The ultimate WSOP winner – Jamie Gold
The World Series of Poker is one of the world’s most famous poker tournaments that dishes out some staggering payouts to its top players. The 2006 WSOP tournament was no exception. The Main Event saw the single largest money pool for a professional poker tournament in recent memory. After an arduous battle at the tables professional gambler and card expert Jamie Gold skyrocketed to international fame after winning the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship. He outlasted over 8,500 other players and brought home a whopping $12,067,292 in prize money and the WSOP winner’s gold bracelet.
Gold’s impressive performance throughout the tournament culminated in a final table victory against Paul Wasicka. Gold beat Wasicka heads-up with a final hand of Q? 9? matching a pair with the board’s Q? 8? 5?. Wasicka had 10? 10? and his winning chances did not improve with an A? on the turn and 4? on the river. Gold later stated that he originally wanted to come in second place to avoid fame, but his uncanny skills and ability to read is opponents with incredible accuracy ultimately led his big win. With his incredible 2006 WSOP finish, Gold became the first player to date to surpass the $10,000,000 benchmark in a professional poker tournament.
The Phantom Gambler
In September 1980, a man by the name of William Lee Bergstrom walked into the infamous Binion’s Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas with two suitcases—one empty and the other full of cash. He walked right past the cashier for chips and instead placed an astounding $777,000 bet on the “Don’t Pass line” in craps in cash, an amount equivalent to nearly $2.3 million in today’s money. Benny Binion, owner and operator of the Horseshoe, known for honoring a bet of any size at his establishment as long as it was a gambler’s first, allowed the bet. Bergstrom won, doubled his money on a single roll of the dice, collected his winnings in both suitcases with the help of Binion himself, and immediately exited the casino. His win was the single largest win in Vegas history at a craps table (at the time), and due to his enigmatic presence as well as relative anonymity, Bergstrom became known as the Phantom Gambler.
It would be years before anyone heard from Bergstrom again, but on March 24th, 1984, he returned to the Horseshoe for another bet on craps. Placing a bet of $538,000 on the “Don’t Pass line”, he pulled of another remarkable win, and won an additional $190,000 and $90,000 at the craps table. Bergstrom once again left the casino and used his winnings to take his mother to a Willie Nelson concert, then mysteriously disappeared again. On November 16th, 1984, Bergstrom returned to the Horseshoe with a suitcase filled with $550,000 in cash, $140,000 in gold Krugerrands, and $310,000 in cashier’s checks. Once again, Binion honored the bet, and Bergstrom made the same bet as before. He placed all of his money on his favorite wager, the “Don’t Pass line” at the craps table. Sadly, this time Bergstrom did not guess correctly and lost his bet, and in a tragic turn of events, he took his own life in 1985.
The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo
The Monte Carlo casino in Monaco is one of the most famous casinos in the world. Long known for its opulence and eye-catching décor, it attracts wealthy individuals and members of high society looking to have a good time on the casino floor and avid gamblers looking to become big winners. In its long and rich history, one story that stands out at the top of the list is that of Charles Wells. Back in the late 1800s, Wells was an engineer, inventor and confidence man, known for persuading investors to lend him money for fraudulent business schemes. However, this particular story takes place in the late summer of 1891. On a hot day in August, Wells strolled into the Monte Carlo casino and approached the roulette tables with approximately $6,000 dollars at stake. Over the course of the next five days, Wells would go on to win staggering sums of money at the roulette tables. In one roulette session, Wells won 23 out of 30 spins of the wheel, a truly mind-blowing statistic. At the end of his run, Wells pocketed roughly $80,000 in winnings, equivalent to nearly $6 million in modern currency.
Wells’ string of fortune was so incredible that he managed to break the bank. At the time, each roulette table at the casino was backed with a cash reserve of 100,000 francs (roughly $240,000), but because of the amount that Wells won, the casino was unable to pay him his winnings immediately and suspended gaming operations. Many people, including casino management, found Wells’ luck at the tables impossible, and speculation arose as to whether he had cheated the casino due (mostly due his reputation as a fraudster). Unfortunately, the casino was never able to prove any signs of wrongdoing, and paid him the money. When questioned, Wells claimed that he had perfected an “infallible system” to accomplish his roulette wins. More than likely, because of his ingenuity as an engineer, Wells could have discovered mechanical weaknesses in the roulette wheels utilized by the Monte Carlo. By using these flaws to his advantage, he was able to bet numbers that appeared more often. His gamble paid off, and his remarkable feat was immortalized in the popular song, “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”.
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