February 2009: The online poker report

Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro ruled online No-Limit Hold'em in the month of February, but brash, trash-talking newcomer __FullFlush1__ raised the most eyebrows with over half a million in profit.

Kelopuro earned $1.5 million in February, which effectively gets him out of the hole he dug himself in January, when he went -$1.3 million.

At the very least, the Finn knows how to deal with swings. Here's a closer look at some of the biggest winners and losers in No-Limit Hold'em in February.

The Leaders

Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who is usually the story when it comes to No-Limit Hold'em, put in a very average (for him) month with just $307,000 profit. Perhaps the durrrr Challenge is keeping him away from the Hold'em tables.

As was mentioned previously, Kelopuro and __FullFlush1__ (who is almost 100% confirmed to be U.K. player Luke Schwartz) were the biggest earners in the month.

All the biggest pots were shipped on Full Tilt Poker, as the site continues to be the place for high-stakes action, but it's worth noting some of the biggest earners were on PokerStars with toomuchneon winning $328,961, bfl4me taking down $177,436 and plastikcards winning $173,678.

Even PartyPoker player RRR111RRR111 cracked the top 10 earners in Hold'em with $156,727.

Of course, if you were to include the mixed games it would be all Full Tilt, but the other sites are starting to get some high-stakes action, which seems to be a good sign for the overall industry.

Here are the rest of the top 10 earners in February.

The Losers

Perhaps most surprisingly was the dismal month of No-Limit Hold'em that stone-cold Phil Ivey had. Ivey is listed in the MarketPulse data as being down a staggering a $961,387 in No-Limit Hold'em in February.

Fortunately for Ivey, his success in other games actually put him up by about $450,000, but no one likes to lose a million in Hold'em.

Fellow Team Full Tilt pro Patrik Antonius had a bad month, losing approximately $553,114, while World Champion Peter "Isser" Eastgate continues to bleed money at the highest stakes.

Some of the other players to log costly months include David Benefield, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and thedarktilt.

Check out the complete top 10 list of February No-Limit Hold'em money losers:

Best of the best

Finally, here's a look at the top five biggest pots of February. The list includes some monsters between Dwan and Ziigmund, with LarsLuzak and Phil Ivey in the mix as well.

Related Articles:

• Hansen feels the bite of trex313
• __FullFlush1__ trades pots with aejones
• DaEvils stomping _FullFlush1_