Blom and Hansen lost millions last month while Russian Alexander Kostritsyn asserted his control over the high-stakes scene with massive profit.
Cort Kibler-Melby and Sebastian Ruthenberg made significant profits while the high-stakes games began to slow slightly with the WSOP starting in Las Vegas.
The Opt-outs Lead Everyone
Russian player Alexander Kostritsyn, American-German player Cort Kibler-Melby, and German player Sebastian Ruthenberg are all players who have opted out of the regular data tracking, which is why they don’t appear in the regular leaderboards anymore.
We kept an eye on them, however, and can tell you that based on our research they were among the most successful players last month.
Kostritsyn mostly profited from widespread action at the Mixed Game and 8-Game tables. The 26 year old from Russia has evolved into an expert in these games, and he seems hard to beat.
Since the beginning of the year, he has made about $1.3 million dollars in profit (according to highstakesDB), which is more than anyone else.
And this is not even taking into account his winnings on PokerStars, where he plays as joiso and won another $160k last year.
Kibler-Melby and Ruthenberg are following with some distance. They have become part of the group of high rollers who are targeting the 2-7 tables.
Yet again, several German players are also finding success, although Daniel Cates, Patrik Antonius, and Niki Jedlicka are still way ahead of them in the yearly rankings.
Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom – Onwards into the Abyss
The two Scandinavians are having experiences very different from the above mentioned players. The “Full Tilt Professionals” were, again, distributing their money among the high roller community.
Both lost about $1 million at the nosebleed tables. They lost it in every game and on every limit they played.
The reason can’t be a question of practice, because these two played way more than their competitors. Gus Hansen played 30,000 hands and Viktor Blom played 40,000 in one month.
Biggest Hand of the Month
There were several pots in May that grew to over $200,000. Some of them were even bigger than the one we are going to show you here, but all of them were split, after the board was run twice.
Mystery player Call_911 turned out to be the winner of the biggest pot, then, and the game was $400/$800 NLHE.
That night, high-roller Paul MalACEsia Phua made a rare appearance, and the table immediately filled up.
The action started with Call_911 making a standard raise to $2400, which chased away proulikagoat, Dmitry Rhje Yaskevich, and Nikas ragen70 Heinecker.
Only Paul Phua, the man with the target on his forehead, showed some resistance from the small blind. He reraised to $8000, Denoking in the big blidn folded, and Call_911 called.
The flop fell
MalACEsia lead out for $12k, and Call_911 made the call. After the turn
both players put all their chips in the middle. Paul Phua checkraised Call_911’s bet all-in, he called, and the pot was now $235k.
The river was the
and then the players went to showdown.
MalACEsia:
Call_911:
The better flush won the hand, and $235k was moved over to the bankroll of the man with the emergency nickname.
Monthly and Yearly Leaderboard:
Biggest Winners in May
Alexander PostFlopAction Kostritsyn, $1,286,332
Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby, $877,473
Sebastian taktloss47 Ruthenberg, $644,516
Alexandre Alexonmoon Luneau, $573,054
Mikael punting-peddler Thuritz, $488,787
Biggest Losers in May:
Viktor Isildur1 Blom, $-1,135,819
Gus Hansen, $-960,382
Paul MalACEsia Phua, $-603,392
SanIker, $-567,546
Chun samrostan Lei Zhou, $-323,197
Biggest Winners 2014:
Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066
Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295
Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,303,375
Patrik FinddaGrind Antonius: $+1,183,736
Niki Jedlicka: $+1,149,684
Biggest Losers 2014:
Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491
Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-2,690,236
Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,843,444
Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,815,817
CrazyElior: $-939,704
Visit www.pokerlistings.com