Sam Kiki’s Wild Year in High-Stakes Poker

Sam Kiki entered the public eye in Season 15 of High Stakes Poker. He wasn’t just another new face. He made noise right away, winning seven-figure pots against Alan Keating and Rick Solomon. Since then, he became a fixture in the highest-stakes games, both online and live.

Over the past year, Kiki logged heavy hours in Los Angeles and Las Vegas lineups. He also flew to Estonia and Cyprus to play behind closed doors with veterans of the international poker scene. His social media often showed him battling legends like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Phil Hellmuth. He also went up against sharp younger players like Kevin Paque and Teun Mulder.

His results reflected the high-stakes chaos — huge wins mixed with brutal losses.

“The swings are part of the game,” Kiki said. “I’ve learned how to stay focused and keep improving.” He didn’t just talk about hands or bad beats. He regularly discussed poker’s declining visibility. Adding, “Poker lost a lot of eyeballs in the past 10 years. A big reason is the lack of engaging personalities.”

Kiki pointed to Monkeytilt, the media and gaming company he runs, as one attempt to fix that. Through his content, he said he hoped to make poker stars more relatable and entertaining.

“The game needs champions who elevate its visibility,” he said.

Kiki gained attention for more than just results. His fashion, table talk, and willingness to speak plainly made him stand out in a field often dominated by quiet grinders. Observers began to call him the next breakout poker personality.

There were signs he was also becoming involved with poker’s business side. During one live broadcast, he hinted at a possible collaboration with people tied to the World Poker Tour.

“I want to build characters and storylines and take the fans behind the scenes,” he said. “Similar to what Drive to Survive did for Formula 1 — I’d like to do for poker.”

He stayed tight-lipped about his appearances on High Stakes Poker, citing contract obligations. Still, publicly available clips showed him winning multimillion-dollar pots against Keating and Andrew Robl. He also confirmed a filmed session with Kevin Hart.

“I can’t say much as the PokerGO team are in conversations to sell the show,” he said. “But what I can say is Kevin Hart and I battled at a level we’ve never before, and there were many multimillion-dollar pots to show for it.”

People involved in the taping said Kiki finished that week up around five million dollars.