Sanlker Makes Short Work of It, Gus Hansen continues his utter free fall, otherwise things are calm

It looks like it was a thin week in High Stakes Online Poker.  Between Halloween and November 6^th, the  total volume was down and our big winners were much smaller.  Outside of our top 3 (I’m looking RIGHT at you Gus) the biggest losers were posting only 5 figure losses.  Well, maybe the WSOP final table had some of them in attendance, maybe they were too busy going to parties dressed as Sexy Suited Connectors, maybe it was just one of those weeks when things broke a little bit even.  But, if I was a betting man (and hey…take a guess there) I would say it was because “Isildur1” took a good part of the week off.  Like him or lump him – that man drives high stakes action.  Anyway; let’s get a snapshot of this weeks Elite Eight, all of which made the average working man’s annual salary (or a Senior VP’s) this week by clicking a mouse.

#1 – Sanlker – The German mystery player had a very European workweek.  Just 11 sessions and 625 hands were enough to net him the top spot on the Elite Eight.  It must be nice to have that kind of control.  To be on a nearly quarter of a million dollar run and just pump the breaks and maybe hit the Autobahn for a leisurely drive in the Porsche you just bought with your winnings.  And $232,045 can buy you a LOT of German engineering.

#2 – ragen70 – The NLH specialist turned in a solid week netting $202,296 over a simple 28 sessions, but 5028 hands.  The win pushed his total winnings up to $3,785,138.  While he usually makes his living holding two cards and waiting for a flop, the high stakes action over at the Triple Draw tables seems to have been calling his name.  Spoiler Alert – he’s already showing good numbers there for next week.

#3 – RealMonies – Full Tilt Poker continues to be the home of all the biggest winners (ironic) and losers (not so ironic) in the high stakes poker world.  “RealMonies” is starting to earn a real living, having continued his upswing this year netting $508,162 for a lifetime total from this week’s 22 session, 1779 hand, $131,480 win.  That is a good chunk of his total earnings in one week, but he’s had a pretty steady pace otherwise.

#4 – KPR16 – Kyle “KPR16” Ray debuted on the Elite Eight this week.  He’s the first PokerStars high roller to make the list this week and his $118,303 score (done over 23 session and 1771 hands), is more than his lifetime earnings of just a hair over $109k.  Hopefully, this big positive spike is a sign of things to come and we’ll see him back on the Elite Eight again soon.

#5 – deamon10 – A new, mysterious PokerStars grinder made the list this week and is our last 6-figure winner.  Locking up $114,713 dollars in 78 sessions and 2525 hands, “deamon10” more than doubled recorded lifetime earnings.  Now at $218k lifetime, we’ll continue to watch the Elite Eight listings to see if this new challenger can make any more big jumps in the future.

#6 – YurNas – The third PokerStars big winner this week also blew up his/her lifetime earnings.  The $97,909 score was all but $10,000 of their logged lifetime positive earnings.  Typically, something like this is the by-product of “taking your shot” and we either don’t hear anything from them again…or it’s the birth of a legend?  Which will YurNas be?  Well, stay tuned and find out.

#7 – Alexander “Kanu7” Millar – Seventh place is the esteemed young British grinder with just a hair under $3 million in lifetime earnings.  The heads up specialist was at it for a bit this week but called it quits at $97,241 earned over 12 sessions and a paltry 822 hands.  Not bad work if you can get it, mate!

#8 – JcPark – Or final entry into this week’s Elite Eight is from the Full Tilt felt.  While this win only brings their lifetime high stakes earnings up to just shy of $21k (JcPark was over $100k in the hole after a plummet this summer) it is a sign of a return to form…or at least a “get out of the hole” upswing of a high stakes player that has been on the charts for the last year.  What did it take?  $95,346 earned over 2203 hands in 38 sessions.

Honorable Mention – (for being back at it) Sauce123 – recovering nicely after getting dunked by WCGRider last week and bringing home $40,789 dollars.

The Biggest Losers: 

#1 – Gus Hansen – I’m trying to remember a time that I’ve been writing these recaps of online high stakes poker and I did not report that Gus Hansen was our biggest loser.  Maybe it is the Imperial Stout I’m drinking (happy Stout Day by the way!) but I just can’t recall it.  The Great Dane dusted off over a million again this week.  $1,023,117 to be exact in 47 sessions over 8001 hands.  I know there’s an unwritten rule about calling out a known high stakes gambler from the rail – to tell him to take a break or lay off when you aren’t in the game – but it may be time for an intervention with Gus.  $15 million in the hole is just a week away at this point…and I don’t know how you recover from that.  We don’t have a historical reference.

#2 – bbvisbadforme – the elevator went back down again for “bbvisbadforme” this week.  Again, #2 lost a third of what Gus Hansen did, but it’s still a staggering $306,227 lost in just 5 sessions and 306 hands.  Lifetime earnings slip back in the red to -$263,086, so it’s no where near the Great Danish Debt Crisis, but it is a loss that is manageable in the high stakes world.

#3 – samrostan – Taking a page from the book of “bbvisbadforme” book, the Macau grinder formerly known as “patpatpanda” before Black Friday, dusted off his losses in 5 sessions and 750 hands and called it quits.  The total?  $114,702.  In the world of our biggest losers on TWIHSOP…not that bad.

That is it for this week.  Again, if you have any information or want to “come out” as one of our Elite Eight, hit me up on Twitter @MattCWaldron and let me know.

About Matt Waldron:  Matt Waldron is an international journalist, writer, home brewer, poker player, and (when he’s not busy with all that) a professional in the product and brand development world.  “Waldo” has covered the WPT, WSOP, EPT/NAPT and online poker since 2006 in some form or another and well – he hasn’t gotten tired of it yet.