It’s official. Dan “jungleman12” Cates finished as 2014’s biggest online winner with $2,805,751 in winnings on Full Tilt Poker. Cates actually won more than that as he managed to win $631,288 on PokerStars to bring his total winnings up to $3,437,039. Cates managed to fend off Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz, who made a late push to finish as the year’s second-biggest online winner with $2,572,989 in profit.

Biggest Online Poker Winners and Losers of 2016 Featured Rest of the World, Rest of the World January 4, 2017 by Craig Bradshaw. With 2016 now consigned to the pages of history, we delve into the numbers and take a closer look at who the big online winners and losers of last year were.

Online Poker Is For Losers Online

Cates’ combined winnings were quite a bit lower than 2013’s biggest winner, Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker, who won $6,190,599. Speaking of the German, he opted out of long-term tracking in 2014, so we’re not quite sure of his final numbers. That said, he didn’t put in much volume over the past 12 months, so it’s safe to say he was never really in contention for back-to-back titles.

Biggest Online Winners of 2014

Back in August, Cates achieved a milestone by surpassing $10,000,000 in online high-stakes winnings on Full Tilt Poker. It came after a marathon 26-hour session in which he won $677,400. You can read all about that by clicking here. To date, Cates has a reported $10,211,767 in winnings on Full Tilt Poker over 390,881 hands. More than half of that, $5,380,000, has come playing no-limit hold’em, while $1,860,000 and $1,410,000 have come from pot-limit Omaha and 8-game, respectively.

Cates’ biggest pot of the was a $197,819 monster on August 16 in a hand of PLO playing $300/$600 mixed. Interestingly, it came off the year’s biggest loser, Gus Hansen. Have a look:

Biggest Losers of 2014

Speaking of Hansen, he finished as online poker’s biggest loser for the second year in a row. If you recall, the “Great Dane” lost $8,461,472 in 2013, which came a year after he finished as 2012’s second-biggest online loser by dropping $3,204,539, just behind “Zypherin’s” $3,552,742. In 2014, Hansen lost $5,864,263 in 200,904 hands spread over 1,604 sessions. To date, Hansen has lost $20,737,007 in 1,572,615 hands on Full Tilt Poker, enough to make him online poker’s all-time biggest loser.

'I can't keep losing... At some point, I have to quit,' Hansen told PocketFives back in April. Well, he did keep losing, which begs a few questions. Will he quit? Will he continue to bleed money? Or can he somehow find a way to win? Only time will tell.

Biggest Online Losers of 2014

If there’s any silver lining to Hansen’s year, it’s that he lost less than 2013 despite playing nearly the same amount of sessions (1,627 in 2013 to 1,604 this year) and more hands (200,904 to 171,743). His average loss per hand also dropped from a hefty $49.27 in 2013 to a more modest $29.19 in 2014.

In other news, Phil “Polarizing” Ivey finished as 2014’s second-biggest loser after dropping $2,372,298, which almost matched the $2,441,773 he lost last year. Since Full Tilt Poker’s relaunch, Ivey is down $5,066,411 in 184,433 hands, but overall he is still the biggest winner in online poker history with $19,242,744 in winnings in 319,285 hands over 5,377 hands.

Finally, you'll notice Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky, who was 2012's biggest online winner with $3,595,666 in winnings, graced the losers list this year after dropping $687,215 in 19,246 hands over 207 sessions.

Online Poker Is For Losers Season

Biggest Pot of 2014

As for the biggest pot of the year, that belonged to Doug “WCGRider” Polk, who won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet this year and was also the subject of the PokerNews feature piece, Joy Ride: Doug “WCGRider” Polk’s Road to the Nosebleeds. The hand took place on Sept. 18 in a heads-up match at the $200/$400 no-limit hold’em tables against “Denoking.” Have a look:

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That wraps up the play from the high-stakes online world for 2014, but rest assured there will be plenty of action in the new year. We’ll be keeping track of it all every Friday in our Online Railbird Reports, so be sure to check back each and every week for more nosebleed action.

_{Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com}

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After a one-week hiatus, the Online Railbird Report is back to bring you all the latest from the nosebleed action on PokerStars.

A few things have changed over the last two weeks. The first is the position of Viktor 'Isildru1' Blom. He is still the year's biggest winner, but now with a bit more money. In fact, Blom won $1,045,366 in 24,995 hands over 138 sessions from October 9-21, which brought his yearly winnings up to a massive $4,522,979! That makes him the year's biggest winner by quite a margin (the next closest in Jens 'Jeans89' Kyllönen with $1,055,941).

However, Blom had also been the biggest loser of the year. That's because he was down $1,367,244 on Full Tilt. However, over the last two weeks Phil 'RaiseOnce' Ivey lost $761,400 in 16,182 hands over 72 sessions, which put his yearly losses on PokerStars down to $1,644,550 – which doesn't even take into account the $1,250,806 he's down on Full Tilt.

Taking both sites into account, Blom is still the year's biggest winner by a large margin, while Ivey is actually online poker's biggest 2015 loser by a nearly 3:1 margin over Jean-Robert 'Jaqueline' Bellande (-$952,903).

Blom Banks $559,400 in Wednesday Action

On Sunday, October 11, Blom finished as the day's biggest winner after banking a hefty $559,400. He got started playing 8-Game against Ivey for nine hours, during which time the Swede won a modest $41,000. The rest came a bit later when he took a seat in the $200/$400 pot-limit Omaha table where he proceeded to play for five hours against the likes of Ivey, Ike Haxton, and Sam 'tr1cky7' Trickett, just to name a few.

Blom played over five different tables, and he won at each, including $247,500 at table Lorcia, which is where he took down the biggest pot of the day. It happened at a five-handed table when Blom ($137,110.80) opened for $1,800 from the cutoff only to have Haxton ($102,749.55) three-bet to $6,400 from the button. The blinds both folded, Blom four-bet to $20,200, and Haxton called to see the flop.

Blom led out for $41,395, and then called when Haxton shipped all in for $82,544.55.

Haxton:
Blom:

Blom had flopped top two pair, while Haxton held a club draw. The turn was no help to Haxton, and neither was the river. With that, Blom was pushed the $206,499.10 pot, while Haxton went on to lose $345,000 on the day.

Blom's Rollercoaster Ride; Tollerene Tuesday's Biggest Winner

Unfortunately for Blom, he went on to lose $500,000 to 'cumicon' in a heads-up match on Monday, and then returned on Tuesday for more action. He got off to a good start winning $300,000 early on playing no-limit hold'em and 2-7 triple draw, but then became involved in a heads-up PLO match against Ben 'Ben86' Tollerene, who went on to finish as the day's biggest winner with $207,300 in profit. It was during that match that Tollerene won the two biggest pots of the day.

Hand #1: Tollerene ($164,071.36) raised to $1,360 on the button and then called when Blom ($113,021.92) three-bet to $4,240, which brought about a flop of . Blom proceeded to check-call a bet of $6,132.98, and then check-called bets of $20,903.96 and $62,711.88 on the turn and river respectively. Tollerene tabled the for the flopped nuts, and it earned him the $188,137.64 pot as Blom sent his cards to the muck unseen.

Hand #2: Tollerene ($102,635.28) opened for $1,360, Blom ($97,108.72) raised to $4,240, and Tollerene called to see the flop. Blom bet $5,600, Tollerene called, and the appeared on the turn. Blom bet again, this time $14,800, and Tollerene came along to the river. Blom fired out $49,438, and this time Tollerene raised to $77,995.28. Blom, who only had $23,030.72 back, opted to give up on the $148,316 pot.

Blom ended up losing $100,000 on the day, but followed it up by winning a massive $829,900 the next day to see him vault up to a yearly high of +$3.9 million. He wouldn't stop there.

Ivey Loses to Kuznetsov; Blom Gets Back to Winning Ways

After Timofey 'Trueteller' Kuznetsov took Ivey for $163,500 over 1,700 hands of $400/$800 8-Game, which occurred over 12 hours on Thursday, October 15, Blom was back at the virtual felt on Friday. He returned to his winning ways by profiting $171,400, enough to make him the day's biggest winner.

Blom, who had lost $70,000 in Thursday action, returned to the $1,000/$2,000 2-7 triple draw tables for an eight-hour session againstCort 'thecortster' Kibler-Melby. The Swede won $199,000 in the match, and then continued to play into early Saturday morning, albeit at the $200/$400 PLO tables, where he won another $216,000 against the likes of 'JayP-AA' and 'BB1985.'

Then, on Sunday, Blom won an additional $226,700 in just a 90-minute session against 'cumicon.' In the biggest pot of the day, 'cumicon' ($78,550) opened for $1,360 and then called when Blom ($183,411) three-bet to $4,240. The flop saw Blom bet $5,600, 'cumicon' call, and the appear on the turn. Blom bet $14,800, 'cumicon' raised to $64,238, and Blom made it $173,571 to go. 'cumicon' only had $4,472 remaining can called it off to create a $157,260 pot.

'cumicon':
Blom:

The two agreed to run it twice, but neither the river on the first nor on the second had a bearing on the hand. That meant Blom scooped the pot with his king.

For a more thorough look at Blom's rapid rise, which saw him win $4 million in two months, check out HighStakesDB, who wrote an article documenting his journey. Here's a short excerpt:

'In total, from 21st August - 21st October, Isildur1's profit is $4,148,375, with over $3.5m coming from Pot Limit Omaha, $360k from 2-7 Triple Draw, $202k from Fixed Limit Omaha 8/B, $81k coming from No Limit Hold'em, and $45k coming from Fixed Limit Hold'em.'

Biggest Winners/Losers from October 9-21

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

_{Data, hands, and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com}

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