High Stakes Online Poker Players Off to Good and Bad Starts in 2016: Cates Up, Blom Down, Ivey Undecided

3 min read

High stakes online poker.
High stakes online poker is off to an exciting start in 2016. (Image: HighStakesDB.com)

For some high stakes online poker players, 2016 has started off with a bang. For others, they’d probably prefer a mulligan.

At the time of writing, a player using the screen name “Educa-p0ker” on PokerStars has earned $125,390 since the start of the new year. “TILTMENOT,” another PokerStars high stakes player, is the only other six-figure winner so far in 2016, having earned $108,778.

“SHARMOOTA,” playing on the same poker site, tops the list no one wants to make, starting off $118,140 in the hole. Second on that list is Viktor Blom, also known as “Isildur1”. Blom is down $115,592 through the new year’s first two weeks.

Blom certainly isn’t a newcomer to the “in the red” list.

He’s been on a roller coaster ride at the high stakes poker tables since 2007, having made headlines for winning and losing millions in numerous sessions.

In fact, he’s down more than $2 million in his young lifetime between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Ivey Looking to Rebound

2015 was a brutal year for “Polarizing”. That’s the post-Black Friday screen name for arguably the game’s greatest player, Phil Ivey. It’s unknown how Ivey faired in live cash games last year, but it is known that he was online poker’s biggest loser.

Ivey dropped just a shade under $4 million online in 2015, worse than any other high-stakes poker player. Despite his rough year, along with a down year in 2014, Ivey remains one of the biggest online poker winner in history.

Patrik Antonius, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, Di “Urindanger” Dang, and Brian Hastings are among the all-time biggest winners.

Ivey doesn’t have any results to report yet this year, but after two down years in a row online, he’ll be looking for some better luck in 2016, or to adapt his game. Since Black Friday, “Polarizing” is in the hole more than $6.3 million on Full Tilt Poker.

Dan Cates Continues Dominance

Known as one of the best heads-up hold’em specialists ever, if not the best, Dan Cates (known as “jungleman12” on Full Tilt Poker and “w00ki3z.” on PokerStars) continues to dominate the high-stakes online games.

His w00ki3z. account has already profited more than $30,000 in 2016, but no results yet from jungleman12.

Cates’ most profitable hand so far this month came on January 11th in a $100/$200 PLO game. A player named “Bullitos” opened for $940 UTG and was raised to $3,260 by Cates, who started the hand with just over $28,000.

With $57,405 in the pot after Cates was all-in on the flop, a club on the turn gave him the nut flush and the pot. Hands like this probably help lessen the blow of Jungleman’s $5 million loss in Manila cash games this past summer.



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