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High stakes online poker pros looking for better results in 2010
For the best-of-the-best in the world of online poker, unless your name was Patrik Antonius or Phil Ivey, 2009 was likely a rough year for you at the high-stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker. According to highstakesdb.com there were 15 poker players who made $1,000,000+ at the Full Tilt Poker tables last year –down from 17 the previous year, which at first glance doesn’t seem like much of a change, but wait… I have more numbers that may change your mind!
Despite a lack of action for most of the year at the highest stakes tables on Full Tilt, which sat deserted for much of 2009, unlike 2008 where the tables seemed to be going around the clock, the winners of 2009 are only half of the overall story; perhaps the more telling side of the story is when we take a look at the losing players over the past two years:
High Stakes Poker Losers in 2008
In 2008 there were seven poker players who lost over one million dollars, but the top three –lady marmalade, patatino, and elmariachimacho—are all rumored to be high-stakes whale, Guy Laliberte, founder of Circus De Soleil. After Laliberte’s $16 million in losses, there were only four players who lost just over $1,000,000 each, with John Juanda and Steve Sung the only high-profile names.
High Stakes Poker Losers in 2009
Fast forward to 2009, where there were 10 million dollar plus losers! Even more importantly the top four players on the list –who lost a total of almost $16 million, or roughly what Guy Laliberte lost in 2008—are four of the biggest names in poker: Gus Hansen (-$5.2 million), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$4.3 million), Lars Luzak (-$4 million), and David Benyamine (-$2.2 million). Compare this with 2008, where four poker pros lost right around $1 million each.
The biggest surprise on the list has to be Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Dwan has been a perennial powerhouse at the online poker tables, and his year-long struggles have shocked the poker world. Similarly, few poker pros expect a player of Gus Hansen’s caliber to have such a terrible year, despite his hyper-aggressive style and willingness to “gamble” at times: It’s just hard to imagine a world-class player having a $5 million down-swing!
Stranger still is the sharks feeding on themselves: Guy Laliberte, in the guise of his different screen-names, basically fed the high-stakes online poker world in 2008, but in 2009 online poker was more cannibalistic in nature, until a couple new high stakes player arrived toward the end of the year, Martonas and Isildur1, who together lost over $3 million. But unlike the Laliberte’s of the world, these two players are not billionaires looking for high-stakes action; instead they are really good poker players who can likely become high-stakes winners in the future.
So far in 2010 –all 11 days to this point—Gus Hansen is the big winner at the high-stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker, up some $330,000, which is about a medium-sized pot in some of the games these players partake in! It will be interesting to see how the nosebleed poker games take shape in 2010: Will there be an influx of players looking to take shots at the high-stakes games? Will there be a single whale that makes 2010 a good year for all? Or, will the last year’s trend continue, with poker pros feasting on each other, and turning the high-stakes tables into a ghost-town?
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