The New Year brought with it the end of the annual race to become online poker’s biggest cash game winner of 2017. Two players finished with seven-figure profits, with BERRI SWEET ($1,769,395) edging out Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov ($1,454,838) for the honor.
Winners and Losers
According to HighStakesDB, which tracks the high-stakes cash games on PokerStars, BERRI SWEET, who was November’s biggest online winner, played 55,120 hands spread across 869 sessions in 2017. That averages out to winning $32.10 per hand, whereas Kuznetsov, who played 59,505 hands over 701 sessions, averaged $24.45 per hand.
To put that in perspective, it’s in the ballpark of hourly wages for orthotists and prosthetists ($31.55), court reporters ($24.68), and private detectives and investigators ($23.17).
BERRI SWEET, who began playing pot-limit Omaha on PokerStars on July 7, 2012, has played 176,973 hands on the site with $2,330,314 in winnings. That makes him the 26th biggest online winner as tracked by HighStakesDB.
He joins the likes of Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn ($1,466,568 in 2016), Viktor“Isildur1” Blom ($3,497,527 in 2015), and “thecortster” ($3,387,548 in 2014) as online poker’s biggest yearly winners.
Others who did well in 2017 were Carlo “Ravenswood13” van Ravenwoud ($814,543), Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger ($650,965), and Blom ($645,327).
On the flip side, no one did worse in 2017 than Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro, who was the only seven-figure loser. He lost $1,277,737 in 55,654 hands over 898 sessions for an average loss of $22.96 per hand.
Others who struggled in 2017 were “8superpoker” (-$826,554), the recently-retired Dani “supernova9” Stern (-$777,373), “ImagineKing” (-$525,044), and Bill “GASTRADER” Perkins (-$517,020).
Biggest BERRI SWEET Pots of 2017
$200/$400 PLO is BERRI SWEET’s bread and butter, and also where he’s won his biggest pots. In 2017, he played four pots that crossed the $200k mark, all of which took place on July 26 in a heads-up match against Blom.
In what would be BERRI SWEET’s biggest pot of the year, the only one bigger than $300K, began when BERRI SWEET ($252,420) opened for $1,360 holding the A♣A♠3♠8♣ and Blom ($171,698.50) reraised to $4,240 with the A♦A♥6♦K♠. Four more back-and-forth raises saw the chips get in, and the two opted to run it twice.
On the first run, the board came out 3♣5♠6♣3♥Q♦ and BERRI SWEET locked up half the pot with trip threes. On the second run, which came 7♣6♥9♠J♠10♣, which meant both their aces played. Blom got $85,888.50 back for his quarter of the pot, while BERRI SWEET pulled in $343,557.
In another big pot, Blom ($106,550.55) raised to $1,360 with the J♦8♦Q♠7♠ and BERRI SWEET ($317,174.95) reraised to $4,240 with the A♠10♠Q♦6♥. Not to be outdone, Blom made it$12,880 to go and BERRI SWEET just called to see the K♠8♥6♠ flop.
BERRI SWEET checked, Blom bet $25,917, and BERRI SWEET check-raised to $103,668. Blom called off his remaining $67,753.55 and just like that a $213,421.10 pot was on the live. The two agreed to run it twice, and BERRI SWEET locked up half the pot when the J♣ turn and 3♠ river on the first run gave him the best flush.
Neither the 6♣ turn nor 9♣ river on the second helped Blom, and he watched the other half of the pot get pushed to BERRI SWEET, who had made trip sixes.
