Poker isn’t just a gambling game, it’s an art combining strategy and individual playing styles. Yes, it’s true that luck has a lot to do with all gambling games in general, and it’s the same for games such as poker. However, poker involves a lot of skill, mental retention and probability calculation – as well as luck itself, especially in the short run. Therefore, very few spectacles in the world of gambling match the drama of the poker table, and of all poker games and events, nothing comes even close to the infamous World Series of Poker (WSOP) that is hosted annually.
Each year, the tournament produces those electric, key moments that become etched in poker’s lengthy history, more often than not defined and carved out by a single hand that changes everything in the game. This could be a major bluff that shocks audiences, or coolers that no one could escape from – these hands aren’t just about clinking poker chips, they’re about the psychological mind game, risk, and the fine line between genius, master and disaster.
For those poker fans who enjoy studying the strategy behind legendary plays, online resources can add depth to the experience. With millions of active users, it’s clear that many players have decided to move their casual play online. In a recent article, askgamblers.com highlighted convenience, multi-table choice, absence of tells and 24/7 availability as being among the key reasons why players have made the change en masse.
With the ease of access to learning tools online, new players have a deeper and broader perspective of the game and player behaviors. The WSOP’s most memorable moments often hinge on themes like calculated risk, pressure under the lights and how players balance mathematics with pure, veteran poker instinct.
What we will do now is take a chronological deep dive into 10 iconic hands and break down why they’re still talked about in the gambling world today.
1. 2003 Main Event – Chris Moneymaker vs Sam Farha
Who doesnt love a great hero and villain story? Well, the man who started the great poker boom in 2003, Chris Moneymaker and Sammy Farha fit like a glove. Sammy with his cigar, suit and sunglasses and Chris, an accountant and amateur player at the time who qualified for the main event and is now heads-up against the legendary gambler Farha for a world series main event title and bracelet.
Sammy opens the button with JTo for 100k chips and Chris quickly calls 45o. Flop comes J45 with Spade flushdraw giving Sammy top pair but Chris bottom 2 pair. Chris checks and Sammy bets 175k, Chris hollywoods a bit and announces a raise to 475k. Sammy is visibly not loving it, letting out a I don’t like it puff of air and then jams, Chris calls and the runout is 8 – 5 giving Chris the win and securing him as a legend of the game, showing the world anyone can win even against the best if you use your table image well & the deck is on your side that day.
2. 1988 Main Event – Johnny Chan vs Erik Seidel
A hand that is definitely not only legendary, but shows some very nice discipline from Johnny. In a HU setting we start at 10k-20k blinds with stacks about 1.4million for chan and erik 300k Johnny limps the button with j9s and Erik checks back q7o.
Flop comes QT8 giving Johnny the nuts and Erik top pair. Johnny bets 40k and gets raised by Eriks top pair to 90k which by modern standards is considered unnecessary but hey – this hand was played in 1988, almost 40 years ago! Johnny calls, setting a trap to the future young Hall of Famer. Turn is an offsuit 2 changing nothing and both Erik now checks and Johnny puts on his best oscar performance rolling his eyes, perhaps trying to take advantage of Eriks inexperience at the time.
River is another inconsequential offsuit 6 and Seidel shoves, getting met by Johnny’s hands up celebration and snapcall. Is there a worse feeling in poker when you get snapped off within 2 seconds after shoving with a medium strength hand? Although apparently the chipstacks were reversed at one point with Chan having 200k and Seidel the remaining 1.5million, this is a ugly cooler at this short stack depth, Chan said it was his plan all along to trap Erik and let him bluff off his money in a post-game interview. GG!
3. 1997 – Third Main Event win: Stu Ungar
In the final hand of the Main Event, Stu Ungar defeated John Strzemp by hitting a Wheel on the river. Ungar held Ace-Four (A♣ 4♣ to be specific) while Strzemp had A♦ 8♦), and a deuce landed on the river to complet Ungar’s straight, securing his third World Championship title.
The final hand of Ungar’s third Main Event win wasn’t a particularly dramatic one, but the absolute weight of history made it unforgettable! Ungar – long considered one of the greatest natural talents in poker – cemented his legacy here, as strategically, his entire run was a display of uncanny hand reading and fearless aggression. To this day, some say that Ungar was the best naturally talented player of all time, even before solvers he showed an understanding and hand reading that made him considered so good, even calling out an opponents exact hand and paying off a bet with ten high – if only we had all the cameras back in the day to record this, as some serious street poker was played back in the day!
4. 1998 Main Event final hand – Scotty Nguyen vs Kevin McBride
If you are familiar with legendary sayings from oldschool poker players back in the day then “You call, it’s gonna be all over baby” is definitely one you have heard before. Now the hand itself is not that interesting as the board was reading 99888 giving both a Full House and McBride calling the river in the hopes of splitting and Nguyen having a better Full House with J9, but what makes this hand interesting is the speech play and confidence from Nguyen.
5. 2003 Main Event – Chris Moneymaker bluffs Sam Farha
As said earlier Moneymakers main event win was the start of The Poker Boom, a true era. How did we get here? Well, in one hand he put Sammy to the ultimate test running a king high bluff that would have had many of us shaking in our boots.
Again, in a heads-up setting Moneymaker opens the button with K7 for 100k and gets quickly called by Sammy’s Q9, the flop comes 926 with a flushdraw, Farha checks in flow and Moneymaker checks back relatively fast. Turn is a 8 of spades completing frontdoor flushdraw and Sammy bets 300k which is a very large bet only to be faced by a raise from Moneymaker to 800k. Farha chooses to call. River is an offsuit 3 that does not improve either player’s hand, Farha checks in flow once more and Moneymaker decides to go all-in to which Sammy folds. Would you have dared to bluff the legendary Farha in this spot?
6. 2004 Main Event final hand – Greg Raymer vs David Williams
In this hand we are yet again heads-up in the main event, but this time the young player Williams has played more conservative and Raymer more aggressively throughout the match. Williams opens the button with A4 offsuit to 300k and Raymer calls with 88.
With the flop coming 425 flushdraw, giving Williams middle pair and a gutshot but Raymer still has the lead with his pocket 88. Raymer checks and Williams bets 500k, only to be faced with a check-raise to 1.6 million and the unsuspecting Williams calls.
Turn brings an offsuit 2, a card that is unlikely to change anything and Raymer bets 2.5 million which is a meaty bet, still confident that his hand is good Williams calls with almost lightning speed, almost having put in half his stack by now on this low texture.
River is another offsuit 2 and Raymer shoves. Now on this occasion Williams takes about 10 seconds and calls, sealing his fate as the runner-up for the 2004 main event. Raymer celebrates with a shout, continuing the poker boom as the third consecutive non-professional main event winner showing once again that anyone can win in this beautiful game at any given day even if the odds are against you, showcasing some classic tournament poker variance.
7. 2006 Main Event final hand – Jamie Gold vs Paul Wasicka
There were a lot of controversies at the time with Golds table talk, a TV producer that went on a historic run in the 2006 main event, often saying that he was pushing the boundaries of what was considered ethical or in some cases even outside the rules, only to eventually win it all.
In this hand we are heads-up with blinds at 200k-400k with a 50k ante with Wasicka being the effective stack at around 16 million. Gold limps Q9 offsuit and Wasicka raises to 1.3million with pocket tens. Gold calls and we go to a flop of Q85 with a flushdraw. Wasicka decides to continuation bet for 1.5million into a pot of 2.7million and faces a huge shove from Gold for effectively 13.4million, and as you might predict, Wasicka is thinking and Gold starts talking to him, putting his table talk antics on display trying to mess with Wasicka and almost taunting him to call as he gets confirmation that he has the best hand from Wasicka. Eventually Wasicka calls and the runout is an offsuit Ace and offsuit 4 giving Jamie gold the Main Event win together with a record-breaking 12 million dollars prize.
8. 2010 Main Event final hand – Jonathan Duhamel vs John Racener
With blinds at 800k / 1.6million heads-up in the Main Event, Jonathan Duhamel openshoves the button for 16million with AJ offsuit, Racener looks down at K8 suited which is unfortunate because at this stack depth the hand plays itself. After a short thought, Racener calls and the runout is 944-6-5 giving Duhamel the win as the first Canadian ever to take down the Main Event trophy.
9. 2014 $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop – Scott Seiver v Tobias Reinkemeier
In the first ever 1million dollar buyin, started by Guy Laliberte, Seiver openraises KT suited to 1.2million in the HJ position and due to Seiver having a short stack of only 17 big blinds Reinkemeier decides to slowplay AA from the big blind as there is very little room to 3bet bluff against such a short stack.
They go to a flop of Q42 with two clubs. Neither player has a club in hand. Reinkemeier checks in flow and Seiver decides to continue bet for 1.5million into 3.2 million. Reinkemeier calls. Turn brings J of clubs, giving Scott now an open-ended straightdraw but completing the frontdoor flushdraw and Reinkemeier continues to play in flow and checks. After a short pause for thinking, Seiver decides to move all-in for about the size of the pot.
Now verbal exchange takes place. Reinkemeier removes his sunglasses and starts staring down at Seiver, trying to get any form of information to help with his decision, but Seiver goes into his infamous mouth-open posture. Seeing he will not get a live read from Seiver, Reinkemeier starts to talk to Scott, saying he was trapping to trigger a response. An interesting dynamic takes place where Tobias asks if he can say his hand and before anyone can answer Scott says “Everyone knows your hand anyway, it is either AQ or KQ”.
Now from a pure strategical point of view, there are many things going on here, first since Seiver is raising from a shortstack, Tobias is more likely to not defend the bottom parts of his range which would make him more weighted towards suited hands which makes Seivers shove stronger. However, it is still not unlikely that Seiver is shoving a worse hand for value, Scott however starts to engage in table talk, in a way he is kind of honest in his speech play and probably surprised at how strong Tobias’ hand is but still trying to elicit a fold.
In the end after a while, Tobias’ decides to fold which is surprising considering he can still beat value bets and there are still quite a few hands in Scotts’ shoes that he is shoving as a bluff and aces beat both of those categories. After a fold Scott says “There is no way, those are aces” and Tobias encourages the dealer to show his hand to which Scott gives a hollywood level performance showing disappointment over Tobias’ fold and then proudly tables the KT bluff rubbing salt in the wound and giving us an unforgettable viewing experience.
10. 2003 Main Event – Chris Moneymaker rivers Phil Ivey
This is a historic cooler, as many say if Ivey hadn’t been on the receiving end of a nasty cooler, he would have been a big favourite to win the Main Event that year based on how he was playing. We start off with Moneymaker raising from UTG+1 position with AQ offsuit to 60k and Ivey deciding to flat pocket 9s from the cutoff. Now interestingly enough from the small blind a player by the name of Jason Lester looks down at pocket Tens and decides to also flat, closing the action. Had he squeezed this hand, there is a strong chance poker history as we know it would be completely different as both Moneymaker and Ivey would have had strong arguments to folding their hands preflop, however as played he calls and we go to a flop 3-way which comes QQ6 with a flushdraw.
Lester checks in flow, Moneymaker decides to bet 70k which is a small bet, more in line with modern theory and Ivey decides to call. Lester decides to just fold his hand which is quite fortunate for him as he was already behind Moneymaker and soon to be behind against Ivey as the turn comes an offsuit 9 giving Ivey a full house. Moneymaker decides to continue betting for 200k into a pot of 360k, Ivey scratches his nose and decides to move all-in with having not many chips behind and gets snapcalled by Moneymaker only to be disappointed to see that Ivey turned a full house on him. The river however is an Ace, giving Moneymaker the better full house, sealing Ivey’s fate in this tournament and knocking him out of the in 10th place.
