Poker pro Derek Kwan, co-host of the popular podcast The LA Poker Roundup, recently put out a call to every poker degen who’s had a wild encounter at the table. He posted on X, “Share a piece of poker lore about yourself,” and watched the thread go viral. It's now had over 2 million views and counting.
Here are some of our favorites. All true? We’ll have to take the players at their word. Check the thread for more and add your own while you’re there.
1. Jonathan Tamayo’s unfortunate accident
Jonathan Tamayo: “Before Day 6 of 2024 [Main Event][which he won], I arrived about 20 minutes early and went to use the bathroom. Except I had a bad accident while using the bathroom and then went to a stall to clean up. It was worse than I thought and had to make do. I heard the call to open bags and I was at the second TV table. My house chat thought I was joking and didn't do anything to help the situation (like a change of clothes). So I had to deal with it all day."
2. Charlie Carrel accidentally kick-starts a sun run
Charlie Carrel: “I accidentally put my last $5k into a $5k tournament. I thought some people owed me money but they didn't. I was wildly disorganized back then. I won the tournament for $180k and then went on a $3-4 million upswing. I definitely ran too good at points in my career."
3. Nelly blocks Boski
Jeff Boski: “I sat next to Nelly in a $400 tournament at the Wynn and THIS happened!”
4. Elder gets 70/30 on the Sunday Million
Rupert Elder: "A Sunday in October 2007. Second year of university and bankroll around $2-3k from SNGs. Chatting in a 2+2 MTT IRC. Offer stakes in $55 @ 70/30 to anyone. One guy’s Sharkscope wasn't as bad as the rest so stake him into the Sunday Million. He wins and pays. I lost most of it in Vegas the following summer."
5. Collin Capone and the drunken chop
Collin Capone: "About 15 years ago I picked up my buddies Jeff and Lawrence to go play a $50 mtt at Yellowhead in Edmonton and they were both wasted already. Jeff asks if we want to split three ways if any of us cash and I said no since they were both so drunk and I didn't think they'd last 5 mins. I agreed to drive them home or they'd catch a cab if they busted first… I bubbled and they kept drinking all night and somehow chopped it. Think they paid for my McDonald's on the way home."
6. Ouch! Fleyshman loses a $740K pot
Dan Fleyshman: “I ran $10k up to $740K after two days of no sleep, only to lose it all in this hand…
Straddles are crazy at $100-$200-$400-$800-$1,600. I make it $6,000 with 
and get raised to $15,000 and 4-bet to $35,000. Kido Pham calls, I call and the 3-bettor calls. Flop 3-7-8 all spades! I check, and the 3-bettor moves all-in for his $130,000 stack; the well-known wealthy 4-bettor is all-in with $200,000, and Kido has over a $1,000,000 stack and announces all-in on the button.
I call $700K with the nut flush, and I’m up against QQ, AA and Kido’s 6-4 of spades. We’ve been running it twice the last two days but Kido tells the dealer to run it ONE TIME since he only has one out. The players try to rationalize with him, but he’s being staked, so he wants max action and proceeds to tell the dealer ONE TIME!"
7. An unexpected golden shower
“I was at the Bicycle playing the low-stakes $80 game (buy-in). A super drunk guy in seat 6 loses his stack to seat 9. Suddenly seat 6 pulls his wang out of his pants under the table and proceeds to piss all over seat 9's legs and shoes. He didn't realize he was being peed on until a dude from another table told him. Was immediately kicked out.”
8. 'I don't know if it's real poker'
Aaron Barone: "I want to say 2010-2013, I'm making instructional videos for PokerVT about my main game at the time (low-stakes SNGs). I got invited to a private cash game to be recorded for future content with other instructors who were all far more accomplished and better players than me: Jon Turner, Brian Rast and Daniel Negreanu. To the surprise of absolutely no one, I got crushed.
Later that night, there was a party at Daniel’s house. I somehow got invited to that too. Probably out of sympathy if I’m being completely honest. Immediately, Daniel showed me around. Really gracious of him because I’m effectively a nobody and this is a party he’s hosting with his friends. I remember people playing backgammon, in the corner was one of those stand-up arcade games, and his house had two ovens. First time I’d ever seen something like that. Baller shit.
At some point, Daniel asked about SNGs and if he could watch me play a few games. Negreanu wants to watch ME play poker? I’d be honored. He showed me to his office, where I logged on to PokerStars and loaded my specialty, 9-max turbo SNGs. I was so proud. He watched me for a few minutes until he grew bored of my nitty style. Said something along the lines of, 'That’s cool but I don’t know if it’s real poker.' He then went back to the party while I stayed alone in the office for the next 45 minutes playing out the session."
9. Run over by a legend
Matt Matthews: “Playing at Bellagio 2007. I stand up to leave and Doyle Brunson comes flying in and runs over my foot with his scooter. Says sorry kid and keeps driving. Whole table got a laugh."
10. That’s Phil!
Bob Daley: “2003 WSOP $3k NL. My table includes Phil Hellmuth. He shows up late and gets involved in pots with an Asian guy. Finally Phil thinks he’s trapped the dude with kings, but the guy flops a set of 7s and busts him. Phil is pissed. He tears his cards in half. Big delay — everyone else: 'That’s Phil!'"
11. Life comes at you fast
Dennis Yokum: “Years ago at Thunder Valley, I got a bad beat jackpot when my quad threes were beat by a straight flush. Everyone else at the table got $600+ and a young girl said, 'I really needed that.' 'Bad day?' I asked. 'Well, my parents died this morning.' We all grieve in different ways, I guess.”
Additional images courtesy of WPT and PokerStars. Some tweets have been edited for grammar.
