Sulsky has long been one of the most underrated players in high-stakes poker but in 2012 everything seemed to click for the young American.
Sulsky exploded for over $3.5 million in profit on PokerStars to lead all high-stakes charts.
Meanwhile Gus Hansen, the first player to sign a deal with the new Full Tilt Poker, suffered a complete collapse on the re-launched site.
The Great Dane, who was up nearly $4 million on Full Tilt prior to Black Friday, went on a stunning losing streak that saw him lose $3 million in less than two months.
Check below for a complete breakdown of the noteworthy stories in high-stakes poker this year.
Top 10 Online Winners in 2012
Ben Sulsky has always been good but was simply unstoppable in 2012 with $3.5 million in profit.
To put things in perspective, Sulsky made 10 times his total lifetime earnings on PokerStars this year alone.
It’s unlikely Sulsky’s profile will raise that much in 2013 as he doesn’t play that many live events but he’s certainly someone to watch for in the online games.
Finnish pro Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen was second in profit this year with $2.4 million. It’s a good thing considering Kyllonen allegedly bought in for 100% to the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop not to mention buying a trip into space.
EireAbu, rumored to be a Dutch poker pro playing in Ireland, also had a momentous year winning $2.1 million.
Displaced American pro Phil Galfond had a nice bounce-back year after losing over $600k in 2011.
Galfond, who played primarily from Vancouver, Canada, finished with $1.4 million in profit over 177,674 hands.
Some of the other notable players to make big scores in 2012 included Ben “Ben86” Tollerene, Alexander “Kanu7” Millar and bernard-bb.
Here are the top 10 online winners of 2012 according to hsdb.com:
1. Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky (PokerStars): +$3,581,763 2. Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen (PokerStars): +$2,492,278 3. EireAbu (PokerStars): +$2,176,527 4. Ben86 (PokerStars): +$2,136,109 5. Kanu7 (PokerStars): +$1,635,244 6. ragen70 (PokerStars): +$1,618,381 7. bernard-bb (PokerStars): +$1,488,484 8. MrSweets28 (PokerStars): +$1,417,998 9. longerpig (PokerStars): +$1,403,455 10. Chung ho (PokerStars): +$1,229,812
Top 10 Online Losers of 2012
Gus Hansen had the most memorable collapse of 2012 as he dumped $3.1 million in the late stages of the year but it was the unidentified Zypherin on PokerStars who actually lost the most.
Zypherin, who some have pegged as Guy Laliberte, dropped an astounding $3.58 million over 60,697 hands. It wasn’t a complete surprise as the Canadian-based account also lost $1 million in 2011.
Unfortunately for Gus Hansen if you add the $1 million lost on his broksi account on PokerStars than he’s the biggest loser of the year with $4.1 million in damage.
The third-biggest loser of the year was Viktor “Isildur1” Blom with $2.6 million in losses. Keep in mind that was Blom’s PokerStars account. He was actually up $413,544 on the new Full Tilt Poker.
Blom also won $1 million at the $100k buy-in Super High Roller at the PCA in 2012 so it wasn’t all bad for the young Swedish star.
The unidentified patpatman had some ups and downs on PokerStars but finished down $1.7 million. If the patpatpanda account on FTP also belongs to the same player than he is down over $3 million.
In general it was a pretty bad year for some of the biggest online poker stars as Patrik “Fake Love888” Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan both lost nearly $1 million.
Here are the top 10 online poker losers of 2012 according to hsdb.com:
1. Zypherin (PokerStars): -$3,552,742 2. Gus Hansen (Full Tilt Poker): -$3,109,619 3. Isildur1 (PokerStars): -$2,673,899 4. patpatman (PokerStars): -$1,791,000 5. PepperoniF (PokerStars): -$1,377,402 6. patpatpanda (Full Tilt Poker): -$1,277,896 7. broksi (PokerStars): -$1,093,446 8. toweliestar (PokerStars): -$1,015,679 9. Fake Love888 (PokerStars): -$991,295 10. Tom “durrrr” Dwan (Full Tilt Poker: -$987,189Visit www.pokerlistings.com