Phil Ivey Biggest Online Poker Loser of 2015

With 2015 almost in the bag, 10-times WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey is currently the biggest loser of the year with $3,7 million in losses. That is also a situation that is unlikely to change over the next week considering that the year’s second biggest loser, Jean-Robert Bellande, is in the red by just $1,139,115.
Furthermore, Phil Ivey suffered a losing year across both his preferred online sites, having lost $2.4 million on PokerStars playing under the screen name “RaiseOnce”, and another $1.2 million on Full Tilt Poker as “Polarizing”. In total, Ivey’s losses were accumulated over 160,000 hands at high-stakes cash games.
Despite his forgettable 2015 online results, the 39 year-old poker legend continues to be one of the online game’s biggest overall winners, with total career profits of $10,441,963, including +$12,925,527 won on Full Tilt, but -$2,483,564 lost at PokerStars.
Despite Ivey’s annus horribilis, he was not the only high-profile player to experience a downswing in 2015, with the year’s other biggest losers including the likes of Phil Galfond (-$660,380), Sam Trickett (-$465,581), Jason Mercier (-$431,499), and Dan Cates (-$330,954). With such talented players struggling at the online cash tables, it’s no wonder many have taken exception to PokerStars’ decision to implement drastic changes to its VIP Rewards program.  In fact, Terrence Chan, one of iPoker’s most respected players, even warned that many pros will now find it difficult to earn a comfortable living from the game, and as he mentioned in a revealing article entitled “The end of the online poker pro?”:
“If you are an online poker pro, and you have not made at least 100k/year in the last two years, you should strongly consider applying for a real job somewhere. If you are an aspiring poker pro and haven’t quite made the leap yet, you need to look long and hard about whether you really want to sign up for this grind. ”
On the other side of the coin, one of the online game’s biggest stars, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, seems set to close out 2015 as the year’s biggest winner with $2,132,138 in winnings. That figure includes +$3,499,382 won on PokerStars, slightly offset by -$1,367,244 of losses on Full Tilt.
Other online pros also enjoying a profitable 2015 includes Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky ($1.1m), “bbvisbadforme” ($960k), Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen ($870k), and Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton ($340k).