Internet poker player Randy “nanonoko” Lew is respected as one of the fastest online poker players around, and on Sunday he proved it in a dedicated event at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure by setting a new world record for most hands played with an overall profit in an 8 hour timeframe.
Supervised by a Guiness Book of World Records adjudicator, Lew played across 40 virtual tables provided in a special dispensation by Pokerstars.com.
That enabled him to turbo-charge his way through 23,493 hands, and complete his 8 hour stint with an overall profit of $7.65.
Lew even had time to follow online chat encouragement during his record attempt, although he later conceded that may have been a mistake.
At one point the record attempt appeared to be doomed as Lew went $1200 into the red, threatening his ability to complete the feat with an overall profit.
However, he marshalled his resources and turned the uncomfortable situation around – albeit towards the end of the session – by focused, disciplined and definitely fast action.
The internet ace averaged more than 2,900 hands per hour, or nearly 49 hands a minute, taking an average of only 1.2 seconds per hand overall.