The nosebleed cash games on GGPoker during the WSOP Online Bracelet Series have been quite intense. Over the past two weeks, the global poker site has played host to the two largest no-limit pots in online poker history.
It all started earlier this month when Wiktor "limitless" Malinowski won an $842,000 pot against Michael Addamo on Natural8, a GGPoker skin. Malinowski picked up a cooler as he found pocket aces in the hole, while his opponent looked down at pocket kings, the second best hand in hold'em, but one step behind the pocket rockets. The board ran out dry for Addamo, making it difficult for him to get away from his kings. He lost approximately $420,000 of his own money in that one hand.
Anything you can do, I can do better
What's better than winning an $842,000 pot? Winning a $974,631 pot, of course. Malinowski wasn't the beneficiary this time, or even in the hand. And Addamo wasn't on the losing end in the second massive pot, which is now the largest no-limit hold'em hand in online poker history.
Instead, high roller regulars Tan Xuan and Ali Imsirovic tangled in the second major pot, which took place August 19 on GGPoker. Imsirovic is one of the best under-20 poker players in the world, having cashed for $9 million in live tournaments already. So, he's no stranger to playing for such massive amounts of money.
In this hand, during a $500/$1,000 hold'em cash game, the Bosnian pro picked up a suited A-K, one of the strongest starting hands in Texas hold'em. As such, after Xuan raised to $4,278 with 9-7 suited, he three-bet it to $21,000 and both players took a flop, which came out 5-5-9, giving Xuan top pair and Imsirovic nothing but a backdoor flush draw and two over cards.
Despite still having just ace-high, the dry board convinced Imsirovic to continuation bet for $15,425, but his opponent was feeling frisky and bumped it up to $53,700 with top pair. The young poker superstar, a non-believer, made the call.
The turn was a J but it gave Imsirovic a flush draw. Xuan wasn't ready to let up on the gas and fired away another $101,046 to which his skilled opponent made the call. Both players saw the flush come through on the river (8) and Xuan decided to shove all-in for $309,719. With the ace-high flush, Imsirovic wasn't going anyhwere knowing he could only lose to a straight flush or full house.
Imsirovic made the call to the dismay of Xuan, and shipped a $974,631 pot, far and away the largest no-limit hold'em hand in online poker history. But given how aggressive and wild these GGPoker cash games have become during the WSOP Online Bracelet Series, there's a pretty good chance that record will be broken a time or two before the series concludes on Sep. 6.
