Nobody in 16 seasons of High Stakes Poker has ever held both of the show's biggest records at the same time. Sam "Señor Tilt" Kiki now holds both.
"Sam now holds the record for the most ever won across a full season of High Stakes Poker, as well as the largest single-day win in the show's history," Brent Hanks, CEO of PokerGO, told SI, March 23. "Alan Keating was at the table. Andrew Robl was at the table. That's the caliber of competition we're talking about, and Sam still came out on top."
Season 16 is expected to drop in late April 2026, and specific details are being kept under wraps to avoid spoilers. But the records point to a strong showing against one of the most stacked lineups assembled for the show.
Before he was Señor Tilt, Kiki was a self-described nerd from Las Vegas. Born Samer Mohammed Kiki Jr. to Syrian immigrant parents, he grew up in Sin City while his father worked his way up from casino jobs to executive roles, according to The Daily Mirror. Kiki earned a neuroscience degree from Amherst College on scholarship — the first person in his family to graduate from college — and went on to hold executive roles at MGM Resorts and Caesars Interactive, where he worked on the William Hill acquisition and managed partnerships with ESPN and the NFL.
He eventually co-founded Manifold Trading, a crypto quantitative investment firm, before launching MonkeyTilt, an entertainment and betting company that hit $200 million in monthly betting volume within eight months of its March 2024 launch, as reported by Fortune. The platform has raised $51 million from investors including Pantera Capital and PokerGO itself, and has partnered with names like Ryan Garcia, Rita Ora, and Martin Garrix.
Kiki's poker career has moved just as fast. His debut on High Stakes Poker Season 15 in April 2025 saw him win a $1,008,500 pot against Rick Salomon. He later took down Kevin Hart for approximately $424,500 in a single hand, and sources close to that taping told Market Realist he finished the week up around $5 million. He's also lined up a $500,000 golf match against Hart and a separate challenge against LeBron James, per The Blast.
In a November 2025 interview, Kiki said he wants to do for poker what Drive to Survive did for Formula 1. With two all-time records now in his pocket, he's making a pretty strong case.
