January 2009: The online poker report

Tom Dwan sits atop the No-Limit Hold’em charts for January.Starting this year PokerListings.com will be recapping all the high-stakes action according to data collected by our exclusive MarketPulse section. Here’s a look at what went down in the month of January in 2009.

The Wager

The online poker world was buzzing in the first week of the month, when word had it that Tom “durrrr” Dwan was basically offering 3-1 in a series of heads-up matches against anyone in the world (with the exception of Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond).

Phil Ivey, David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius were quick to accept the challenge, which was dubbed the “durrrr Challenge” or “durrrr-mageddon.”

The specifics of the match are that play will be spread over four tables of $200/$400 or higher at all times. They will play for a total of $50,000, and if Dwan’s competition is even $1 ahead, he will pay them $1 million.

Meanwhile, if Dwan is ahead, his opponent will pay out $500,000. This is all in addition to the profits that will be made from playing at $200/$400 levels.

Ivey has gone on record saying it’s possible that someone will go broke in the process of competing in the challenge.

The last time there was this much talk about a series of heads-up matches was when billionaire Andy Beal faced off against Howard Lederer, Doyle Brunson and Jennifer Harman in a series of games that saw Beal eventually lose millions of dollars to the experienced poker pros.

The Leaders

Keeping on the topic of everyone’s favorite poker-playing Jerseyite, Tom Dwan was the overall leader in our top money-making list in No-Limit Hold’em for the month of January. This isn’t including any heads-up matches, as Dwan recently mentioned the challenge won’t begin until the middle of February.

As of Jan. 31 Dwan had earnings of just over $1 million in No-Limit Hold’em. The top three players are very familiar, however, with Patrik Antonius holding second place with $500,000 and Phil Ivey in third with $365,055.

Despite making over $1 million playing No-Limit Hold’em in January, Dwan is rumored to be down a total of $3 million thanks to heavy losses in Pot-Limit Omaha. There has been no word yet on how the Dwanswong could affect the durrrr Challenge.

Meanwhile Gus Hansen, who is sometimes pegged as a high-stakes fish, was rumored to be up close to $3 million at various mixed games including No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha.

Here are the Top 10 moneymakers for January 2009 in No-Limit Hold’em.

1. durrrr	$1.06 million
2. Patrik Antonius	$500,931
3. Phil Ivey	$365,055
4. molswi47	$340,195
5. LIBERTY6	$321,503
6. DaEvils	$316,857
7. DOOSHDOTCOM1	$295,016
8. Matt Hawrilenko	$247,432
9. DIN_FRU	$242,818
10. 20 Buck Spin	$242,818

The Losers

While we already discussed Dwan’s being down to close to $3 million, it’s safe to say that Sami Kelopuro, also known as LarsLuzak, didn’t have a great January either. According to MarketPulse data Kelopuro was down $1.3 million in No-Limit Hold’em and likely searching for answers.

David Benyamine, who had an amazing 2008, isn’t off to the greatest start in 2009 either. Since switching his screen name to “MR B 2 U SON” the French poker master hasn’t been quite the same. At the end of January he was ranked as having lost $345,505.

Here’s a look at the rest of the Top 10 No-Limit Hold’em losers in January:

1. LarsLuzak	$1.3 million
2. MR B 2 U SON	$345,505
3. Fatal Fog	$213,951
4. STAADY	$203,873
5. valesco	$202,834
6. BlueFlare	$179,889
7. INTERNET POKERS	$172,540
8. ilvdnfl	$167,475
9. Resoh	$162,125
10. trex313	$159,556

Traffic Report

January was one of the most positive months for online poker in some time. MarketPulse saw large gains virtually across the board with DoylesRoom.com, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Paradise Poker all seeing spikes in their cash-game traffic.

DoylesRoom.com, perhaps aided by its move to the Cake Poker Network, made the best month-to-month showing, with a whopping 29% increase since December.

Full Tilt Poker made some strides as well, hitting record 10,000+ player numbers and getting a 12% total increase from the previous month.

PokerStars continues to be the trendsetter with an incredible average of 22,717 cash game players for the month of January.

Keep tuning in to PokerListings.com and MarketPulse to get the latest updates from the online poker world.

Related Articles:

• Antonius pwns Mafews, acends to second place
• Full Tilt hits traffic high
• Thun-durrrr-struck! LarsLoses
• Phil Ivey rakes in pots
• Urindanger playing with Gus-to in 2009