Russian Billionaire Bet a $125 Million Luxury Yacht, Measuring 113 Meters, With Helipads, Spa, and Cinema Onboard — And, According to Rumors, Lost It All in One Night of Poker

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 28/10/2025 at 12:02

Le Grand Bleu, o iate de luxo US$ 125 milhões de Roman Abramovich, teria sido perdido em uma partida de pôquer milionária entre bilionários russos

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With 113 Meters in Length, Double Helipads, Private Cinema, Spa, and Even a Land Rover on Board, Le Grand Bleu Became Famous After Rumors That Roman Abramovich Had Lost It in a Billion-Dollar Poker Bet.

In 2006, the world learned about one of the most talked-about stories among Russian billionaires. The luxurious yacht Le Grand Bleu, valued at US$ 125 million, gained media attention for a supposed unusual episode: it was allegedly lost in a poker game among friends.

The protagonist of the story was Roman Abramovich, then owner of Chelsea FC in the Premier League.

The yacht, measuring 113 meters in length, features seven cabins, spa, private cinema, beach club, circular swimming pool, and gym. The vessel also includes two helipads, a 20-meter tender yacht, a 22-meter sailboat, and even a Land Rover on board — a setup worthy of a floating resort.

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The Alleged Game Among Billionaires

According to reports released at the time, Abramovich had welcomed his friend Eugene Shvidler on board the Le Grand Bleu.

During a night of fun, they bet on cars, houses, and luxurious mansions. Close sources stated that Shvidler won a poker game in which the superyacht was at stake, becoming its new owner. Abramovich, however, denied the story, and no official confirmation has emerged about the truthfulness of the episode.

The Million-Dollar Exchange Between Art and Luxury

Years later, another nautical mystery caught the public’s attention. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, commissioned the superyacht Topaz in 2012, built by the German shipyard Lürssen Werft in Bremen. The vessel, measuring 147.25 meters in length, was valued at around US$ 450 million.

However, in 2019, the yacht was renamed “A+” with no record of sale or transfer of ownership. The curious detail is that, in 2017, Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud purchased the painting “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci for US$ 450.3 million, an amount equivalent to that of the yacht. Shortly thereafter, the prince gifted the painting to the United Arab Emirates, fueling rumors of a symbolic exchange between the artwork and the vessel — one of the most intriguing mysteries in the world of luxury.

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Russian Billionaire Bet a $125 Million Luxury Yacht, Measuring 113 Meters, With Helipads, Spa, and Cinema Onboard — And, According to Rumors, Lost It All in One Night of Poker

With 113 Meters in Length, Double Helipads, Private Cinema, Spa, and Even a Land Rover on Board, Le Grand Bleu Became Famous After Rumors That Roman Abramovich Had Lost It in a Billion-Dollar Poker Bet.

The Alleged Game Among Billionaires

The Million-Dollar Exchange Between Art and Luxury

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Russian Billionaire Bet a $125 Million Luxury Yacht, Measuring 113 Meters, With Helipads, Spa, and Cinema Onboard — And, According to Rumors, Lost It All in One Night of Poker

With 113 Meters in Length, Double Helipads, Private Cinema, Spa, and Even a Land Rover on Board, Le Grand Bleu Became Famous After Rumors That Roman Abramovich Had Lost It in a Billion-Dollar Poker Bet.

The Alleged Game Among Billionaires

The Million-Dollar Exchange Between Art and Luxury

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Toyota launches “family hybrid van” with 7 or 8 seats, 1.8 hybrid engine, fuel consumption of up to 23.8 km/l, and a price equivalent to about R$ 104,000 without taxes, below the Tiggo 8 Pro Plug-in Hybrid sold in Brazil: meet the Noah Hybrid 2026 in Japan.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

Man enters college at 70 years old and earned a bachelor’s degree, several master’s degrees, received the last diploma at 90, and became the oldest graduate in the history of a system with 23 universities.

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