Las Vegas Poker Player Wins $6.4M Pai Gow Jackpot

A Las Vegas local and poker player won one of the largest jackpots ever at a table game.

Thomas Zanot had a seven-card straight flush in spades while playing Pai Gow Poker at Flamingo Las Vegas. The hand earned him a progressive jackpot win of $6,443,401.

The pot was over six times larger than the largest Pai Gow progressive payout at Caesars Entertainment’s Las Vegas Resorts across all of last year.

The hand was played early Sunday. Zanot reportedly had been playing for a few hours before the lucky hand. He said he’ll buy a house with the winnings. He could probably afford a few of them.

“The Pai Gow Poker progressive links more than 40 Pai Gow tables across Caesars’ properties statewide in Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, Laughlin and Reno,” according to a press release from casinocitytimes.com. “With the largest network of linked tables, jackpots grow quickly, reach high dollar amounts and offer frequent payouts. The Pai Gow Poker mega progressive jackpot hadn’t hit since March 2022.”

Zanot is also an accomplished poker player.

Zanot has around $1.1 million in lifetime poker tournament earnings. His largest score to date was a $162,300 victory in a $565 no-limit hold’em $1 million guarantee at the 2017 Gardens Poker Classic. The event had nearly 2,000 players.

He has 60 cashes at the World Series of Poker for $224,932.