Winning the largest prize available in an online jackpot-style poker game is the stuff dreams are made of, but for a player from southern France, he didn't even have time to dream. Winamax has just released the unusual details behind the payout of its top 'Expresso Million' payout of €800,000 to a player who, hours before the life-changing score, wasn't even registered to play on the site.
The story of 27-year-old Romain, whose last name wasn't published, begins on June 6, when he visited a friend's house to watch him play on the site. Romain decided to buy a piece of his friend's action in one game, but his friend lost. With no money on hand, he agreed to make an account on Winamax and make an online transfer to pay the debt.
Later that night, Romain created a Winamax account and deposited €50, creating the screen name 'Ara digne40'. He had some euros left over and decided to play some Expresso Million SNGs, Winamax's version of the three-handed jackpot-style game that has become popular on many sites. After a couple of hours of playing and moving into the early hours of June 7, Romain decided to play one more SNG at the €25 level, before calling it a night.
The golden jackpot screen appears
That's when the all-but-impossible happened, and the gold-colored jackpot table appeared. “Tell me this is a joke,” he said to himself, and he checked repeatedly to make sure he wasn't accidentally playing in a play-money game.
But it was for real and Romain worked through a couple of crucial hands to end up winning the top prize of €800,000. (The other two players collected consolation prizes of €120,000 and €80,000.) "If I hadn't stopped by my friend's house that afternoon, I might never have created my account," he told Winamax.
Winamax held off publishing news of the win while it investigated the unique circumstances and decided to create a uniquely entertaining feature about the story. The site's recap, offers fuller details on Romain's ultra-lucky day. The recap also includes a full replay of the fast-paced Expresso Million, so you can see how the jackpot SNG played out.
When asked to offer the last word, Romain responded, "Just one? Thanks, Winamax!"
