Which Player Has Donated The Most Money?



Q: Who is the Biggest Loser in the History of Poker?

A: Which player has donated the greatest amount of money in the history of poker?

This is obviously a tricky question to answer. For instance, the high stakes games in Macau are VERY private, and if there was a big loser in those games, nobody would say a word. This would both be out of respect and to prevent a billionaire fish from abandoning the games.

Money up in the air - Illustration.  High Stakes Poker.There have been some very big losers in poker games over time. Andy Beale decided to take on the "Corporation" (a group of poker pros that included the likes of Phil Ivey) and lost millions. Many high net-worth businessmen and celebrities have sat in poker games in Las Vegas, only to dump millions of their dollars to seasoned professionals.

Based on various pieces of information that are available (tracking sites, news sites, etc), one of the biggest losers in the history of poker (and possibly the biggest) is none other than Guy Laliberte.

Laliberte is a billionaire co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, so he certainly has the bankroll to drop an enormous amount of money playing poker.

Laliberte is reported to have dropped over $30 million in the high stakes cash games on Full Tilt Poker, according to HighStakesDB.com. This would agree with comments that Laliberte has made to media outlets, in which he alleges that he may have been cheated in the games on the site, due to the "unlimited" bankrolls of people that was playing against. In short, Laliberte's opponents never really had any fear at the table, as there was always more money available from the site, as customer's deposits were being raided.

In addition, the big private poker games in Hollywood, that were frequented by the likes of Ben Affleck, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, also reportedly included Guy Laliberte. With Maguire reportedly cleaning up in the games, there is a very good chance that Laliberte also donated in those games as well. If Laliberte was a net winner in the games, he likely wouldn't have been invited back.

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According to multiple reports, Laliberte was such a donater on Full Tilt Poker that the site let him play under multiple account names.

Whenever Laliberte sat at a high buy-in cash game table on FTP, the rest of the seats would quickly fill up. Other players have alleged that the other players were conspiring against Laliberte (slow-playing each other, equity chops of all-ins, etc), though that was never proven. Laliberte, for his part, certainly seems to think that something was amiss.

With Laliberte reportedly losing tens of millions of dollars on Full Tilt Poker, and reportedly a regular in the private games in Hollywood, would it be much of a stretch to say that Laliberte is one of the biggest money losers in the history of poker? I don't think so, though we will never know the true answer.


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