Every year, online poker data trackers present the very best, and the very worst, players of the year. For the majority of us who play poker as a side gig, as opposed to a profession, it’s inspiring to see just how much money today’s top competitors are able to bankroll over a relatively short amount of time. This year, we congratulate Dan “jungleman12” Cates, who earned the highest profits of over $3.4 million in 2014.
| Dan Cates Full Tilt account has been tracked by premier online poker analyst HighstakesDB since 2009. In all that time, he’s racked up a staggering total of $10.2 million in cash game winnings, and that doesn’t even include his tournament results. Last year alone, jungleman12 hit the Full Tilt cash tables to the tune of $2,805,751. The American poker pro also wrangled up $631,288 on PokerStars, bringing his grand total to $3,437,039 and making him the highest ranking online poker cash game earner of 2014.
It should be noted, however, that not every online poker pro is tracked by sites like HighstakesDB. The biggest winner for 2013 was German poker pro Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker, who managed to scoop nearly twice that of Cates’ 2014 earning with $6,190,599. Unfortunately, “ragen70” opted out of online poker tracking at the start of 2014, thus there’s no way of knowing how much Heinecker collected at the cash game tables that year. Taking the second highest spot on the 2014 winners’ leaderboard was Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz. The Swedish poker pro started on a very low note to kick off 2014, down around -$1.6 million, dropping to -$2.1 million in April before turning things around to finish with a $2,572,989 profit on the year. When subtracting his original red-line, however, that left Thuritz with a $937k bankroll to start 2015. Rounding out the 3rd, 4th and 5th spots were famed online poker pros Patrik “FinddaGind” Antoius with $1,683,538, Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton with $1,541,060 and Doug “WCGRider” Polk with $1,077,969. |
 Dan Cates, image courtesy NYTimes Christopher Morris |
Also of noteworthy mention is the absolute worst online poker cash game player of 2014, Gus ‘The Great Dane’ Hansen, who spent more time than just about anyone else grinding the virtual felt. After playing just over 200,000 hands, Hansen ended the year with a massive loss of -$5,864,263.
The only player to compete in more hands than The Great Dane was his former co-ambassador of Full Tilt’s elite pro team, The Professionals (disbanded by the online poker site late last year), Viktor “Isuldur1” Blom. The Swedish poker phenom record 320,018 hands across2,803 session in 2014, netting him the 3rd worst losses of $1,698,911. Snuggled neatly between Hansen and Blom was American poker pro Phil “Polarizing” Ivey, who earned the title of 2nd worst player in 2014 after dropping –$2,372,298 on the cash game tables.
Interestingly enough, if we segregate Daniel Cates’ online poker winnings of last year between Full Tilt and Pokerstars, he still makes the Top 10 list for both accounts. Jungleman12’s $2.8 million on Full Tilt was enough to take top honors by itself, while the $631,288 he bankrolled at PokerStars was enough for a 10th place finish.