It might be hard to believe that the action in nosebleed high-stakes cash games is real.
As Patrick Leonard said in a post on X last week: "High stakes live streams are so foreign to us from the outside, because... what do you mean you just raised three kids' lifetime tuition fees and then called a two-condo three-bet with T9o."
And that was before the action on the recent High Stakes Poker livestreams got really wild.
On Monday night, Texas Mike and Eric Wasserson played the biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history. Wasserson made his flush on the river and picked off Texas Mike's bluff for a pot worth $4,260,000.
That's a few steps up from kids' tuition fees. Most people won't earn anywhere near that money in their lifetime, let alone win it in four minutes in one hand of poker.
That's not real money!
People have questioned whether the dizzying sums of money are for real or fake before, and they'll carry on doing it whenever the pots get beyond the norm.
Some people think they're actually playing for 10 cents on the dollar, or something similar.
Allen Kessler is the latest player to raise the question without making the accusation himself. He put up a poll on X that asked, "Do you personally believe that these recent multi million dollar pots on High Stakes poker are totally real, or do you feel there is something else going on we all don't know about?"
It had over 5,200 votes at the time of writing, and the results are almost dead even. That means there are roughly 2,600 people who think the action is fake.
Here's the evidence for the defence
If you're one of the roughly 2,600 people with doubts, please read the rest of the article.
Check out the reaction from Texas Mike after Wasserson shows the best hand in the record pot above. The normally mild-mannered player was not happy and said, "Maybe the biggest nit-roll of all time."
"I said immediately I had a huge hand," Wasserson snap-replied. "I've never played a pot that big before."
That's not the reaction of two pals who are playing cinema poker.
Texas Mike also took to X after the week-long High Stakes Poker streams to set the record straight. In a series of posts he reiterated that all the money on the table is real.
Texas Mike also said that he plays with his own money and that he's not backing Wasserson, either. Shame. Wasserson ended the week over $3 million up.
Brent Hanks, the CEO of PokerGO, also responded to Kessler and extended an invitation. Don't expect that to happen in your lifetime.
It won't be enough to convince everyone. This is the internet, after all.
But, hopefully, if you needed convincing, it's enough for you.
