Ragen70 Keeps Raging, Up Over 6 Million in 2013

It was not a quiet week on the virtual felt, despite the “real world” gearing up for holiday celebrations and poker’s best and brightest of the tournament circuit gathered in Las Vegas for the WPT Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond World Poker Classic; the titans of the keyboard gathered to have it out in some massive high stakes online action. 

Familiar names topped the list, but the premier story was the continued meteoric run of Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker whose wins this week put him over $6 million in winnings in 2013.  Considering that the top 20 of the all-time biggest winners in online poker starts at about $3 million LIFETIME earnings, this is an incredible feat.  Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, the run of luck for Viktor Blom nosedived again to the tune of over one-third of a million dollars.  In between that there was a lot of other action and here’s how it turned out:

Elite Eight:

1. “samrostan” – The player formerly known as “patpatpanda” climbed to the top of the bamboo shoot of fortune this week, finally putting an uptick of some substance in a slide of over $4.5 million dollars over 2013.  He did it in 20 sessions in a monstrous 3550 hands and netted $358,238 on the 8 Game Tables right at the end of our tracked week.  Play big, swing big.
2. Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker – Continuing on the warpath to untold riches in 2013, Heinecker put up a huge score this week, just not big enough to take the number one spot, even while earning over a quarter million dollars.  The big wins again came at the Triple Draw tables and again at the cost of Viktor Blom’s bankroll (who was decimated with a little help from “FinddaGrind”.)  It was an 11 session, 1062 hand week that netted $261,689.
3. Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius – He didn’t put in a lot of work this week, but thanks mainly to Triple Draw games pushed by “Isildur1”, Antonius made the 13 sessions and 984 hands count hitting a $259,895 score.  He slides in just under “ragen70”, but it is a difference of less than a small blind in the Triple Draw games they were all playing in.
4. “Crazy Elior” – “Elior’s” wild ride continues and this $205,971 week (24 sessions, 6007 hands) brings him back up to a bit over $150k lifetime on PokerStars.  It’s hard to tell what next week will bring with this gambler, but that is what happens when you’re crazy I guess.
5. Ilkka “LokoisBack” Koskinen – The Finnish high stakes gambler is currently 33^rd on the all- time winners list and 5^th this week.  The $84,880 win (18 sessions, 1429 hands) did a nice job in keeping Koskinen above $2 million lifetime…but that’s only a third of what Niklas Heinecker has earned in 2013 alone.  Just putting it in perspective folks.
6. Alexander “Kanu7” Millar – Millar finished just below number 5 with $84,028 (16 sessions, 2127 hands), but it’s still a pretty good payday for a week of work on the virtual tables.  Lifetime earnings with this score hit $3, 059,917 and keep “Kanu7” at 20^th on the all- time earners list, but again that is about half what “ragen70” has earned this year alone.  I’d take either, but, again just keeping it in perspective.
7. Tobias “KTPOKP” Kuder – The German NLH specialist is typically a true grinder on other sites, typically playing $50/100, but on FullTilt Poker, he’s been in the nosebleeds playing at up to $500/1000.  This week his FTP account netted him $79,746 in 14 sessions over 1390 and his first time on our Elite Eight list. 
8. Dan “jungleman12” Cates – While his PokerStars account took a licking from Ike Haxton this week, Cates made a good bit of it back on FullTilt Poker scoring $77,783 in 13 sessions over 1206 hands.  It was enough to stabilize earnings in general, and with a little work on Stars, netting him an overall positive week and the last spot on our list.

Honorable Mentiones:  “Sauce123” (11^th, $57,759) and Gus Hansen (16^th, $47,326) – for putting some back in the positive column.

Biggest Losers:

1. Viktor “Isildur1” Blom – It was a very long week for Blom.  Even putting in an immense amount of table time (83 sessions, 6284 hands) as is customary, he could not stem the losing tide that overwhelmed him this week.  The Triple Draw tables that had brought him so much fortune turned against him as “ragen70” and “FinddaGrind” took advantage of his bankroll and his game generating prowess to fatten their win totals.  The damage to “Isildur1”’s bankroll?  $376,538.
2. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond – it looked like a great week for Galfond when he pummeled Rui Cao in an eleven hour session of 2-7 TD, but then things turned sour trying to stay with some of the big games surrounding Viktor Blom.  His damage over 14 sessions and 2444 hands?  $166,370.
3. Rui Cao – The marathon session against Phil Galfond made it a bad week for Cao.  But even with a lot of extra work, (29 sessions, 3785 hands) he still finished 6 figures in the hole at -$107,436.  Tough way to go, but we don’t see that slowing Cao down anytime soon.