5. Tom Goldstein — The “Crazy Lawyer” Who Burned Millions
Some poker streamers clearly aren’t in it for the money — and few illustrate that better than Tom Goldstein.
Once introduced on-stream as a mysterious European businessman named “Tomos,” the man behind the hoodie and mask turned out to be none other than a well-known American attorney.
Goldstein made headlines after blowing through millions in Hustler Casino Live’s Million Dollar Game, where he battled high-stakes regulars like Alan Keating, Michael Moncek, and Santosh Suvarna. In just two sessions, he managed to lose an eye-watering amount — but the story of his poker losses is only the tip of the iceberg.
In January this year, Goldstein was charged with tax evasion and accused of using shell companies to conceal gambling debts. Court documents revealed that in 2016 he won three lucrative heads-up matches in California and Asia, earning around $50 million. Yet by 2021, he had managed to lose so much that he was $14 million in debt. The legal battle continues, and as of August, prosecutors have filed new charges alleging that Goldstein transferred large sums into corporate trust accounts to hide them from the IRS.
His on-stream play was just as chaotic. In one memorable hand, Goldstein made a straight on the river, bet, got called — and then inexplicably mucked his cards. That’s not how you make money.
4. Michael Moncek — “Texas Mike” & the YOLO Mindset
Michael Moncek, better known as “Texas Mike,” burst onto the poker scene with a bang at the 2022 World Series of Poker.
Playing what many described as a “Martingale” style, Moncek kicked off the series by winning a Limit Hold’em event and banking $150,000.
Within weeks, he jumped into a $100,000 high roller, reached the final table, and cashed for $420,000.
Then things got wild. He registered late for a $250,000 Super High Roller and busted just 15 minutes later. Undeterred, he fired another $50,000 in the Poker Players Championship, where he briefly held the chip lead before finishing 21st — just shy of the 17 paid places.
There’s a reason behind Mike’s reckless approach. In 2019, his father tragically died of a heart attack at just 53. A few years later, Moncek learned he shared the same hereditary heart condition. Since then, he’s lived by the motto “You only live once” — a philosophy that has shaped his poker career and explains his all-in attitude at the table.
Like Goldstein, Moncek’s biggest televised losses came during Hustler Casino Live’s Million Dollar Game. Alan Keating alone won around $3 million from him across three sessions. In one massive preflop coin flip, they got all-in for a pot worth over $2 million — and Texas Mike lost. But as he might say, as long as he’s alive, he’s lucky.
3. Matt “Aussie Matt” Kirk — The Rise & Fall of a Crypto High Roller
Matt “Aussie Matt” Kirk stormed into the poker world just as quickly as he vanished. The mysterious Australian crypto millionaire became a fixture in the highest-stakes Chinese poker games on the planet. While his technical skill was unremarkable, for reasons no one fully understood, he consistently crushed his opponents in private games.
That run-good didn’t translate to streamed games. On camera, his rivals quickly learned how to exploit his weaknesses. In a now-legendary 2018 session in Montreal, Kirk sat in a $1,000/$2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha game and proceeded to lose $3.6 million over nine brutal hours — not to professionals, but to fellow poker-playing businessmen Rob Yong and Leon Tsoukernik.
The atmosphere was as wild as the swings. According to one tongue-in-cheek YouTube commenter, “They used more cocaine during bathroom breaks than at a cartel boss’s 40th birthday party.” Whether that claim is true or not, we’ll never know — but Kirk’s spectacular rise and fall remains one of the most infamous chapters in modern high-stakes poker.
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Matt Kirk and Leon Tsoukernik: A Lawsuit & 66,000 Bitcoin
A year before that notorious Montreal session, Matt Kirk and Leon Tsoukernik were locked in a bizarre legal battle involving multimillion-dollar lawsuits against each other. Rob Yong acted as mediator in the dispute and later detailed what happened in a lengthy blog post once the parties reached a settlement.
During one televised game, the table chatter revealed another layer of Kirk’s story: he had invested in cryptocurrency early and, according to some players, once held as many as 66,000 Bitcoin. These days, Kirk has vanished from the poker scene. No one knows whether he’s enjoying life as a billionaire — or lost everything long ago.
2. Eric Persson — The Casino Owner Who Bankrupted Himself
In second place is Eric Persson, the outspoken owner of the Maverick Gaming casino chain. A relatively new face on the televised poker scene, Persson made his debut in 2022 when the little-known casino magnate entered the PokerGO Heads-Up Championship with a $25,000 buy-in. In the first round, he scored a major upset by defeating Phil Hellmuth — the perfect opponent for Persson’s confrontational style. He relentlessly needled Hellmuth, tilted him with table talk, and even forced the tournament organizers to intervene after Hellmuth complained about verbal abuse.
After that breakout performance, Persson became a regular invite to televised poker shows. Unfortunately, nearly every session ended the same way: six-figure losses. In fact, Persson has never finished a single televised appearance in profit.
In 2023, he made history with Patrik Antonius, playing the largest pot in the history of U.S. televised poker. (The even bigger televised hands on Triton occur outside the United States.) True to form, Persson blasted off bluffing without outs — and lost.
Persson’s last known appearance on a poker stream came in February 2024, around the same time he sharply reduced his social media presence. It soon emerged that Maverick Gaming was in serious financial trouble. By summer, the company had filed for bankruptcy.
How do you bankrupt a casino? Commentators were baffled. Persson had purchased small casinos at above-market prices using low-interest loans, but when interest rates rose, the casinos’ revenue wasn’t enough to service the debt. It’s possible that, excluding loan payments, the casinos were still profitable — but the free-spending Eric Persson who fired off six figures on streams no longer had the means to keep doing so.
1. Tan Xuan — The King of Televised Losses
And finally, taking the top spot as the biggest televised loser in poker is Chinese high roller Tan Xuan. A fixture in high-stakes poker for more than a decade, Tan started his career in small-stakes Chinese tournaments. In 2015, he won a $250 event for $280,000, his first major success. Since then, he has amassed over $12 million in live tournament cashes — most of them on the Triton Poker Series.
But Tan doesn’t show up for the tournaments. He comes for the ultra-high-stakes cash games — and those have not been kind to him. His rare winning sessions mostly came during the Short Deck poker boom, where he was considered one of the game’s strongest players and once booked a $2 million win. In traditional No-Limit Hold’em, though, he has been consistently crushed, losing around $10 million overall.
In 2024, at the Triton Jeju Series, Tan endured the worst night of his career, dropping $1.9 million in a single session. During that series, he and Canadian-American businessman Seth Gottlieb played one of the largest pots in televised poker history — a hand worth more than $2.4 million dollars. The river card sealed Tan’s fate, and Gottlieb scooped the pot with a full house.
Tan has also tried his hand online — with similarly disastrous results. In one high-stakes session at $500/$1,000, he lost a then-record online pot to Ali Imsirovic.
Special Mention: Bill Klein — Philanthropist Who Plays for Fun
Bill Klein is one of poker’s most beloved recreational players. A wealthy philanthropist whose family owned a major construction materials company, Klein retired after being diagnosed with cancer and focused his life on golf, poker, and charity. He overcame the illness and has become known for his relentlessly positive attitude at the table.
The result doesn’t matter to Klein — because he donates all his winnings and all his losses to charity. “If I win $200,000, I’ll give it all to someone who needs it more,” he once said. “And if I lose $1 million, I’ll write another check for the same amount.”
Klein has stepped back from poker recently. He hasn’t appeared on a stream since May 2023, nor played a tournament since August 2024. We hope this kind and generous man is doing well — and he certainly stands apart from others on this list.
Special Mention: Daniel Negreanu — A Magnet for Memes
It would be wrong not to mention Daniel Negreanu here. Long before oligarch billionaires dominated televised poker, Negreanu was often the biggest loser in cash games — a fact that spawned countless memes and jokes. PokerGO even compiled a four-hour video of every hand he played on various shows, with the most popular comment reading: “If you’re a fan of Daniel Negreanu, 90% of this video will cause you physical pain.”
One of the most memorable televised hands of all time was Negreanu’s full house vs. Gus Hansen — a brutal cooler that has been replayed endlessly in poker history.
Negreanu isn’t among the “worst” losers by any means, but leaving him off this list would be a mistake. His televised struggles are part of poker’s modern folklore.
Special Mention: Bill Perkins — Big Swings & Bigger Fun
Like Klein, Bill Perkins plays poker for enjoyment, not profit. A hedge fund manager and film producer, Perkins has spent huge sums at the tables. While he rarely books big wins, he’s also not a consistent loser — but when he does lose, he loses big.
In one unforgettable televised session, Perkins dropped over $500,000 on the table and left the room, leaving his opponent to decide on calling or folding. It was a bluff that we'll probably never see again, and Handz wasn't able to put the chips in. Then again, getting up to catch a flight after going all in is a pretty strong move. In this way, he’s cut from the same cloth as Eric Persson — a recreational player whose bankroll is as deep as his enthusiasm.
IS THIS THE SICKEST HAND IN TV POKER HISTORY?!?!@bp22 goes ALL-IN, but he's late for a flight. So he leaves the table and leaves @HANDZpoker to make a decision for over $500,000 😮
— Lodge Card Club (@LodgePokerClub) April 30, 2023
Bill watched in real time at the airport to see if he won
Watch live: https://t.co/Cp41U6WWWq pic.twitter.com/Lp0s6C1XaB
Our Conclusion: Only the Wealthy Can Lose Like This
Today, we’ve looked at the players who perform the worst on televised poker streams. But before we judge them too harshly, remember this: you can only lose like this if you have something to lose. Whether it’s reckless lawyers, fearless high rollers, billionaire casino owners, or philanthropic retirees, each of these players adds color — and cautionary lessons — to the modern poker landscape.
