Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Kane Kalas, and Joe Ingram make our list of best and worst poker video moments in 2018. You’ll have to read on to find out which ones made the good and bad categories.
With so many great videos to choose from, it wasn’t an easy decision. But we narrowed our best and worst of lists down to two.
Cringeworthy and Shame
Two Worst Video Moments in 2018
Let’s get the negativity out of the way quickly. Our first worst poker video moment this past year goes to Chris Ferguson for his “WTF” apology to the poker community.
Prior to the start of the WSOP, Chris finally apologized to poker fans for what went down at Full Tilt Poker during the Black Friday scandal in 2011. But few poker players felt he was contrite, especially considering he spent just 42 seconds apologizing…seven years later.
https://vimeo.com/271553945
To Ferguson’s credit, most FTP players eventually got paid back. Few still have outstanding balances they never received. But many in the poker community still refuse to forgive the man they once adored.
Our next recipient of the Worst Poker Video Moment of 2018 goes to another poker boom era superstar, Phil Hellmuth. The Poker Brat had a bratty moment during a hand at the WSOP Main Event.
In a three-way pot to the flop, Hellmuth had pocket sevens on a 4-3-10 flop in position. After it was checked around to him, he fired out a bet and then got check-raised all-in by James Campbell, who had the nut flush draw.
With Alex Kuzmin pondering his move with a king-high flush draw, Phil vocally expressed anger towards Campbell for raising. Acting out of turn is frowned upon by most poker players as it can influence another player’s decision.
In this case, it’s possible that Hellmuth did in fact affect Kuzmin’s decision. Knowing that the Poker Brat was likely to fold given his verbal tells, Alex made the call against Campbell’s short-stack. He likely would have folded out of fear that Hellmuth would have come over the top to force him out of the pot.
Campbell was a favorite to win the pot but got unlucky on the river and was eliminated. Had Hellmuth kept his mouth shut, he probably would have won the hand. To Phil’s credit, he apologized and made things right by shipping his opponent $10,000 to make up for his buy-in.
Big Hand, Viral Hit
Two Best Poker Video Moments of 2018
Now that we have the negativity out of the way, let’s move on to the good stuff. First off, we’re going to tell you about the largest pot in televised poker history.
Kane Kalas, son of legendary baseball announcer Harry Kalas, won a $2 million pot against Jason Koon. The sports broadcasting icon’s offspring hit a set of 10’s on the turn and got paid off against A-Q when an ace landed on the river.
Koon was unable to find a fold as Kalas effectively disguised the strength of his hand.
Lastly, we have to give props to poker podcaster Joe Ingram for venturing out of the poker world to create a viral UFC video that has more than 7 million views. The video in question investigated what happened after the McGregor-Khabib MMA fight.
A brawl broke out at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas between Khabib and McGregor’s posses. Ingram, using various internet videos from different angles, broke down what occurred after the biggest UFC fight in history.
Few poker-related videos on YouTube exceed 100,000 views. We have to give credit to Papi for expanding his horizons to achieve success.
Congrats to all of our winners. Well, maybe not to Hellmuth and Ferguson.
