With WSOP APAC, EPT London and the WCOOP all cutting into the action the numbers were smaller than they were in September.
The most profitable player – by a mile – was Alexander Kostritsyn, playing as joiso on PokerStars and as PostFlopAction on Full Tilt.
The unidentified player SanIker from Germany had the worst month of all players online.
Action Drops Off, Then Comes Back
About $1m moved from player to player every day on the nosebleed limits in September but that number dropped by almost 50% in October.
At first, the big online and live events kept the regulars off the tables. And when the cats were away, the mice came out to play.
Relatively unknown players like HolfemJill9 and donthmlrepls dominated the tables, even if the stakes were a little lower than usual. Rare guests like Niklas ragen70 Heinecker, Daniel steamraise Alaei and Kyle KPR16 Ray also made appearances.
There were neither extremely big pots nor dramatic swings over the month. The most “reliable” players were Kostritsyn, who kept winning all the time, and heads-up specialist SanIker, who kept losing.
Kostritsyn dominated the mixed games while Saniker paid a lot on the 2-7 tables. Action dropped again when Blom and Hansen left Full Tilt but then it came back some to end the month -- contrary to what many pundits expected.
Temporarily players moved over to slightly lower limits on PokerStars but for the last few days of October big battles ensued again on Full Tilt.
Thecortster and KagomeKagome Pound on Luneau
There were two German players with a lot of success last month. Julius KagomeKagome Fleischer suffered several bad months earlier in the year, predominantly in 2-7 Triple Draw.
In October he then showed that he had improved in this very fashionable game. The majority of the money he won last month came from French Draw Poker expert Alexandre alexonmoon Luneau.
He was mostly responsible for Fleischer making the second spot in the leaderboard. Cort Kibler-Melby was also able to take money from Luneau to turn a profit in October.
But, as before, this was nothing compared to the amazing success of Kostritsyn. Even though he didn’t run that well as PostFlopAction on FullTilt he made plenty of money as joiso on PokerStars.
By the end of October almost $750k had been added to the bankroll of the 26-year-old Muscovite.
Over 2014 he has now amassed profits of almost $5m and is stepping into the footsteps of online legends like Niki Jedlicka (2007), Phil Ivey (2008), Patrik Antonius (2009), Dan Cates (2010), Gus Hansen (2011), Ben Sulsky (2012), and Niklas Heinecker (2013), who were the most successful players.
Biggest Pot of the Month
Two veritable giants of online poker were involved in the biggest hand of the month. The limits were $300/$600 PLO and Alexander Kostritsyn took on Viktor Blom.
After several raises there was already $16k in chips in the middle. The flop fell:
Surprisingly for the railbirds, both players checked the flop. The turn was the
Kostritsyn bet $32k which Blom quickly called. After the river
both players pressed the button. Kostritsyn checked first then snap-called Blom's $80k all-in bet. Blom showed
for trip tens and Kostritsyn had to muck his hand. A significant pot of over $261k was moved to Blom’s side of the table.
Biggest Winners in October
Alexander joiso (PS) Kostritsyn, $+740,976 Julius KagomeKagome Fleischer, $+497,539 Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby, $+416,307 Rui PepperoniIF Cao, $+384,486 Kyle KPR16 Ray, $+306,437
Biggest Losers in October
SanIker, $-990,930 Alexandre alexonmoon Luneau, $-454,887 Dani supernova9 Stern, $-337,687 Phil Polarizing Ivey, $-231,440 Elior CrazyElior Sion, $-213,566
Biggest Winners in 2014
Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+3,741,654 Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+2,807,509 Mikael punting-peddler Thuritz: $+2,562,379 Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+2,226,465 Alexandre alexonmoon Luneau: $+1,887,223
Biggest Losers in 2014
Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-6,659,033 Gus Hansen: $-5,522.853 Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-2,501,002 Julius KagomeKagome Fleischer: $-1,989,146 Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,395,340
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