Name: A marathon, an odyssey, a truly epic session of poker.
Age: A lot older at the end than at the start.
Appearance: Probably looks better than it smells.
I’ve definitely had games that felt like the longest ones ever. Haven’t we all, but some games really do go on, and on, and on.
Wasn’t there just a livestreamed, 24-hour, million-dollar game at Hustler Casino Live? There was and there wasn’t. The Million Dollar Marathon on December 2 was scheduled to run all day and all night, featuring the likes of Alan Keating, Martin Kabrhel and Nik Airball.
Wait, that was yesterday — are they still playing? Unfortunately not, this time round the game broke up after a little over 12 hours.
That’s hardly the longest game ever. Of course not, and even had it run the full 24-hours it would be far from noteworthy. Legend has it the longest ever game lasted almost 8 and a half years.
Over 8 years? I’m not watching a livestream for that long! This one was not in the modern era, but it did feature some famous poker names.
Like who? Heard of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp?
The cowboys from the movies? They were real people, living in the 19th century Wild West, and are believed to have played in the longest poker game ever. From 1881 to 1889 the same game ran at The Birdcage Theater in Tombstone, Arizona. It had a buy-in of $1,000 — extremely big money for the time.
Why did the game end? Ran out of nachos? It was even more serious than that; a local mine flooded, ending a particularly prosperous era for the town, and lots of the players with fat wallets moved on.
And that record has stood for over 125 years? It would seem so. There are rumors about a game in West Virginia that ran for 14 years, but it seems impossible to confirm.
That’s the trouble with the pre-internet era. Pics or it didn’t happen, amirite? Not really, no; that's not quite how history works. Other long games have taken place, with plenty of witnesses, but as time goes by it gets harder to verify these things with any real accuracy as facts become legends.
Such as? Johnny Moss was said to have played a four-month heads-up poker game versus Nick ‘The Greek’ Dandalos, but the details are difficult to pin down. Some say it was in 1949, others 1951, some that it was at Binions, others the Las Vegas Club, but any eyewitnesses old enough to be in the casino at the time would be pushing 100 by now.
Surely they didn’t actually play continuously for four months? Of course not, they took regular breaks (to go play craps, naturally), but when it comes to individuals playing marathon sessions the official Guinness World Record is held by Phil Laak, who clocked up 115 hours back in June 2010.
Finally, an unambiguous, official record I can rely on. Yes. Well, sorta. Zach Gensler tried and — by most accounts — succeeded in breaking Laak’s record in 2021, playing for 124 hours at Resorts World. Like Laak, Gensler was able to ‘bank’ 5 minute breaks every hour and use them for a few short, strategic naps. Four years on, however, the Guinness World Record is still adjudged to be Laak’s.
Do say: “This guy's been napping for 20 minutes, I’m calling the clock.”
Don’t say: “Sir, you have three months to make a decision or your hand will be dead.”
