Randy Lew sets online poker Guinness World Record

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Jan 10, 2012 Posted in Poker Player News | No Comments »

Prior to the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) one of the online poker world’s most recognizable names decided to break a record; precisely what record attempt he would tackle he left up to suggestion, but according to Randy “nanonoko” Lew a record would fall at the PCA.

In the end Lew settled upon setting the record for the most hands of online poker played in an 8-hour period while remaining profitable (the stipulation put in place to avoid auto-folding your way to an online poker record).

This past Sunday, at a special area on the PCA tournament floor, Lew made good on his assertion that an online record would fall, but it would come down to the very end of the session before the record was set thanks to that special stipulation about remaining profitable.

The session started out fairly bad for Lew, who found himself down about $1,200, which forced him to jump up to the $5/$10 games in order to, as Lew himself put it, “Chase those losses.” After fighting his way back while participating in anywhere from 25 to 40 tables at a time (more on this later) Lew managed to turn his $1,200 deficit into an $8 profit, when the inevitable hand was dealt to him with around 15 minutes remaining in the session: Pocket Aces.

While Pocket Aces are the most profitable hand in poker, playing any hand so close to the end of the session put his winnings in jeopardy and could see his 8-hour session of 24,000+ hands go for naught. Despite the screams to fold the hand coming from the rail, Lew decided to play the Aces and managed to win the hand, ending the session with a minimal win of $7.65.

Most poker players would find playing an 8-hoursession and tallying over 24,000 hands for a $7 profit quite meaningless, but as the high-volume online players know; breaking even often means big profits when you consider the number of Loyalty Points you have won during the session (Lew racked up over 22,000 FPP’s during his 8-hour session).

Lew spoke to the PokerStars blog after the historic feat: “This is a great feeling. I finished it,” he said after achieving the feat. “I had a crowd. Everyone clapped for me. I was reading chat while I was playing. I probably shouldn’t have. But people were like ‘Go, Randy, go!’ So, it kept me pumped, and it is a good feeling when people want you to win.”

Here is a look at some of the statistics Lew produced during the session:

* Hands played = 24,493

* Hands per hour = 2,936.63

* Total Profit = $7.65

* FPP’s Earned = 22,784

You may be wondering how Lew managed to play 25-40 tables at a time considering PokerStars has a multi-table cap of 24 tables. Well, here is where the record gets a little debatable: PokerStars lifted the cap for Lew (a Team PokerStars player) during his record-setting attempt, which means any other player would have to get the green-light from PokerStars before even attempting to break the record. My guess is that PokerStars is not going to lift the cap for any non-Team PokerStars Pro.