Despite many American lawmakers’ attempts to stifle online poker, the phenomenon continues to grow worldwide as evidenced by a multitude of records falling over the last couple of months. Last month, patatino took a $609,730 pot off one Hac “trex313″ Dang, to break the record for the largest pot ever. The most recent record to fall by the wayside is for the largest chip stack ever at a no-limit Texas Hold’em table.

The record-breaker this time is the infamous Ilari “ziigmund” Sahamies, who became the first person ever to top the one million mark, sitting with a whopping $1,140,000 at his peak on the $500/$1,000 Full Tilt Poker Railheaven table.

Although this wasn’t the first time somebody sat down at an online poker table with over one million (TexasLimitKing put his million-dollar roll on display at the $500/$1,000 limit games) this is certainly the most significant. In limit poker, the entirety of your stack is never in jeopardy due to limited bet sizes. With that being the case, there is no maximum buy-in either. In no-limit poker, there is a max buy-in, meaning that the million ziigmund had in front of him represented, for the most part, his winnings on the day.

The record-breaking hand was appropriately heads-up, against top-name pro Patrik Antonius. All players folded around to ziigmund in the small blind who raised to $3,000. Antonius called from the big blind and the flop came 889.  Ziigmund then bet $5,000 and Antonius raised to $18,000. Ziigmund made the call and saw a 2 come on the turn. 

Both players then checked to see a 7 fall on the river and ziigmund then checked again. Clearly believing he had the best hand, Antonius then raised to $36,000 and ziigmund made a no-brainer call. Antonius turned over 9T for two pair, but Ziigmund’s JJ gave him a better two-pair and the $114,000 pot.

Unfortunately for ziigmund, he didn’t quit then, and ended up donating approximately $350,000 back, ending his session with $830,000 in front of him. Still, booking a half-million session ain’t half bad to go along with his record-breaking performance.