From 115 Hours at the Bellagio to Winning Blind: The Poker Challenges That Rewrote the Record Books

Poker is a game built on competition and challenge. Some players, though, take that further than any tournament floor ever could. From endurance records to blind card play, a handful of memorable challenges have earned their place in poker's unofficial record books.

Here's a look at seven that stand out.

Phil Laak's World Record Poker Session

Player: Phil Laak
Type of Challenge: Endurance

Phil "TheUnabomber" Laak set the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous poker session in June 2010, playing 115 hours of $10/$20 No-Limit Hold'em at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The previous record, held by Paul Zimbler, stood at 78 hours and 25 minutes.

Guinness required the entire session to be recorded on video, witnesses to be present throughout, and no more than five minutes of break time per hour played. Laak sat down on June 2 and walked away on June 7. He bought in short early on, busted twice, and at one point had just $800 in front of him. Midway through, he loaded up with $100,000 and played with that stack for the rest of the session. He finished with a $6,766 profit. Over 117,000 people watched the attempt live online.

"If I didn't get into the degen[erate] lifestyle that is poker, I would have never found out that I have a knack for super enduro-sessions," he told Card Player. "I accidentally discovered I have this in me."

The record stood for over a decade. In October 2021, Zach Gensler played 124 hours at Resorts World Las Vegas in a Guinness-sanctioned attempt. As of the time of writing, Guinness has not formally certified Gensler's session, so Laak's 115-hour record remains the official Guinness standard.

Trevor Savage's Play Every Hand Challenge

Player: Trevor Savage
Type of Challenge: Strategy

The Play Every Hand challenge requires a player to never fold preflop, with two exceptions: facing an all-in, or a three-bet before the action reaches them. Poker vlogger Trevor Savage documented the experiment across multiple sessions at $1/$2 and $1/$3 No-Limit Hold'em cash games in New Jersey, as part of his vlog Raising the Nuts.

The challenge tests how much of poker's edge comes from poker hand selection versus position, reads, and aggression. Savage was up $800 after his first eight attempts and donated the winnings to charity.

Chris Ferguson's Zero to $10K Challenge

Player: Chris Ferguson
Type of Challenge: Bankroll Management

Chris Ferguson's Zero to $10K Challenge proved that a $10,000 poker bankroll can be built from nothing using disciplined bankroll management. The 2000 WSOP Main Event champion started with zero dollars on Full Tilt Poker in March 2006 and completed the challenge on August 14, 2007, donating the money to the Save the Children Foundation.

The rules Ferguson set for himself were strict: enter freerolls only until real money was won; never use more than 5% of his bankroll on a cash game or sit-and-go; never enter a multi-table tournament costing more than 2% of his bankroll. Getting started was the hardest part – Full Tilt freerolls ran close to 900 players, with $5 for first place. Ferguson set alarm clocks to hit registration within 90 seconds of it opening.

"One of the funny things about the challenge is that people would see me playing a freeroll and think I was fooling around," he said. "Are you kidding me? I was taking those freerolls dead seriously."

His first major breakthrough came in November 2006, when a second-place finish in a $1 tournament paid $104. The challenge took 16 months in total. The story later took on a darker context: Full Tilt collapsed following Black Friday in 2011, and Ferguson's reputation was severely damaged by his role in the fallout.

Annette Obrestad's Blind Tournament Win

Player: Annette Obrestad
Type of Challenge: Strategy

In July 2007, Annette Obrestad won a 180-player, $4 buy-in online sit-and-go online without looking at her hole cards. She covered the section of her screen showing her cards with a Post-it note and played the entire tournament blind, peeking once – when facing an all-in and needing to decide whether to call.

Her goal was to demonstrate that position, bet sizing, and reading opponents matter more than the cards themselves. She uploaded her tournament history to poker forums to confirm the story. Obrestad later said more people recognise her for the blind win than for her WSOP bracelet.

That bracelet came two months later. On September 17, 2007 – the day before her 19th birthday – Obrestad won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in London for just over $2 million, becoming the youngest player in history to win a WSOP event. Her live tournament winnings have since passed $3.9 million.

ElkY's Sit-and-Go World Record

Player: Bertrand Grospellier
Type of Challenge: Volume

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier set the Guinness World Record for most single-table sit-and-go tournaments played in one hour on April 28, 2009, completing 62 sit-and-gos at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. The record required him to finish all tournaments he started and end in profit.

Grospellier sat at four screens on the main stage, with the action broadcast live to an audience. He opened tables continuously throughout the hour, managing up to 62 simultaneously at $6.50 buy-ins ($403 in tota. The challenge came down to the final tournament: he won it, flipping his balance to a profit of $23.60 and securing the record.

"I'm happy to have taken up the challenge," he said. "I invite all players to try to do better." Grospellier has accumulated more than $15 million in live tournament winnings and holds poker's Triple Crown: WSOP, WPT, and EPT titles.

Joey Ingram's 50,000-Hand Challenge

Player: Joey Ingram
Type of Challenge: Volume

In 2009, Joey "ChicagoJoey" Ingram played 50,000 hands of $0.10/$0.25 No-Limit Hold'em in a single day, reaching the target after 20 hours and 2 minutes across 24 simultaneous tables. Showing a profit was a requirement of the challenge, and $30,000 in side bets from those who doubted him were on the line.

Ingram had already set the record for most hands played in a single month (604,000 hands of full-ring NLHE in 2008). The day challenge was the natural next step.

"I managed to get all this action because I played a 25,000-hand session, I was down, and people saw that," he said. "I was just trying to get in hands to see if I could accomplish the goal of 50,000 while just playing a C-level game."

He hit the target, finished with a small profit from the tables, and collected the $30,000 in prop bet winnings.

The Galfond Challenge

Player: Phil Galfond
Type of Challenge: Heads-Up Cash

The Galfond Challenge is a series of high-stakes heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha matches initiated by Phil Galfond in November 2019. Galfond, founder of the poker training site Run It Once and one of the most accomplished PLO players in history, challenged any opponent willing to face him at €100/€200 stakes with large side bets attached, laying odds on himself in most cases.

Six players accepted. The first match, against Dutch online player "VeniVidi1993," became one of the most dramatic stories in recent high-stakes poker. Within the first two weeks Galfond was down nearly €900,000. He paused briefly, paid his opponent a daily penalty for missed sessions, and publicly questioned whether he could still compete at that level.

He came back. Over the following weeks he clawed back the entire deficit. The match went to its final 75 hands with the lead changing repeatedly. Galfond held on to win, finishing €1,472 up on the tables plus the €100,000 side bet. The comeback is widely regarded as one of the great individual performances in high-stakes online poker.

He did not stop there. Galfond went on to win his next three matches in the series: defeating "ActionFreak," Chance Kornuth (who conceded down $726,500 after 25,400 of a scheduled 35,000 hands), and Brandon Adams (who conceded down $270,000). Through four completed challenges, Galfond was undefeated.

Remaining matches against Dan "Jungleman" Cates, Luke Schwartz, and Bill Perkins were announced but not all completed as of the time of writing.

Key Takeaways

• Phil Laak holds the official Guinness World Record for the longest continuous poker session: 115 hours at the Bellagio in June 2010.
• Zach Gensler played 124 hours at Resorts World in October 2021 in a Guinness-sanctioned attempt, but the record has not been formally certified, so Laak's record still stands.
• Chris Ferguson built a $10,000 bankroll from zero using only freerolls and strict bankroll management, completing the challenge in August 2007.
• Annette Obrestad won a 180-player online sit-and-go in July 2007 without looking at her cards, peeking once when facing an all-in.
• ElkY set the Guinness World Record for sit-and-gos played in one hour – 62 tournaments, $403 in buy-ins, $23.60 profit – at the 2009 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
• Joey Ingram played over 50,000 hands of $0.10/$0.25 NLHE in a single day in 2009, reaching the target in 20 hours and 2 minutes across 24 tables.
• Phil Galfond went undefeated across four Galfond Challenge matches between 2020 and 2021, including a comeback from nearly €900,000 down against VeniVidi1993.

Updated on April 1, 2026