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Japan has already made operating casinos legal in their country through Integrated Resorts. A complex that will include hotels, shopping centres, and casinos in which gambling is legal. Poker players in Japan are now rejoicing and can't wait to try out the IR once completed.
Poker games can be for lower stakes or in some situations, slightly higher stakes where the pot may go up to the thousands. Many people would like to play casino games that include some type of strategic planning and execution. The game that would fit perfectly with such requirements is poker. In every success a person may achieve, there will always be lots of obstacles one should endure first. Just like in poker, there are those whose strategies will bring them to riches, and there are the biggest losers in poker.
Biggest Losers in Poker
Ben Sulsky
Total Losses: $3 million
Ben Sulsky initiated competing online freeroll tournaments and did not involve any cash when he first started playing. He was able to build a bankroll of $3,000 and go on to lose $1,200 in a single night. He opted out and cashed out the rest and stopped playing online for two years. His return had him deposited $1,000, which he lost. Another $1,000 deposit and started playing $0.10/$0.25 with bankroll management rules of 25-30 buy-ins. Sulsky went lucky and continued winning with this.
He gained the reputation of being one of the best players in the world at No-Limit Hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha. Sulsky had trouble locating action as other players denied competing with him. Phil Galfond lost to Sulsky at the 2013 World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold 'em heads-up event finishing only 4th for $110,485.
Sulsky played with Doug Polk, a fellow professional player, in a highly circulated match of 15,000 hands in heads-up No-Limit Hold 'em and lost $740,000.
Sulsky is considered a specialist in online cash games. He rarely plays live tournaments. He has his PokerStars account Sauce123, filled with $4,800,000 but is down over $400,000 on his Full Tilt account, Sauce 1234. Sulsky became more interested in the live tournament circuit and started playing more during the 2015 World Series of Poker. He finished 4th in both the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship and the $100,000 One Drop Tournament with winnings of over $1,400,000.
While Sulsky had a successful year in 2012 with approximately $4 million in winnings, the succeeding year was quite the opposite and far from being called successful. In 2013, Sulsky lost almost all of poker earnings with a net loss of around $3 million in just two months. He played against top players to the day counting Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey.
Paul Phua
Total Losses: $4.36 million
Wei Seng “Paul” Phua is a Malaysian-Chinese businessman and a professional poker player. Paul is a casino VIP party promoter who regularly organizes high venture gambling in Macau. He is also known as “World's Biggest Bookie” and “A Legend in the Gambling World.” He allegedly made a net worth of USD$400 million. In 2006, he worked with Steve Wynn who happened to open Wynn Macau. Paul was instrumental in making Wynn's businesses successful.
It was in his 40s when he started playing Texas hold 'em. Las Vegas high stakes cash games began transferring to Macau, and big players such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, John Juanda, and Chau Giang started to play there. Other professional poker players began to join the games in Macau by 2011, allowing Paul to play and learn from them. Paul won $1,000,000 in the Big One for One Drop event when he joined the 2012 World Series of Poker.
Paul also won the £100,000 High Roller in London in 2012 after his triumph over Richard Yong in heads-up play earning him his most significant cash of $1,621,297. In 2016, he took home One Drop Extravaganza €100,000 Super High Roller when he defeated Mikita Badziakouski in heads-up play, earning $827,722.
In online gaming, Paul has played just over 49,000 hands, around 3% that of Gus Hansen's total number of hands, for example. Since this is a small sample size, it means Paul's losses aren't really a reflection of his playing style. Paul's current online losses amount to almost $4.6 million. He is an example that while you can be successful, you can also be one of the biggest losers in poker.
Ilari Sahamies
Total Losses: $6 million
Ilari Shamies, also known as Ziigmund, is a professional poker player that specializes in high-stakes pot-limit Omaha cash games. Ziigmund is a trashtaker at the poker table, aimed towards his opponents which led to an online following. He used to compete in a live poker tournament in Finland before transitioning to online poker gaming where he makes his money now.
Ziigmund is known for his aggressive play. He has encountered one of the biggest poker turnarounds in history. At some point in 2010, his winnings reached up to $7 million. Unfortunately, by the end of that year, he has lost about $6 million. Critics say that his frequent inebriated state is the possible cause for his downfall.
Chun Lei Zhou
Total Losses: $10.2 million
Chun Lei took 3rd in the rankings of the biggest winners for 2016 with USD$748,018. He played 166,226 hands that made him one of the most active players online at the highest wages. Chun was believed to be one of the main reasons that online activities became successful. With this, he was able to prove himself by arising as one of the big winners. One of Chun's list of accomplishments is most of this money was won playing 8-game, which is a real versatile test for poker players. It is required to understand all of the eight games to win in this format.
Chun Lei “SamRostan” Zhou has been playing high stakes poker for a number of years. He is not new to losing large amounts of money. The online community even saw him as one of the losing regulars at the highest stakes and as someone who was beyond their depth.
Chun Lei Zhou's losses on PokerStars total $2.06 million under the alias “Patpatman.” He also lost $2.61 million as “Patpatpanda” on Full Tilt. His worst loss under his other Full Tilt account is almost $10 million under the name “Samrostan.”
While his Samrostan account has winnings of $460,000 on PokerStars, it is still far from recovering his online losses. However unlucky he gets, his passion for the game and dedication to work on his game are undeniable.
His total online losses are estimated to exceed $10.2 million, but he is not the type of player you can push around.
Gus Hansen
Total Losses: $22 million
Gus Hansen is a highly respected poker player. Many people have interpreted in different ways Hansen's online results. He never goes hunting for weak players. Hansen makes it a point that he sits against the very best in the game, every time he plays online. He admits that he is very stubborn, and refuses to back down in wagers to make situations easier. He also acknowledges that he fails to work on controlling tilt issues, despite knowing that he could achieve better results.
Many people would think that Gus Hansen is a terrible poker player with losses of over $22 million. But with the breakdown of his numbers, for the stakes he is playing at, and the number of hands he has played, his average would only be a minimal negative number.
Guy Laliberté
Total Losses: $26 million
Guy Laliberté is the founder and former CEO of Cirque Du Soleil, whose wealth is estimated to exceed $2 billion. He helped organize the “Big One for One Drop” tournament at the WSOP. The event allowed him to profit large amounts of money for the One Drop Foundation.
He has been a poker player for quite some time now. Gus is believed to have a few different aliases online, including “Lady Marmalade” and “Noataima.” The names “Zypherin” and “Patatino” is believed to be associated with him, as well. Combining all the losses of these aliases will bring it to more than $26 million.
He felt wronged by the Full Tilt policy of borrowing large amounts of money to their sponsored financers, as it deemed freerolling in games against him. With his total losses, he is considered to be the biggest loser in poker to date.
Guy Laliberté is a very well-to-do man who has been a winner throughout his life. As a founder of the One Drop Foundation and his subsequent participation in the associated WSOP event, he has done great things for the poker industry and in the world.
Biggest Loser's Lessons
These professional poker players don't know what the word “defeated” means. Without them, the glorified online pros who elucidated online poker gaming with the most significant pots in online history may never have had the funds to do such.
These losing players deserve and need our respect and commendation for their sheer determination. They are the primary pillars upon which the world of high stakes poker is balanced.
