Top 10 most memorable poker moments from 2023
It was a good year for poker, to say the least, with poker tournaments breaking attendance and prize pool records, some of the biggest televised pots of all time played in massive cash games, and new shows captivating both poker fans and general audiences.
We have seen players go on huge upswings, win the biggest tournaments of their lives, and lose mind boggling amounts of money in single sessions.
We take a look back at all of it and remember the top 10 best poker moments of 2023 to round up the year and take you into yet another new year full of possibility and hope for millions of poker players around the world.
10 . Badziakouski wins the Big One for One Drop
The World Poker Tour’s $1 million Big One for One Drop event made a return in 2023 after a long hiatus and attracted some of the biggest names in poker.
The event ended up with only 17 runners, a few of which came from outside of the high stakes poker community, but it still gave one player the biggest payout of his career.
Belarus Mikita Badziakouski, who is by no means a stranger to playing poker for high stakes, walked away with more than $7 million in December at the end of the three-day tournament held in Las Vegas that saw the likes of Phil Ivey and Isaac Hexton fall along the way.
While Big One didn’t live up to the hype that WPT created around it, for the 17 players who did pony up to million dollar buy-in, it was one of the biggest days in their tournament careers.
Mikita Badziakouski wins the @WPT Big One for @onedrop @allinforonedrop @WynnLasVegas @WynnPoker! ????
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 21, 2023
He’ll take home $7,114,500 with @mariomosboeck finishing runner-up for $4,663,950!
Final Results:
1st: Mikita Badziakouski – $7,114,500
2nd: Mario Mosboeck – $4,663,950
3rd:… pic.twitter.com/DtEPr0Xrez
9. WSOP Main Event Breaks Attendance Record
It was a big year for the World Series of Poker, which ended up being the biggest and most successful poker festival in the history of the game.
From the early days of summer, it was apparent that the 2023 WSOP would be something special, and with the help of its partners at GGPoker and WSOP online poker site, there was little doubt that the 2023 WSOP Main Event would become the biggest ever.
It was made official on Day 1D of the Main Event, when an astounding 4,100 players made their way to the tournament area, bringing to total for the event to 10,043, over 1,200 more than 2006, the year Jamie Gold won it all.
It was Jamie Gold himself who announce the “Shuffle Up and Deal” for Day 1D of the event, as the folks at WSOP were aware this would be the last day he would spend as the champion of the biggest WSOP Main Event in the history of the Series.
In the end, it was seasoned pro Daniel Weinman who won $12.1 million reserved for first place and became king of the poker world, with the likes of Shaun Deeb and Josh Arieh acting as his railbirds and coaches.
If there was one thing that could happen to announce to the world that poker is still alive and well, getting more than 10,000 people to play in a $10k freezeout tournament was certainly very high on the top of that list, making this the biggest poker moment of 2023.
8. Cheating scandal shakes the LA Poker World
Another big story came up in the poker world in late 2023, and this one was very negative, as Nik Airball and Wesley Fei accused another HCL regular, Mars, of being a cheat.
The pair came up with a series of damning evidence against Mars and his alleged accomplices and created quite a fuss in the poker community online.
Whether Mars and his friends cheated in the private games or not will remain a mystery, but the accusations alone were enough to make many potential players carefully reconsider playing in games away from casinos.
Cheating has always been a problem in poker, and this lesson from 2023 is just another that some players might need to keep in mind. If games seem too good to be true, that’s usually because they are!
7. Dwan takes down biggest pot in broadcast poker history
While tournament poker certainly grew quite a bit in 2023 with states like Pennsylvania and Delaware getting more traction, cash games did not lag far behind either, as we saw several of the biggest broadcast cash games in the history of poker played throughout 2023.
One of the biggest was played on Hustler Casino Live stream, with the likes of Doug Polk, Tom Dwan, and Nik Airball all at the table.
The stakes were massive and the pots grew big, but none more than the one played between the high stakes legend Tom Dwan and one of the newcomers to the high stakes cash game scene, Wesley Fei.
The HCL regular 3-bet an early position open from one of the other players, shooting the bet up to $30k, before 5-betting over the top of Tom’s $100k 4-bet. The bet was now $275k, Wesley was holding Ace of diamonds, King of hearts, and Dwan decided to flat call out of position.
Throughout the hand, the live audience was unable to see Tom’s cards, but it was pretty clear that he had a big hand to be able to proceed against such a massive 5-bet.
Wesley fired small on the flop of 8d8s3d, before sticking the rest of his stack out there when the 5h hit the turn.
Tom was in an uncomfortable position, only beating pure bluffs, but after some deliberation managed to make the call and win a pot worth $3.1 million in cold hard cash.
This was the biggest pot we ever saw on a televised or live streamed cash game.
e, and it comes as no surprise that Tom Dwan, the man Phil Hellmuth said would not still be around in five years, won the pot after well over a decade of crushing the biggest cash games in the world.$3.1 million ??
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) May 31, 2023
Tom Dwan wins the biggest pot in the history of televised pokerpic.twitter.com/Jb75gfKFIc
6. Hellmuth and Cates WSOP entrances
Phil Hellmuth is easily one of the biggest entertainers in the poker world, and it seems that Daniel “Jungleman” Cates has decided to follow in his footsteps, as he has displayed some incredible antics over the last few years.
At this year’s WSOP Main Event, the two decided to pair up and enter the event in some style, with Hellmuth wearing a costume of the ringmaster and Jungleman dressing up as a lion, as they made their way into the tournament room.
They were followed by 17 models, one for each of Hellmuth’s WSOP bracelets, and they made quite a fuss, although many in the poker world thought the whole thing was a bit too much.
Love them or hate them, the Poker Brat and Jungle certainly know how to create some buzz and get the eyes of the media on them, which can’t possibly be bad for poker at the end of the day.
5. Airball drops a million to Berkey
The year started off hot, with the high stakes community buzzing with interest in big games and some of the biggest names in poker challenging each other to all sorts of duels.
One of the few that were actually agreed upon and set up was the Nik Airball vs. Matt Berkey, a heads-up match in May that ended up being played in the Resorts World Las Vegas poker room, one of the nicest in Las Vegas.
The two ended up playing just 58 of the agreed 100 hours of heads up poker on the live felt, and the seasoned pro quickly took Airball for a cool million, despite all the trash talking and big threats coming from Nik’s corner.
Not only did Berkey show the world what it means to be a poker pro, but he managed to do what no one else could up to that point, shut Airball up and put him in his place.
Ever since this loss, Nik has been quieter and humbler on the streams, and it seems like the loss even helped him play better poker subsequently, which might be the only win Nik took from the duel.
4. Inaugural WSOP Paradise
For the first time in its long history, WSOP threw a festival in the Bahamas instead of PokerStars PCA even that usually take place there at the start of each year, as WSOP Paradise was announced after the end of the summer part of WSOP in Las Vegas.
There were a lot of skeptics when it came to WSOP Paradise, but the festival ended up being a huge success, with over 3,000 players playing the Main Event, and countless others joining the other 14 WSOP bracelet events played over the course of the two weeks of action.
The Caribbean festival was a massive success, giving players from all over the world a chance to escape the cold climate and enjoy December in Paradise, while playing their favorite game for prize pools that exceeded expectations.
We can expect to see WSOP Paradise come back next year, and should the festival run even more in the future, 2023 will be marked as the year when it all started.
WSOP PARADISE CONCLUDES WITH CROWNING OF FIRST CHAMPION, THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER UNVEILS DATES FOR 2024 WSOP IN LAS VEGAS @GGPoker Online Qualifier Stanislav Zegal named first WSOP Paradise Main Event Champion, taking home $2 million and the first WSOP Paradise Main Event… pic.twitter.com/acyzWNxz8h
— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 15, 2023
3. Adelstein Returns to the Ring
It was certainly a big year for poker, but without one of the toughest competitors at the felt, the high stakes cash game fans could not help but feel like something was missing.
In the dying days of 2023, Garrett Adelstein finally decided to end his hiatus, which originally started after the Robi Jade Lew drama in late 2022.
Adelstein returned in a big way too, winning big on Bally Live Poker and WPT live streams and beating some tough competitors like Andrew Robl and Patrik Antonius along the way.
Garrett, who has been one of the biggest fan favorites out there, will certainly be around quite a bit more in 2024, and we can only look forward to having one of the top cash game players back in the thick of things moving forward.
As for the past, let us hope that scandals such as the one that broke Garrett’s heart can be left behind and never happen again for the sake of the entire poker world.
2. Perkins bets a cool million
Poker players are known as a silly bunch, especially when it comes to what they are willing to bet on, and Bill Perkins is certainly one to come up with some crazy bets.
In 2023, the billionaire poker aficionado decided to bet Shaun Deeb a cool million dollars on whether or not he could get his overall body mass index to under 17%. Deeb was given a full year to accomplish this task, which will be a mountain to climb for the tournament pro, who has lived a life with little regard to his physical shape.
Deeb often spoke about not expecting to live past 45, but with the help of his friend Perkins, it seems like he may be turning his life around.
Win or lose, Deeb will be in a much better shape following the next World Series, which could very well result in a lot better results at the felt as well.
1. Game of Gold makes debut
The end of 2023 was truly spectacular for many reasons, and the airing of Season 1 of GGPoker’s Game of Gold show was definitely one of them.
The show put some of the game’s biggest players like Daniel Negreanu, Fedor Holz, and Jason Koon into the ring, and pit them against other successful players, YouTube streamers, and poker celebrities.
The interesting format of the show, which put together elements of classic tournament poker competition and reality TV, made Game of Gold an instant success.
In the end, it was Maria Ho who took the spoils, winning $456,000 in cash and becoming the inaugural Game of Gold champion, while the likes of Negreanu and Koon left the show early.
It will be interesting to see if Game of Gold returns for new seasons soon, and what kind of changes to the format the folks at GGPoker decide to introduce.
Starting from Nov 8th, ONLY on https://t.co/awLvJg7dKU#Poker #RealityShow #GameOfGold pic.twitter.com/n9AcI2N27n
— GGPoker (@GGPoker) November 5, 2023