Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker Online Poker's Biggest Winner of 2013; Gus Hansen Drops $8.4 Million
The race to become the biggest online winner of 2013 was a contentious affair for nearly nine months. Both Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn and Kyle “cottonseed1” Hendon both held the lead at one point before inexplicably opting out of being tracked — a phenomenon addressed in a recent op-ed titled The Problems of Opting Out from Online Tracking.
From there it was time for Viktor “Isildur1” Blom to top the leaderboard. The Swede’s volatile playing style saw him quickly swing from up more than $3 million to down on the year, which opened the door for Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker to take the lead. The young German, who finished sixth in 2012 with $1,640,967 in winnings, never looked back as he went on to win $6,190,599 in 65,577 hands this year.
Biggest Online Winners of 2013
| Player | Sessions | Hands | Winnings | Profit Per Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker | 506 | 65,577 | $6,190,599 | $94.40 |
| Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene | 1,358 | 117,730 | $2,996,585 | $25.45 |
| Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar | 300 | 32,976 | $2,036,159 | $61.75 |
| Hac “trex313” Dang | 846 | 80,869 | $1,886,417 | $23.33 |
| “no_Ola” | 1,167 | 107,674 | $1,849,293 | $17.17 |
| “Odd_Oddsen”* | 2,083 | 113,199 | $1,805,454 | $15.95 |
| Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius | 901 | 62,441 | $1,764,977 | $28,27 |
| “Tight-Man1” | 154 | 13,157 | $1,1448,413 | $110.09 |
| “proudlikeagoat” | 256 | 26,817 | $1,391,472 | $51.89 |
| Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton | 297 | 26,571 | $1,051,218 | $39.56 |
*Indicates PokerStars
According to HighStakesDB, Heinecker avoided the virtual felt for the first three months of the year, and when he finally logged on in April he began by dropping a couple hundred grand. He hit a small heater in May and June, but proceeded to give it all back in July. It was at that point he kicked things into high gear and began adding millions to his bankroll.
Most of his winnings — $4.19 million to be exact — came from the draw games, while $2.15 million more came from no-limit hold’em. He also added a small $32,540 playing 8-game and actually lost $166,300 playing limit hold’em.
Here’s a month-by-month look at Heinecker’s running total:
Heinecker’s Race to the Top
| Month | Heinecker |
|---|---|
| January | $0 |
| February | $0 |
| March | $0 |
| April | -$225,330 |
| May | +$464,650 |
| June | $578,340 |
| July | -$34,880 |
| August | $2.28 million |
| September | $2.93 million |
| October | $3.21 million |
| November | $5.37 million |
| December | $6.19 million |
Of course Heinecker nab some big six-figure pots in 2013, but none were biggest than this one from a $400/$800 no-limit hold’em game on August 21:
Here are some other odds and ends regarding the online winners of 2013:
- Tom “durrrr” Dwan who recently parted ways with Full Tilt Poker, finished the year with $750,625 in profit that came from 68,144 hands over 643 sessions.
- ”Odd_Oddsen”, who did an interview with PokerNews earlier this year, was the biggest winner on PokerStars. Moreover, he also won on FTP to bring his yearly winnings up to $3,654,747.
- Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky, who was 2012’s biggest online winner, was the sixth-biggest loser after dropping $1,473,088 in 64,259 hands over 597 sessions.
Speaking of the losers, no one had a worse year than Gus Hansen, who lost a heart-wrenching $8,461,472. Hansen nearly doubled his volume from 2012 when he was the second-biggest loser after dropping $3,204,539 in 63,686 hands over 414 sessions on FTP (he was actually the year’s biggest loser if you combined his $1,093,446 loss on PokerStars), but as you can see it did him little good. The “Great Dane” is now online poker’s all-time biggest loser with $14,891,778 in losses.
Speaking of all-time players, Phil Ivey is online poker’s biggest winner of all time with $19,242,744 in profit. That’d be even more if not for a detrimental 2013 when he lost $2,441,773 in 76,301 hands over 1,098 sessions.
Biggest Online Losers of 2013
| Player | Sessions | Hands | Losses | Loss Per Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gus Hansen | 1,627 | 171,743 | $8,461,472 | -$49.27 |
| “MalACEsia” | 292 | 42,742 | $3,773,524 | -$88.29 |
| “samrostan” | 757 | 82,945 | $3,467,195 | -$41.80 |
| Phil “Polarizing” Ivey | 1,098 | 76,301 | $2,441,773 | -$32.00 |
| “punting-peddler” | 870 | 89,273 | $1,714,545 | -$19.21 |
| Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky | 597 | 64,259 | $1,473,088 | -$22.92 |
| “patpatpanda” | 824 | 83,494 | $1,330,885 | -$15.94 |
| Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver | 115 | 13,750 | $1,220,399 | -$88.76 |
| Rui Cao | 374 | 44,208 | $1,064,351 | -$24.08 |
| “davin77” | 1,380 | 140,368 | $1,037,057 | -$7.39 |
On a final note, you can see “patpatpanda’s” name on the list of biggest losers. While his 2013 didn’t go according to plan, he did manage to take down the biggest pot of the year. It happened way back on February 9 in a game of $250/$500 pot-limit Omaha. Have a look:
While that wraps up the play from the high-stakes online world for 2013, there is plenty more blood-pumping action to be had in 2014. It'll only be a matter of time before the chips start flying once again, so stay tuned to PokerNews all year long to see how poker's virtual juggernauts are doing.
Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com
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PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.
