Amidst a Downturn, the Cream of Poker Crop Rise to the Top

For the past two years, the action on the high stakes online poker tables on any given night was downright breathtaking. In that time frame, the 15 largest pots in online poker history all took place and with increased regularity, player after player rose from relative obscurity to have their names become permanent fixtures in the lexicon of poker players around the globe.

Names like Martonas, Isildur, and Jungleman12 stepped to the plate to take their swings against the top players in the world. Top flight prod like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius were challenged by a never-ending wave of young hopefuls looking to carve out names for themselves by taking on the best of the best, as busting any if the aforementioned greats of the game would catapult them into prominent positions in the poker world and take their rightful place in poker history.

For some such as Viktor Blom, they succeeded in doing just that. For example, if Blom were to wake up tomorrow and decide  that he never wants to play poker again, he will be remembered forever as the man who did such things as be involved in the top 10 largest pots in online poker history, went on  a $2 million heater in a fortnight, only to give it all back within a month, and keeping fans guessing about his true identity for over a year. He has already secured his spot in the record books.

However, through the first six weeks of 2011, online poker had absolutely been on a relative downturn. To date, there have not been any awe inspiring sessions generating the type of media buzz the poker community had just about come to expect on a nightly basis. In fact, it has been over 30 days since we have been treated to a pot of over $250k, an occurrence that had become a nightly ritual for the past 18 months. The action has been so relatively tame thermal outlets such as www.highstakespokerdb.com have instead been doing more reporting about live tournament results instead of their renowned nosebleed table coverage.

So far, 2011 has been the year of the pro when it comes to online cash game results. As of today, there are four players that are up over a million bucks so far this year and they are all names you know very well.

Gus Hansen – $2.4M

Patrik Antonius – $1M

Di”Urindanger/ilvdnfl” Dang – $1.5M

Scott “urnotindanger/URnotINdanger2″ Palmer – $1.1M

Since the year is not even a quarter if the way complete, it stands to reason that it is just a matter of time before the action returns to the levels that fans crave. Let’s just hope it picks up sooner rather than later.

Source:  www.aintluck.com