of the hand exists.

What is the biggest pot ever broadcast?

$12,700,000, in a heads-up match at Triton Poker in Jeju in September 2025. In these heads-up matches two players each put up millions and play until one of them has it all. Ketola and Li started with $8,000,000 each, and Li had pulled ahead by this hand.

Ketola opened to $200,000 with two nines and Li re-raised to $800,000 with two eights. Ketola moved all in. Li called, which put about $5.5 million more on the line for him. Before the flop Li’s best hope was an eight. The flop of 6♠ 7♥ 10♥ changed that: an eight would now give Ketola a straight, so Li’s best hope was one of the two nines left. The 3♣ and 2♠ missed.

“He calls. The biggest pot in televised history, twelve point seven million,” Triton’s commentator said. Earlier that week Ketola had won a $10,990,000 pot against Alex Foxen in another heads-up match. No bigger pot had been reported as of November 2026.

What is the biggest cash game pot ever broadcast?

$5,029,000, in a King Poker Cup (KPC) cash game in Jeju in January 2026, shown that April. In a cash game the chips are the players’ own money, and anyone can stand up and leave with what is in front of them. In a heads-up match nobody takes money home until one player has all of it, which is why Card Player keeps the two kinds of record apart, as PokerNews did in 2025.

ST Wang held A♥ J♥ and Aaron Zang held J♦ 9♣. The board ran out 10♦ 7♣ Q♠ K♠ 8♦, and both men made a straight: Wang’s went to the ace, Zang’s to the king.

“That’s the biggest pot in televised history,” KPC’s commentator said, meaning outside heads-up matches: the $12.7 million pot had come four months earlier. Card Player calls this one the biggest broadcast pot outside heads-up play, and it passed Tom Dwan’s $3,081,000 from 2023. Card Player spells the winner’s name Esti Wang.

What is the biggest pot on US television?

$4,260,000, on High Stakes Poker in August 2026, when Eric Wasserson called Texas Mike’s all in. It was the biggest pot in the show’s 20 years and the biggest ever broadcast in the US, passing Dwan’s $3,081,000 on Hustler Casino Live.

Why does Guinness say $1.1 million?

Guinness World Records lists the biggest pot won in a hand of televised poker as US$1.1 million: Tom Dwan against Phil Ivey, filmed in London in September 2009 for Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game. Its page names no later pot. Every bigger pot on this page came later, except 2007’s $1,227,900, which ended in a deal before the last cards.

Ivey held A♣ 2♦ and Dwan 7♥ 6♥. The 4♥ on the turn gave both of them a straight, and Dwan’s was higher. Ivey bet $90,000, Dwan raised to $232,600, Ivey moved all in and Dwan called. The J♥ on the river changed nothing, and the pot was $1,108,500.

“We have just broken poker television history,” the commentator said. The pot it broke was Dwan’s own.

The pots that held the record before

2006 and 2007: High Stakes Poker’s first big pots

High Stakes Poker put a cash game on TV in 2006, with the players’ own money on the table. That year Gus Hansen’s four fives beat Daniel Negreanu’s full house for $575,700, the biggest pot the show had seen.

A year later Guy Laliberté and David Benyamine built a pot of $1,227,900, already more than the pot Guinness lists. Laliberté had K♦ 5♦ against Benyamine’s A♣ 8♣ on a K♣ 3♦ 5♣ flop, which gave him about two chances in three to win. “I’ll take the pot and forget it,” he offered. Benyamine agreed. Laliberté kept $238,900, both men took the rest back and the last cards were never dealt.

2009: Dwan against Greenstein, $919,600, “no deal”

Tom Dwan was 22 when he played Barry Greenstein on High Stakes Poker, in a hand taped in December 2008 and shown in 2009. Greenstein had A♦ A♣ and Dwan K♠ Q♠, and the flop of Q♥ 4♠ 2♠ gave Dwan a pair of queens and a flush draw. They raised each other until Dwan was all in, at about fifty-fifty with two cards to come. Greenstein offered to take some of the money back out. “Twenty-two-year-old Tom Dwan says, ‘No deal,’” the commentator said.

The Q♣ came on the turn. “Tom Dwan has just won the biggest hand in the history of televised poker,” the commentator said, “in a hand with no deal.” The pot was smaller than 2007’s, but it was played to the last card.

2018: Phua against Dwan, $2,353,500

Triton Poker films private high-stakes games for YouTube. In Jeju in 2018 it cost about $900,000 to sit down, and Paul Phua’s two aces met Dwan’s ace-queen. Dwan moved all in with about $1.15 million after a long think, and Phua called. The pot was played in Korean won. PokerNews put it at $2,353,500, and in 2023 still called it the largest pot ever broadcast.

February 2023: Antonius against Persson, $1,978,000

On PokerGO’s No Gamble, No Future in Las Vegas, Patrik Antonius’s A♥ K♥ met Eric Persson’s Q♥ 9♥. Persson raised to $692,000, and Antonius called all in and won a pot of $1,978,000. “That is the biggest pot in US televised poker history,” the commentator said. It passed Alan Keating’s $1,158,000 pot on Hustler Casino Live in December 2022.

May 2023: Dwan against Wesley Fei, $3,081,000

Three months later, on Hustler Casino Live, Wesley Fei bet into Tom Dwan on every street with A♦ K♥, then moved all in for $786,000 on the river. Dwan had two queens and $750,000 already in the pot. He asked twice whether Wesley had really said all in, thought for nearly four minutes and called.

“Tom Dwan has just won the biggest pot in the history of televised poker,” Hustler’s commentator said. It was, for two years, and it stayed the US record until August 2026. When PokerNews reported the $12.7 million pot in 2025, it kept the two kinds of record apart: Dwan’s pot “came in a traditional style cash game where players are permitted to cash out any time they’d like.”

August and September 2025: the heads-up matches

In August 2025, Ossi Ketola and Dan Cates played six heads-up matches in North Cyprus, streamed by Onyx Live, starting at €1 million each and ending at €6 million. Card Player wrote that several of their pots passed Dwan’s $3.1 million. Those pots were in euros, and the one the commentators called the biggest in televised poker history was never called: Cates folded to Ketola’s river all in.

In September 2025, at Triton in Jeju, Ketola beat Alex Foxen in a heads-up match for a pot of $10,990,000, which PokerNews called the largest in televised poker history. The same week came the $12,700,000 against Bjorn Li.

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