With Isildur1 going on hiatus during the latter part of 2009, the high stakes tables at the online poker rooms have been rather sluggish. It almost seemed as if the majority of the high rollers sympathized with the Swedish dark horse. But the pros couldn’t seem to stay away from the felt for too long as, just last Wednesday, they all gathered for one monster session that boasted of some totally impressive battles.

The Winners

2010 saw some great action in the actual brick-and-mortar casinos, what with the tournaments going on in full swing. Because of that, it seemed unlikely that the action in the online world of poker would ever pick up. But ten players proved things wrong as they gathered for one epic game last Wednesday night. Even on good days, a gathering such as this was rather rare. Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend, Cole South, Brian Hastings, Ilari Sahamies, Chau Giang, and Ted Forrest all came together to battle it out on the virtual felt. They were playing four tables simultaneously at the $2,000/4,000 level, with Dwan and Antonius warming their seats the longest. It seemed to do them good, however, as they both came out as the night’s biggest winners. Antonius won over $844,000 and Tom Dwan earned over $500,000. Dwan, the master of playing many tables at once, even managed to play in the lower level tables while he was winning at the high stakes ones. Having taken great losses in 2009, Dwan managed to turn things around at the last minute, winning over 2 million in December. This January, it seems that he’s still doing great, balancing all the grinding at the lower level tables with the high stakes action. Antonius, on the other hand, seems to be in his element. Cole South managed to take down the biggest pot, but Antonius managed to nab the second largest one. Add that to his consistent winnings and you have a total winner, the biggest winner of the night. Phil Ivey, great as ever, also managed to win big despite not staying in the felt for quite as long. Playing only about 464 hands, Ivey still managed to win a sizeable $358,000. Hastings did well too, as he managed to make his bank account $352,000 winner. Forrest also ended up with $195,000 – certainly not the biggest win, but still something to smile about.

The Losers

Of course, in poker, whenever there are winners, there will also be losers – such is the dog eat dog nature of poker. Brian Townsend lost over $600,000. Hansen followed closely, with a loss of $550,000. Hansen was having a great week so far, but Wednesday brought it to an end as he found himself losing what he had won. All in all, the online poker world might have taken some great blows on the last part of 2009, but it certainly seems to be fighting back this 2010. Who knows, we might have an even more exciting year this time, as long as the pros keep this kind of action up. Head over to Full Tilt Poker to check out all the high stakes action, but remember to enter the Full Tilt Referral Code: THEGAME when signing up.