Wiktor Malinowski Wins Biggest-Ever Online NLHE Cash Game Hand
Wiktor Malinowski has crushed high stakes cash games for years. Malinowski is known as “limitless” in online poker circles where he frequents the biggest games.
The Polish star started his poker career playing freeroll tournaments. Now he’s found playing the biggest buy-in tournaments in the world. Cash games, however, are still where Malinowski wins the majority of his money.
Malinowski was involved in a monster-sized hand last week. It was massive. The hand was the largest-ever No-Limit Hold’em cash game pot ever recorded, in fact. One that weighed in at an almost unbelievable $842,438.62; don’t forget about the 62 cents!
The hand took place online at Natural8, one of the skins on the GGPoker Network. Blinds were $500/$1,000 with a $200 ante and five of the six seats were filled.
Malinowski raised to $2,000 from the cutoff and the action folded to Michael Addamo in the big blind. Addamo three-bet to $14,000 which prompted Malinowski to four-bet to $43,500. Addamo made it $108,000 to go and Malinowski called.
The flop fell 5d-7h-2c and Addamo led out with a $71,775 bet. Malinowski called. The 9c fell on the turn and Addamo fired another barrel, one worth $100,146.50. Malinowski called again. Addamo shoved all-in for $140,547.80 on the 5s river and Malinowski made the call.
Addamo showed Ks-Kc and Malinowski revealed the As-Ac, enough for the massive pot.
Malinowski Smashes Previous Record By $118,497
The previous largest No-Limit Hold’em cash game pot record stood for 12-years. That one resulted from a battle between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Di “urindanger” Dang on the now-defunct Full Tilt Poker.
The hand has striking similarities to the hand Malinowski won. Dang opened to $3,000, “elmariachimacho” called and Dwan three-bet to $16,300 from the small blind. Dang raised to $45,000 and only Dwan called.
Dwan checked the 5c-9h-4h flop, Dang bet $52,700 only for Dwan to check-raise to $139,500. Dang moved all-in for $314,970.50 and Dwan called off his remaining $259,038. Dang showed Ac-Ad and Dwan Kc-Kd. The turn and river fell 3d and 6h, sending the $723,941 pot to Dang.
Patrik Antonius won the largest-ever cash game pot, doing so against Viktor Blom. Antonius netted $1,356,947 but it happened at the Pot-Limit Omaha tables. You can ready about the biggest-ever cash game pots here.
It Could Have Been Oh So Different
Malinowski almost never started playing poker. An injury when he was only 18-years-old saw him take up the game as a hobby. The Pole was a professional athlete embarking on a promising career, but a knee injury cut that short.
Malinowski began playing poker as a hobby during his recovery. He soon started making more money from poker than he was earning through sports. He chose playing poker over professional sports for the freedom poker gave him.
2014 was the turning point. Malinowski began playing $0.01/$0.02 cash games and became a winning player. He quickly moved up stakes, winning more and more from this crazy game.
Cash games are Malinowksi’s speciality, but he’s a dab hand at tournament poker too. He won the $25,500 High Roller Turbo event at the PokerStars WCOOP for $726,000. That event saw him battle some of online poker’s greats.
Live poker tournaments are the latest transition Malinowski is making. He only has five recorded live cashes to his name, although they’re worth $708,014 in total.
The largest is worth €264,860($295,217), his reward for a seventh-place finish in the 2019 WPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller. Malinowski collected £192,000 ($233,661) for a cash in the £1 million Triton London Main Event.
His live career has taken a back seat recently thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. We know he’s itching to get back into live action. Until then, he’ll have to make do with winning masses of dollars online.