Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stevens wins largest-ever WSOP Online Main Event
Bert “girafganger7” Stevens takes down the biggest online poker tournament ever with thousands of fans watching in real time via livestream.
One of the most popular poker streamers Bert “girafganger7” Stevens created history in more ways than one when he took down the $5k WSOP Online Main Event at GGPoker in front of a live audience on his Twitch channel.
The Belgian online poker pro won $2,783,433 for his efforts to beat a field of 6023 players, creating the biggest prize pool ever recorded in an online poker tournament.
Not only was this the biggest win in Stevens’ poker career in monetary terms, but the fact he was able to record the historic moment and play it out in front of his fans makes it one the poker world will never forget.
The 6023 entries made for this year’s event were enough to beat the record, previously set at $27,559,500 by over a million dollars, with the new record now standing at $28,609,252.
Stevens’ $2.78 million win was not the biggest in history, though, as the 2020 champion Stoyan Madanzhiev banked $3.9 million for his efforts thanks to a more top-heavy payout structure.
Nevertheless, the 2023 WSOP Online Main Event will hold a place in the history books, at least for some time, as we wait for another poker event to beat the record and attract even more high-stakes poker players for an even larger prize pool.
Not only did Stevens earn the lion’s share of the record-setting $28,609,252 prize pool, but he also made history for streaming the largest poker win ever broadcast on Twitch.
The PokerCoaching coach peaked with more than 14,000 concurrent viewers watching as he battled for the bracelet, chainsmoking cigarettes while dancing and singing along with his music from his streaming setup on a farm in Belgium.
Surrounded by fizzy drinks and snacks, Bert Stevens bagged what is thought to be the largest ever online poker tournament jackpot. Bert played for an exhausting 27 hours with breaks to win the World Series of Poker online event.
And the poker pro played his way to victory from a tight, windowless attic.
The room is just about spacious enough to fit a small dining table with a couple of monitors, an office chair with destroyed cushioning, a modest shelving unit and a fan.
Stevens, one of the most decorated online players ever, now has nearly $3.5 million in recorded earnings from events that disclose full real-name results.
The final table began with Stevens as the chip leader. He sat with more than 103 big blinds to start, while Erik Bakker was the next-largest stack with just shy of 90 big blinds.
Toward the end of the first hour of play, Bakker briefly supplanted Stevens atop the chip counts, but a big clash between that went Steven’s way saw him add some distance between himself and the rest of the field.
