Sahamies Biggest PokerStars Cash Winner in 2011

Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies held on to his lead to claim the title of PokerStars biggest cash winner in 2011 with $2,183,832 in earnings.

Overtaking Rafi “refaelamit” Amit in November, the trash-talking, fun-loving Finnish pro Ilari Sahamies coasted the final few weeks of the year to win by only $78,235 to Amit’s 2011 online winnings total of $2,105,597.

The two combatants enjoyed a close race that had many poker fans following their play at the high-stakes pot limit Omaha tables, as well as checking results at various sites that keep a tally of winnings and losings when other commitments kept players from watching the action.

However, online poker’s overall biggest cash winner for last year was Gus Hansen, who won $3,941,703 in just 3 and 1/2 months prior to Black Friday. Hansen racked up his millions on Full Tilt Poker, the troubled poker site that has been offline for months and is currently in the process of being sold to Group Bernard Tapie, with the U.S. Department of Justice also involved in the asset forfeiture negotiations.

The top ten cash money winners online also includes Dan “jungleman12” Cates in 4th place with $1,952,994 in online earnings and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom holding down 6th place with $1,472,695 in profits. Blom had been making a run at Sahamies and Amit for the PokerStars crown as of late, but ended up falling well short, behind Sahamies by more than $700,000.

Interestingly, Phil Ivey squeaked in at 10th place of the top ten with $1,336,313 in 2011 cash winnings. However, rumors have been circulating that a player with the PokerStars screen name of “RaiseOnce” is Phil Ivey. Though Ivey had a winning 2011 online at Full Tilt, if the rumors are true, he may get booted out of the top ten as “RaiseOnce” has lost more than $100,000 in cash games at PokerStars since June of 2009.

The biggest online loser of 2011 was Tom “durrrr” Dwan, forking over $2,474,309 to his online high-stakes competition. Here is a list of online poker’s top 10 winners and losers of 2011.

Top 10 Winners

1)   Gus Hansen $3,941,703
2)   Ilari FIN (Ilari Sahamies)  $2,183,832
3)   refaelamit (Rafael Amit)  $2,105,597
4)   jungleman12 (Dan Cates)  $1,952,994
5)   NoPasaran $1,875,348
6)   Isildur1(Viktor Blom) $1,472,695
7)   Matt Hawrilenko $1,440,095
8)   bixiu (Yan Chen) $1,406,194
9)   Jeans89 (Jens Kyllonen)  $1,377,019
10) Phil Ivey $1,336,313

Top 10 Losers

1)   durrrr  -$2,474,309
2)   fishosaurusREX -$1,399,950
3)   kagome kagome -$1,377,281
4)   cadillac1944 -$1,226,308
5)   Esvedra  -$1,182,259
6)   Zypherin -$1,054,638
7)   nutsinho -$1,025,356
8)   nasud 11 -$877,151
9)   UarePileous -$837,803
10) Cole South  -$778,457