High Stakes Poker Update December 2009

December 18th, 2009

Durrrr giveth and everyone else taketh away. After winning over $5 Million from Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Isildur1 has officially lost his entire Full Tilt Poker bankroll. After losing over $3 Million to Brian Hastings last weekend, Isildur1 was fighting for the rest of his bankroll against Brian Townsend and Cole South. Townsend took $352,000 off Isildur1 to leave him with just around $70,000. It did not take long before Cole South took the rest of Isildur1’s roll, leaving him down $2,623,203.
As a result of the recent high stakes action, the top of the cash game leader board has changed significantly. Brian Hastings is the current leader with over $4.5 Million in winnings over 25,705 hands. In the two spot is “The Man” Phil Ivey. Ivey is up $3.35 Million in just 19,806 hands this year. Brian Townsend is in the third spot with $1.6 Million. Townsend has had to grind a bit more for his winnings, logging in 44,349.
The fourth place spot went to | Scubba |. He won over $1.54 Million over the course of the year but has really worked for it. He played 331,364 hands to win his Million.

Nanonoko gets a special nod in this article for persistence. Although he has only won $899,000 this year, he has probably put in more hands than any winning player in poker. He has played 2,075,811 hands for an average profit of .43 cents per hand.

As with any level of poker, all of the money at these nosebleed stakes has to come from somewhere. Isildur1 took the top spot in futility with his loses of over $2.6 Million. Even after losing $5 Million to Isildur1, Tom Dwan still only ranks 2nd on this list with $2.575 Million in loses. Martonas, no stranger to this list, is in 3rd with $2.4 Million in total loses. TheItalienStyle and scout326 round out the top five with loses of $1.6 and $1.3 Million respectively. Other players showing some significant loses include both Cole South and Ziigmund. Even after taking chunks out of Isildur1, South is down over $1.285 Million on the year. Ziigmund has had some monster sessions as of late but is still down $690,952.
In a recent development, Gus Hansen has announced that he is taking a break from poker. Deemed a “study break”, Hansen said that he needs to reevaluate his game plan and come out with a new plan of attack in 2010. The schedule for the 2010 WSOP was recently released and perhaps that is some motivation for him to improve his game. Hansen is still one of the best players on the planet that has failed to win a WSOP bracelet.
With the holidays just around the corner, it is unlikely that we will see any significant changes in the overall leader boards, so it looks like Brian Hastings may be the big winner for the year. Phil Ivey yet again proves to be a consistent winner in all facets of the game. 2010 promises to be an interesting year. Will Isildur1 make a comeback? Will Gus Hansen regain his mojo? Can anyone figure out a way to beat Ivey? Time will tell and we will keep you well informed on all of the high stakes online action.