Over the course of the past year, there have been countless hands of poker played. Some won, others lost, a few chopped up. These eight stood out and shaped the narratives that made 2024 such a wild and exciting year for poker.
Biggest-ever pot on High Stakes Poker
Given the line-ups this year, it's no surprise that there were several pots that got close to $1 million on High Stakes Poker. It's also no surprise that Andrew Robl and Santhosh Suvarna ended up contesting the biggest of them all.
It's a hand of two parts. The first was all Robl's as he held 
on the 
flop. Suvarna had 
and less than 1% equity – but the poker gods had a plan.
Tamayo's WSOP Main Event controversy
By now, Jonathan Tamayo's WSOP Main Event victory has been discussed, dissected, and disputed ad nauseam.
In case you somehow missed out on the controversy, Tamayo – and his rail/coaches Joe McKeehen and Dominik Nitsche –drew the ire of many in the community after utilizing a laptop to run solver-based simulations in between hands at the final table of the Main Event.
For some, the complaint was purely from an optics point-of-view – to them, this was a bad look for the game. Others took their complaints to the WSOP rulebook, arguing that an unfair advantage was gained.
While there's no singular hand that stands out amongst the others, the cumulative effect of Tamayo's final table controversy offers a strong argument for this winning hand being the most important of the year.
Kristen Foxen breaks hearts in the Main Event
Kristen Foxen's deep run in the 2024 WSOP Main Event had nearly the entire poker community in her corner. The excitement surrounding Foxen's deep run built steadily as the tournament neared the final table.
Unfortunately, Foxen took a stand at the wrong time when she tried to bluff Joe Serock off a hand he could never fold. Still, Foxen had outs to survive and across the world, poker fans were willing the deck to keep her in it. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be and her run came to an end in 13th place.
Crazy bad beat for Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel started Day 3 of Event #16, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (8-Handed) event at the WSOP with a short stack but ground his way back into contention when this hand went down.
From a stack of 890K, Seidel called from the small blind with 
and Sami Bechahed checked with 
.
The 
flop gave Seidel top pair and a better flush draw for 96% equity in the hand. Seidel bet 50K and Bechahed called.
The 
turn completed the flush draw and all the money went in. Bechahed was drawing to just one out. And you can guess what happened next.
Negreanu breaks 11-year bracelet drought
Sometimes it's not the hand itself that's so important, but the ramifications. Daniel Negreanu hadn't won a bracelet since 2013 and he broke his drought in one of the biggest and most important events of the year, the $50K Poker Players Championship. You can see what it means to him as the hand plays out below.
Classic Hellmuth blow-up
Whether you're a big fan of Phil Hellmuth or not, it's hard to keep your eyes off of him when he's at the table – especially if there's a vintage Hellmuth blow-up simmering under the surface.
Hellmuth's appearance on PokerGO's No Gamble, No Future managed to deliver up an all-time great from the Poker Brat. Hellmuth's counterpart in the hand – Humboldt Mike – played his role to perfection with subtle (somewhat) needles fired throughout the game to bring Hellmuth to a boiling point.
The coup de grace came when Hellmuth and Humboldt Mike got the chips in for a $52,000 pot. Hellmuth had the worst of it preflop but connected with the flop to take the lead. Humboldt Mike wasn't drawing dead but only had two outs. He couldn't, could he?
Boeree vs. Moneymaker: WSOP Super Main Event
This was a monster. The big story in the WSOP Super Main Event was Chris Moneymaker. He created the poker boom when he won the WSOP Main Event in 2003 but hasn't won a bracelet since. Winning this one – in a tournament with the world's biggest ever guarantee of $50 million – would have been huge for the poker world and validation for Moneymaker.
There were just 10 players left when Liv Boeree burst his bubble, taking him out just before the final table. The elimination happened over two hands, and the first was the most brutal for Moneymaker.
Boeree finished the job off in the hand that you can watch below, eliminating Moneymaker but creating a huge story in her own right by final tabling the WSOP Super Main Event. It might not have been the Main Event but it's the next closest thing, and Boeree went on to break the record for the biggest-ever cash by a female player.
Texas Mike's insane mega-bluff
Back in May, Hustler Casino Live put together another top-notch lineup for its Million Dollar Game. With names like Tom Dwan, Alan Keating, and Santhosh Suvarna in the mix, standing out amongst the crowd in this game was no easy feat.
For 'Texas Mike' Moncek, however, that's exactly what it was. Moncek showed the world his fearless play style during one of the highest-stakes streamed games of the year and sent shockwaves through the community with an insane bluff in a million-diollar pot.
