A Video poker jackpot doesn’t have a reputation for huge like slot machines do. Instead, it’s known for paying a maximum of 4,000 coins for a royal flush (w/ 5-coin bet).
However, a big video poker jackpot can come from large progressive jackpots in some cases. Several players have won six figures through these payouts.
Below, I’m going to discuss 5 of the biggest video poker jackpots in history. I’ll also cover tips for how you can go for similar prizes too.
1 – WSOP Champ Huck Seed Wins Over $670k
Huck Seed is a poker player best known for winning the Main Event of the 1996 World Series of Poker. Seed is no stranger to winning big in Texas Holdem, as seen by his $1 million payday for winning the WSOP Main Event.
In 2011, though, he made a fortune playing a new game: video poker. Seed was playing at the ARIA in Las Vegas when he won a $670,665 prize.
I’ve never heard of a video poker payout like this. Seed won a $670.7k jackpot, which would be enough to win a large Texas Holdem event.
Playing for this windfall, on the other hand, was not cheap. Seed won the win while playing in the ARIA’s high-limit area and betting $500 per round.
The winning hand, a royal flush of spades, was tweeted by Seed. He also stated that he was participating in video poker for two reasons:
After Black Friday, online poker was in limbo.
He discovered a game with a theoretical advantage due to the large payoff.
Seed determined that he had a 0.65% advantage due to the size of the jackpot. He calculated that for every round played, he’d make $3 in potential winnings.
Before getting the royal, Seed played for six hours, logging about 1,000 hands per hour. He also claimed that he was down $50,000 on the machine before winning the $670,000 payoff, netting him a profit of almost $620,000.
2 – Vegas Video Poker Player Collects $400k at Cosmopolitan
The next large winner on this list isn’t Huck Seed, a well-known professional gambler. They didn’t even reveal their identity after winning.
This anonymous video poker player, on the other hand, can brag about earning one of the largest video poker jackpots ever. They took home a $400,000 prize at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas in 2017.
The Cosmopolitan’s Twitter account was used to announce the victory. They put up a screen with the $400,000 jackpot and a message of congratulations to the happy winner.
At the moment of their windfall, the player was playing a 100-hand Triple Double Bonus machine. They were also putting $500 on the line per round, or $5 per hand.
There was no mention of how much the gambler spent to win the progressive jackpot. However, with a reward of more than $400,000, they were practically certain to win.
3 – Poker Pro Bart Hanson Wins $200k
Bart Hanson is another poker pro who won big in video poker. He collected a $200,000 jackpot while playing at Caesars Palace in 2018.
Hanson was betting $250 per round on a 100-line game ($2.50 per hand). He also played lots of rounds while waiting in between tournaments at the 2018 World Series of Poker. Hanson spoke in depth about his win while on break during the WSOP.
“There’s a way to do it (win a large jackpot) on some very high stakes video poker with the lowest expected loss,” said Hanson. “People would actually be surprised, it’s not that much of a loss, but you gotta play big.”
I was actually playing a game that I don’t normally play, which was Bonus Poker (99.17% RTP), which was slightly worse than Jacks or Better (99.54% RTP). And the reason why I was playing it was because I told myself, ‘I never hit the royal. Let me play Bonus, so if I hit 4 of a kind I’ll get like $20,000.’”
Hanson wasn’t exactly doing great on the session where he won $200k. However, he got lucky at the very end when he was dealt a royal flush.
“… So, I was playing Bonus and I was down to having 10 credits left. I started with eight grand. On my second-to-last spin, I hit it,” he recalled.
“I was sort of in shock—nobody was around the high limit area at Caesars. The high limit slots area, there’s no one in there ever. I got it on video.”
Hanson believes that this is the largest video poker prize ever caught on film. He may be right when considering that nobody above him on this list actually posted a video of their win.
“If you search on video poker jackpots on YouTube, I haven’t seen anything bigger than $40,000 or $50,000 on film.”
4 – Player Nets Sequential Royal Flush and $180k
A specific type of royal flush is required to win the jackpot on some video poker machines before the player can claim the prize. This setup can either consist of a royal flush of a specific suit or a series of royal flushes in a row.
In order to achieve the latter, you must obtain a royal in perfect order, including A-K-Q-J-10. Receiving a royal flush in any manner is difficult enough—let alone in the exact order in which it occurs.
Nonetheless, a gambler at Boulder Station (in downtown Las Vegas) was successful in accomplishing this feat in 2019. They received a sequential royal flush and won $180,000 in prize money.
We’re sorry, but we don’t have any information on the big winner at this time. But, at the very least, their jackpot will go down in history as one of the largest video poker payouts ever recorded in the world.
5 – Floyd Mayweather Wins $101k
In fact, Floyd Mayweather Jr. does not require any additional funds because his net worth is estimated to be between $500 million and $1 billion. With a $101,250 video poker prize, he was able to significantly increase his net worth during the year 2018.
In Las Vegas, the retired boxing champion spent approximately $20,000 on slot machines, according to his financial records. He was wagering $25 per round in the hopes of winning a progressive jackpot.
Mayweather shared a video of his winning screen on social media. He also held up a stack of printed tickets worth $70,000 to demonstrate that he had won additional cash in addition to the $101,000 first-place prize.
Once again, “Money” isn’t in any immediate need of these winnings. As a result, he posted another video of himself taking the proceeds of the jackpot to a strip club in Las Vegas that he owns called Girl Collection.
Mayweather is well-known for his massive video poker wins, but he is also well-known for his colossal sports betting victories as well. For example, during the 2014 college football season, he won a $1 million bet on the Oregon Ducks, which resulted in a $1.1 million profit.
Take Away This
The majority of people who play video poker do not do so in order to win progressive jackpots. However, as you can see, video poker can be a worthwhile game to play if you’re looking for big payouts.
Several gamblers have walked away with six-figure sums of money after playing video poker. Huck Seed was even successful in obtaining a payout in excess of $670,000.
Seed, of course, was putting up $500 as well. One of the most difficult aspects of video poker is that you must play for high stakes or select games that have consecutive royal flushes in order to succeed. Alternatively, if you’re up for either challenge, video poker may be an option to consider when attempting to win a jackpot.
