Kyle Cartwright Makes a Hattrick of Royal Flushes

The chances of making a royal flush hand while playing video poker is 40,390 to 1, but that didn’t stop poker pro Kyle Cartwright from hitting the jackpot not once, but three times over the past two months. At $100,000 a piece, that comes to a healthy payout of $300,000, and as Cartwright explains:
“I don’t know the exact amount I was in for on my first two in Vegas but I’m pretty sure it was $7k and $9k. So a $93k and $91k profit, give or take a couple of thousand. My last one in Tunica I was down somewhere around $2-3k before I hit it.”
At the poker tables, Cartwright has won $1,494,752 since cashing in at his first live tournament back in 2011, with his biggest cash to date coming in 2014 after taking down the WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $360,435. Commenting upon his recent spate of incredible odd-defying luck, the pro stated:
“I’ve hit maybe 6-7 royal flushes in my lifetime of gambling of 7+ years. To hit 3 in 5 sessions is quite absurd.”
When asked whether going deep in a live tournament or hitting a string of royal flushes gave him the greatest pleasure, the Memphis pro replied that tournaments still provided him with the greatest amount of excitement. According to Cartwright, there are fewer better feelings than using your skill to take you to the furthest extremes of a poker tournament, whereas video poker, on the other hand, basically boils down to luck and knowing the correct cards to hold.
The seat of Cartwright’s latest win was the Horseshoe Tunica, with the pro stating that he was on his way to his hotel room when he noticed that the video poker machine payout for jacks or better was 9/5 instead of 7/5 the last time he visited the venue in May. Tempted by the more favorable odds, he then stuck a $2,500 ticket in the machine, and 10 minutes later he was dealt A-K-Q-9-J all hearts, and after replacing the 9h he subsequently hit a 10h to complete his royal flush.
“So if Horseshoe had never changed the payouts I would never have stuck in any money. So thank you Horseshoe Tunica,” commented Cartwright.