Here we are, only halfway through the first month, and already 2015 is stacking up to be an exciting year for online poker pros and their respective railbirds. Let’s take a look at the best, and the worst, online poker pros of the year so far according to data collected by HighstakesDB.
Highest Earning Online Poker Cash Game Grinders of 2015
Alex “PostFlopAction” / “joiso” Kostristyn – $465,525
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Topping the list of most profitable cash game grinders in the first half of January, 2015, is Russian poker pro and 2008 Aussie Million champion Alex Kostristyn, aka “PostFlopAction” on Full tilt Poker, and “joiso” on PokerStars. Kostristyn is the only winning player of this year to have already played 5-figures worth of hands, totaling 12,414 across 120 sessions. Over that time, he’s racked up an impressive $465,525 in winnings.
Alex’s current status is especially remarkable considering that in 2014, he only ended the year with a $54,663 profit. However, that was after plunging from a $1.04mm lead in November. Overall, “joiso” is up $785,700 at PokerStars since first being tracked 2011.
Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky – $288,003
Widely considered one of the best heads-up poker pros in the world, Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky has accumulated the second highest profits of 2015 by grinding out 5,847 hands over 67 sessions in the last 16 days. Over that time, his bankroll has grown $288,003. That’s a great start for the American poker pro whose profit margin has been hovering between the $3mm and $4mm mark since mid-2012. Overall, “Sauce123” has generated a total of $3,915,236 at PokerStars in the last 4 years.
Ilari “Ziigmund / “Ilari FIN” Sahamies – $258,374
Finnish poker pro Ilari Sahamies has already competed in 6,399 hands in 2015, winning $258,347 across 87 sessions on PokerStars where he goes by the nickname “Ilari FIN”. All in all, though, the recent spike in productivity has done little more than bring Sahamies close to where he was two years ago. His total online poker cash game earnings since 2011 now total $2.087 million, slightly less than when compared to the $2.16mm he held in Jan 2013. On a brighter note, though, in little more than two weeks’ time, he’s already nearly tripled his annual income of $91,769 across 2014.
Worst Losing Online Poker Cash Game Grinders of 2015
“CoeJassidy” -$255,450
No, it’s not Gus Hansen this time… at least, not yet. “CoeJassidy”, an anonymous player whose nickname seems to be derived from the WSOP bracelet winning poker pro, Joe Cassidy, is thus far the biggest loser of 2015. CoeJassidy hasn’t been seen on Full Tilt Poker since March of 2008, when he was down -$66,730, and his return this month wasn’t exactly a triumphant one. In just 7 sessions involving 383 hands, the online poker player is already in the hole -$255,450 in 2015, bringing his total losses to -$322,181.
Phil “Polarizing” Ivey -$167,853
2014 was abysmal for 10x WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey, and this year isn’t stacking up to be much better. Since returning to Full Tilt in November 2012 (post-Black Friday), the American poker pro has dropped a staggering -$5,234,264. That includes the -$167,853 he’s lost in the first half of January 2015 playing just 101 hands over only 2 sessions. Then again, tracking his lifetime online poker results across all sites (including his former FTP Team Pro account pre-Black Friday), the ‘Tiger Woods of Poker’ is still up $19.24 million. Add that to his live tournament winnings of $21.457 million (4th highest in the world), and there’s little chance this guy is hurting for money.
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom -$107,914
Swedish poker pro Viktor Blom became infamous for his enormous swings on the virtual felt from the moment he started playing high stakes online poker in 2009, and not much has changed since then. His bankroll chart reads like an erratically racing heartbeat, scaling from a peak of $5.46mm (Nov 2009) to as low as -$3.74mm (Aug 2014). After dropping -$107,914 since the New Year began, Blom is now exhibiting a total loss of -$3,480,716 overall.