Bitcoin Makes Conventional High Stakes Games Seem Casual

Compared to games played in Bitcoins last year, today’s high stakes sessions almost seem micro. That is, if you consider the current exchange rate of the digital currency.

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More and more poker rooms accept Bitcoin, the digital currency of ever growing popularity. For instance, iPoker network’s WinPoker integrated it into its deposit/withdrawal system [4], while it is the single accepted method of payment in other rooms, most notably at SealsWithClubs. Also, it turns out the highest stakes actions of 2012 did not occur at PokerStars, nor at then newly re-launched Full Tilt Poker but at the aforementioned room – as long as we take the current exchange rate of Bitcoins into consideration.

Imagine you are sitting at the table with $9,264 worth of coins, waiting for opponents. A handsome amount, no doubt, but nothing that would launch you to the headlines if you lost it in a single hand. Now, consider this: the coins are currently worth over $850,000. A player with a Bitcoin stack of 800,000 appeared in August 2012... Most players are in awe when looking at the screenshot above, not to mention the screen name of the player in question: ‘Isildur1’. Some say it was the Swede ace indeed, other think it was not; nevertheless, the legend has only profited from the mystery.

The story is similar to that of the infamous ‘Bitcoin pizza’: an IT guy from Florida offered 10,000 Bitcoins to anyone who would order him some pizza. The deal was made and Laszlo Hanyecz was happy to post in the Bitcoin Talk forum that he received his meal. Easily, he had made the worst deal in history ever, though, as he gave away an amount worth $10,661,597 today.

Also, SealsWithClubs user ‘Fitzroy’ has gained considerable notoriety for his run. He performed excellently at the room at the time on his own right but the changes in the Bitcoin exchange rate rendered his progress unparalleled. He became known for making 1 BTC into 2,500 in just six weeks. Then, this meant he won around $35,000 but now you can say he turned $1,000 into $2.5 million.

Last but not least, another piece of Bitcoin poker history: SealsWithClubs hosted the highest stakes games ever: the limits were $3,560/$7,120 in today’s rates.

SealsWithClubs launched in 2011, when a Bitcoin was worth $2. Since ‘Chinese Google’ Baidu accepts it as official currency, the exchange rate has never dropped below $400 and a single Bitcoin currently equals $1,066 today.