The Biggest Instant Wins Ever!
It was rapper 50 Cent who gave the world the catchphrase 'Get rich, or die trying.' Not everything in life is about money, but having money to spend certainly makes your life easier. All of us - with the exception of those who are already rich - have dreamed about winning big. Most of us know what we'd spend money on if we suddenly came into a fortune, and daydreaming about those luxury holidays, sports cars and mansions we'd buy for ourselves and our friends are a fun way of passing the time when we have nothing better to do.
For the majority of people, getting rich isn't an easy process. There aren't too many jobs which will make someone a millionaire, so short of opening your own business or becoming a successful movie or sports star, the lifestyle of the super-rich appears to be out of rich - unless we're lucky enough to grab an instant win from somewhere. By 'instant win' we mean the kind of cash prizes you can win in gambling competitions, and change your life with a big cash windfall from a small stake.
Your chances of a sudden big win might not be huge - but the money is there, and someone had to win it, so why not you? Let's check out the biggest 'instant win' prizes of all time!
The Largest Poker Win Ever
Winning in poker is a little different to winning in other forms of gambling. You'll still need luck, just like you will in any game where chance plays a part, but you also need skill. You need to have the poker skill to predict which cards are in the hands-on your opponents, and what might still be left in the dealer's hand. You also need to know the relative value of whatever's in your own hand. While you're busy working all of that out, you need to keep a perfectly straight face so you don't give away your excitement - or lack of - about your chances of winning the hand. Only when you've mastered all of that you can walk away with a huge poker win!
Putting the time in to learn the art of poker is extremely worthwhile if you’re good enough. The benchmark is Iranian poker star and former magician Antonio Esfandiari, who broke the world record for poker winnings in a single tournament during 2012. At the WSOP Big One For OneDrop, Esfandiari won a tense final to claim an enormous prize of $18.35m. Almost twenty million dollars for a day’s work? That’s enough to make us want to book some poker lessons right now!