2011 was a tumultuous year for the online poker world, with the implosion of Full Tilt and plenty of other fireworks throughout the year. Despite all the hubbub there was still plenty of poker played online in 2011, with million dollar swings for high stakes players that regularly take their seats in the biggest poker games offered.
HighStakesDB.com has compiled its annual list of online poker's biggest winners and losers, which you'll find below (in some cases the online screen name of the player is used instead of their real name):
Winners
Gus Hansen, $3,941,703
Illari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies, $2,183,832
refaelamit, $2,105,597
Dan "jungleman12" Cates, $1,952,994
NoPasaran, $1,875,348
Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, $1,472,695
Matt Hawrilenko, $1,440,095
bixiu, $1,406,194
Jeans89, $1,377,019
Phil Ivey, $1,336,313
Losers
Tom "durrrr" Dwan, -$2,474,309
fishosaurusREX, -$1,399,950
kagome kagome, -$1,377,281
cadillac1944, -$1,336,308
Esvedra, -$1,182,259
Zypherin, -$1,054,638
nutsinho, -$1,025,356
nasud 11, -$877,151
UarePileous, -$837,803
Cole South, -$778,457
Full Tilt had been the home for most high stakes games before shuttering its doors in June after being indicted by the US government in April, and it still managed to produce some of the biggest winners and losers.
While Gus Hansen's 2011 profits of nearly $4 million is obviously very impressive, it's worth noting that he was one of the biggest losers on the site up until late 2010, losing a staggering $7.75 million through August 2010.
