High-Stakes Poker in 2006: Legendary Sessions and Key Players

In 2006, high-stakes poker games often involved millions of dollars, with key events occurring on Prima and UltimateBet. Scandinavian players led by Johnny “bad_ip” Lodden dominated Prima, while Prahlad “mahatma” Friedman was the king of UltimateBet.

Most of the action was concentrated in NLHE, with occasional sessions in limit hold'em or Omaha hi-lo $300/$600. In late March 2006, UltimateBet opened the most expensive tables at the time, $50/$100 PLO, with notable players like Zaklish, Mike Matuosov, Phil Hellmuth, and Russ Hamilton participating.

Russ Hamilton and his team used 23 accounts and 117 nicknames to win $22,054,351 between June 2003 and December 2007. Mike Matuosov lost approximately $1.5 million and was able to recover only $375,000. Phil Hellmuth's sessions often garnered separate threads, and he sometimes won, causing frustration among opponents. Greg “captZEEbo” Layver lost the largest bank of his career on the second day after the opening of the tables, but he only bet $1,000 on the table.