What's the biggest pot you've won?

[SomethingClever]

You win. Seriously. Pass go, collect 71 big bets, that is the most ginormous pot I've ever seen.

Holy fck that's big.

My tops is probably around 45.

[Catt]

I can't resist pointing out again the lessons this hand can teach us about variance. A win or loss of this one hand means a difference of 71 BB to us (or, given the enormity of this hand, think of it as the win or loss of 2 35 BB hands). Over the course of 10,000 hands that 71 BB can mean the difference between an earn rate of 2.29 BB/100 and 3.00 BB/100. Two large hands, or one enormous hand, means a huge difference in BB/100 over 10,000 hands, and yet we tend to put stock into BB/100 even over 10,000 hands . . .

Even over 40,000 hands, this hand is worth almost 0.2 BB/100 for a 2 - 3 BB/100 player . . .

[TomBrooks]

So for .5/1, it seems that this pot is the largest one ever won.... The Big Kahuna, Top Dog.

[JerseyTom]

Two biggest pots I've won were both at Pacific 1/2.

60 BB... A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] capped 4-6 ways on every street on a A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] board.

~43 BB... My AA flopped set over set (QQ), turned quads and the flush and straight draws hit on the river.

[jobro2]

The 71BB's is not net BB's. Hero had to put in somw bets to get the pot this size.

[Catt]

[ QUOTE ]
The 71BB's is not net BB's. Hero had to put in somw bets to get the pot this size.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker is binary (absent chops) and he can't chop with his boat. Any money contributed to the pot is no longer Hero's. Hero invested 12 BBs in the hand. If he loses the hand, he loses those 12 BBs. If he wins the hand, he wins 59 BBs from other players and gets his 12 BBs "back" (71 BB pot size - 12 BBs invested).

Put another way - if Hero's BR is 112 BBs and he plays breakeven poker over 9,999 hands, but somewhere in the 10,000 hand stretch is this particular hand, Hero's BR is either 100 or 171 depedning on the results of this hand. That difference of 71 BBs is worth a lot to Hero's earn rate. If Hero's earn rate is instead 2 BB/100 over 9,999 hands absent this particular hand, then the presence of this hand still affects Hero's BR by a total of 71 BBs, and the earn rate is either 1.88 BB/100 or 2.71 BB/100.

My point is that winning one pot of this size (or two pots of half the size) can have a very dramatic effect on Hero's perceived "true winrate" even over "long" stretches such as 10,000 hands, 20,000 hands, etc.

I see so much fretting about BB/100 after small numbers of hands on these boards -- I think it's worth a reminder that one hand -- one hand out of 10,000! -- can have such an effect.

[jobro2]

Didn't you mean 1.88 BB/100 or 2.59 BB/100?

[wmmathguy]

~24 BB over 7K hands.

[Catt]

[ QUOTE ]
Didn't you mean 1.88 BB/100 or 2.59 BB/100?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I did. Thanks for the correction.