Eric Wasserson won a $2.478 million pot against Andrew Robl during the August 29 High Stakes Poker LIVE game at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, briefly setting a new record for the show.
The record-breaking hand came on August 29 during the ongoing High Stakes Poker LIVE series and pushed Wasserson past the previous $2,421,500 record set by Santhosh Suvarna earlier in Season 16.
It also completed an extraordinary turnaround for Wasserson.
Just one night earlier, he had finished $1,110,500 down during the wild $9 million High Stakes Poker cash game that produced five seven-figure pots.
Twenty-four hours later, he had set the biggest pot in the show’s history at that point. The mark lasted less than 48 hours before Wasserson broke it again, this time winning $4.26 million from Texas Mike.
Wasserson and Robl Build a $2.478 Million Pot
The hand began with a $2,000 straddle before Wasserson raised to $20,000 from the button holding ace-nine.
Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek called from the small blind with eight-five of clubs.
Robl then found jack-ten of diamonds in the big blind and three-bet to $110,000.
Wasserson wasn’t going anywhere.
He four-bet to $280,000, forcing Texas Mike out of the hand. Robl called, leaving the pair heads-up with almost $600,000 already sitting in the middle before the flop.
The dealer spread nine-seven-four.
Wasserson had paired his nine, while Robl had plenty of possibilities with his jack-ten. Both players checked.
The three of diamonds arrived on the turn, giving Robl additional equity with a diamond draw.
That was when the hand exploded.
Robl checked and Wasserson bet $200,000.
Robl responded by moving all-in, effectively putting Wasserson to a decision for another $940,000.
Wasserson called.
The pot had reached $2,478,000.
Wasserson Wins Both Boards
With almost $2.5 million at stake, Wasserson and Robl agreed to run the remaining cards twice.
Wasserson didn’t need the insurance.
He won both boards.
Every chip in the $2.478 million pot moved across the table to Wasserson, establishing a new High Stakes Poker record.
Suvarna’s $2,421,500 pot had only set the benchmark earlier this year. Wasserson has now pushed it another $56,500 higher.
From $1.1 Million Loss to High Stakes Poker History
The timing makes Wasserson’s record particularly remarkable.
During Friday’s enormous game, he endured a brutal session and finished as the biggest reported loser at $1,110,500 down.
Texas Mike lost another $1,061,000 despite winning a $1,517,500 pot against Robl, while Stanley Tang and Sameh Elamawy finished the night as seven-figure winners.
That session demonstrated just how dramatically the stakes had increased since the opening nights of the High Stakes Poker LIVE run.
Earlier in the week, YoH ViraL’s $223,400 clash with Andrew Pacheco had briefly been the biggest pot of the series.
By Friday, $223,400 looked almost modest.
By Saturday, even a $2.4 million pot was no longer enough to hold the High Stakes Poker record.
High Stakes Poker Records Keep Falling
High Stakes Poker first aired in 2006 and became famous for putting enormous cash games on television at a time when six-figure pots were enough to leave viewers stunned.
Twenty years later, the scale has changed considerably.
The current seven-night High Stakes Poker LIVE run, presented by CoinPoker, has brought some of the biggest cash-game players in poker to Las Vegas and produced increasingly huge confrontations as the week has progressed.
Poker Type has also covered the CoinPoker promotion offering a player a $100,000 shot at appearing on High Stakes Poker, underlining how heavily the operator has been involved with the latest run of the show.
For Wasserson, however, August 29 will be remembered for something considerably simpler.
He sat down one night after losing more than $1.1 million, played a pot worth almost $2.5 million against Andrew Robl, won both boards and walked away with a High Stakes Poker record.
The $2,478,000 pot is now an important part of the record progression rather than the current benchmark. Wasserson’s later $4.26 million pot against Texas Mike replaced it less than two days later.
