What is the biggest WOW! moment you ever saw in poker?

Question

What is the time you were the most amazed by something you saw in poker? A time you said Wow! Or something stronger.

For me it was a home game of "dealer's choice." One of the regulars often called a game of draw, house rules of two draws of up to two cards. But with a change to the usual rules. If you were staying to the final showdown, you had to draw at least one card on the last draw.

So he dealt out the five cards for everybody, looked at his hand, and on his turn folded. But he said he was carefully putting his five cards aside until the end of the hand. Then he did his task as dealer until the end of the hand.

After the hand was decided and the pot collected, he revealed the five cards he had folded. He had a Royal Flush. He had dealt it "pat" to himself. But his rule meant he had to toss at least one card in order to stay in until the end. So instead of busting his RF, he preserved it to show us. It was the only RF he had ever been dealt. And his own rule meant he could not play it.

Answer 1

You've tagged it as 5-card Draw, but I hope you'll allow a Hold-em story.

Some betting pre-flop.

The flop comes down Deuce, King, Nine, rainbow. Player 1 bets. Player 2 raises. Player 1 re-raises all in. Player 2 calls.

All other players have folded.

Player 1 shows set of Deuces. Player 2 shows set of Kings.

Turn comes down Deuce. Player 1 celebrates. River comes down King. Table explodes.

Answer 2

I did not witness this, but heard from an old friens of mine, in a low limit seven card stud, game back in the 80's at the Sahra poker room a pot was split between two players with royal flushes. the story was told to me by Razzo, who had it written up on his web site, called poker world. Razzo has long since passed away, and the web domain sold. The dealers name was Al bass according to Razzo.

Answer 3

Ok, I kind of cheated with my first answer because I was not witness to it. but one hand I saw I was dealing at a 10/20 NLHE game, a Player raised preflop, and was re raised, and he shot back one more time, and was raised again, when he started mumbling about these dam kings are no good, after a little time he folded his kings, face up on the table, his opponent flashed his aces and said something like great fricking fold. Another legendary wow lay down I heard of happened in a 20/40 limit holdem game at the Stardust back in the 80's. this was the classic ram and jamming action when the players both have AA or KK in the hole, so this hand starts like that, every street was capped as both plyers flopped sets and both players made quads, pretty amazing and wow, that got more so when the player with KKKK, had a moment of clarity and concluded he was beat and rather than paying one more bet for a show down mucked the hand.

Answer 4

One of the biggest WOW moments I have ever experienced playing poker, was during a charity game of Texas Hold'em.

I was dealt pocket 9's, another player was dealt pocket 8's, and another player was dealt big slick.

There was a fair amount of pre-flop betting, including raises and re-raises.

The flop came out all spades: A, 10, K.

Big slick was in that magical place between possibly having a full house and possibly getting destroyed by a flush.

Pocket 8's decided to bet big, with the rest of us calling.

The turn: Jack of spades.

At this point, big slick is about to toss his cookies. Myself, having the 9 of spades, I decided to juice up the pot. I placed a large bet, and received 2 flat calls.

The river: Queen of spades!

After the tournament, I calculated the odds of the board hitting a Royal Flush. I don't recall the result of my calculation, but when I reflect on that evening, I'm still amazed that it happened. The odds are staggeringly small.

Answer 5

The 2008 WSOP Main Event hand where one guy hit quad aces but the final ace gave a royal flush to the other guy was the most ridiculous thing I ever watched. It was something out of an old gambling movie.

Answer 6

playing a SNG online, once I was dealt 99, the flop came 9X9, I bet out, and was raised I knew I had the hook sunk deep so I pushed all in, and was much to my delight called, byt the river a second 10 hit the board, excuse me if this sounds like a bad beat story, the palyer had made 4 tens.

Answer 7

once playing online I was dealt pocket aces, and the action went hot, very hot one player raised me everytime I bet. the flop came A 4suited in hearts. so I kept betting and raising my live one, it was a limit tournament. my opponent had 2-3 hearts, so he is drawing at a straight flush, I ended up with aces full, he made his straight fludh, it always amazed me, how he kept raising on the draw.