The Best of Poker: Top 5 Guinness World Records

The poker industry certainly has a lot to show for itself, but here are five of its most impressive achievements.

Most people picture poker players as some mysterious bad boys who refuse to get a proper job. While they are certainly different from the suit-wearing corporate big shots the world associates with success, these professional players are in fact clever card wizards who know how to take advantage of their opponents’ weaknesses, and make a fortune using this gift.

Some of them are in fact so good that their names are now forever written down in the Guinness Book of World Records. From huge online poker tournaments where hundreds of thousands of professionals have competed for a share of the prize pool to marathons that lasted for days, the poker industry has marked some impressive world records throughout the years.

But the books include so many amazing achievements that it’s impossible to keep track of all of them. That’s why we’ve selected a few of the more important ones. And here they are:

1. The record set by PokerStars – The company is mentioned in the world-famous book as the organizer of the largest online poker tournament ever. Famous among all those who play online poker in the UK and in several countries across the globe, PokerStars has built itself quite a reputation, gathering millions of users and hosting the world’s largest online poker room, so it comes as no surprise that the website has also hosted the largest-ever internet poker tournament.

The record was established on 16 June 2013, when PokerStars held their Road to 100 billion hands celebration. Participants had to pay $1 to join the event, but their helped make history. A total of 225,000 players joined.

2. Professional player Phil “Unabomber” Laak impressed everyone when he set the record for “Longest Marathon Playing Poker by an Individual”. He had always wanted to see his name in the Guinness Book of Records, so he decided his top strength was endurance. He figured he can break the old record, and he did.

The big event was staged at one of the most famous American poker rooms, at The Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. The poker pro’s target was 80 hours and that would have been enough to beat the previous record held by Paul Zimbler. But Laak passed his 80-hour mark and continued to play, reaching an amazing 115 consecutive hours of poker.

In addition to beating establishing a new record and getting his name in the Guinness Book of Records, Laak also got a profit of $6,766 out of the whole thing. He ended up donating the money to the Camp Sunshine charitable foundation.

3. Bertrand Grospellier is another record-holding professional poker player, who checked “Most Online Poker Tables Played in One Hour”. Known by his screen name “ElkY”, Grospellier set the record without even preparing for it.

Three days before the attempt, ElkY was third in the No-Limit Hold’em World Poker Tour World Championships. But the French poker player banked his $776,245 winnings, took a plane to Monte Carlo without even getting enough sleep, and sat down at the 62 Sit-n-Go tables. An hour later, he had a new achievement to put on his resume, and finished the poker race with a profit.

4. Another great player who made it to the Guinness Book is Randy “Nanonoko” Lew. In 2012 he establised the record for “Most Hands Recorded in an Eight Hour Session”, after playing online poker at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Randy played a total of 23,493 hands at several tables. In fact, he was playing at 25 to 40 tables at a time.

The ambitious poker player wanted to also make a profit while setting this new record, but that proved to be more difficult than expected. At one point, he was down $1,200, but he got back on his feet quickly. By the end of the 8-hour session, he had made $7.65.

5. Last but not least, our fifth most impressive poker record is the Iron Man Poker Challenge, which was the longest continuous tournament ever to be held. The event lasted for 48 hours, 55 minutes and 58.5 seconds, with the last man standing being American player Damon Shulenberger.

The event was part of the Asian Poker Tour Series held in Manila. A total of 115 players bought in for $700, creating a big prize pool. Shulenberger won a share of $18,240 for his performance, and the event beat the previous record by more than 12 hours.