Ivey breathing down durrrr's neck

With only a few weeks left in the year, poker pro Phil Ivey is inching his way closer to the top of the yearly online money standings.

After a week of solid work Ivey now sits at $2,745,456, less than $50k behind Tom "durrrr" Dwan, whose $2,792,168 in winnings is still good enough to hold the top spot. According to MarketPulse data Ivey is up $431,408 this week, carrying the momentum of his massive November into December.

Ivey is simply adding to his reputation as the most feared pro in the world. Not only has he won five World Series of Poker bracelets and earned more than $10 million in live tournament earnings, he's now mingling with the best of the online players as well.

"To be the best, you have to be good at everything," Ivey once told CardPlayer Magazine. "You have to play in the biggest games in the world and win. There's no way that a guy who's successful in just tournaments is the best in the world ... it comes down to who makes the most money."

Well, it looks like Ivey knows more than a thing or two about that. He's been on the winning end of some of the top pots played online this week, the largest coming in No-Limit Texas Hold'em at Full Tilt Poker. That hand played out like this:

[[PokerRoom:Logo:full-tilt-poker:left]]

With LarsLuzak in seat 1, Patrik Antonius in seat 2, Phil Ivey in seat 4 and durrrr in Seat 6, it was a table full of sharks. Antonius was in the small blind and Ivey the big.

durrrr got things started pre-flop by raising to $3k. That made LarsLuzak fold. Antonius called before Ivey raised to $11k. Both Antonius and durrrr called.

The flop came T♣ 4♠ 6♥, which prompted Antonius to check in front of Ivey's $27,000 bet. durrrr called the $27,000 before Antonius reraised all-in for $355,469. Phil Ivey called for his full stack of $119,074, and durrrr folded. Antonius showed 7♥ 5♥ and Ivey showed pocket jacks.

The turn came K♦ and the river T♥ and with no help out there for Antonius's open-ended straight draw, Ivey took down a monster pot of $355,146.

Check out a replay of the hand here.

Two of the other hands that put Ivey up big this week came at the expense of online poker pro Brian Hastings. At just 20 years old, Hastings is a relative newcomer to the high-stakes poker scene, but has quickly become one of the most dreaded players around. He too has been among the most successful players this year, ranking in the top 25 of all online players.

Both of Ivey's wins over Hastings came in $500/$1,000 Heads-Up Pot-Limit Omaha.

In the first, Ivey raised $2,500 from the small blind with Hastings reraising to $8,000. Ivey then re-reraised to $24,000.

After Hastings called, the flop came T♥ 4♦ 8♦. Hastings checked ahead of a massive $54,000 bet from Ivey. Hastings came all-in over the top for $120,475. Ivey called. Hastings showed J♦ T♠ 7♣ 8♠ and Phil Ivey showed A♠ 5♣ A♦ J♣.

With Hastings in an early lead with tens-up, the turn came golden for Ivey. The 4♠ gave Ivey aces-up and an innocuous 7♠ on the river gave Ivey another whopping win of $294,949.

You can watch how the hand played out in our hand replayer.

Later on that same night, Ivey's set of queens were good enough to take another $234,997 from the pocket of Hastings. The details of that hand are here.

Another set of queens for Ivey later in the week, this time in a PLO heads-up battle with OMGClayAiken, added $229,798 to his weekly winnings. View the hand in the hand replayer.

It's play like this that has Ivey ranked among the most notorious poker pros in the world. According to Ivey, the reason he should be feared is because he loves what he does.

"A lot of people who play professionally don't enjoy what they're doing, and you can tell, and it makes a difference," Ivey said in the CardPlayer article.

"I love poker. I love everything about it. It's the greatest game in the world. I'm always trying to improve and always thinking about getting better. Some people I play against are just playing because that's their job, and that's a big advantage I have over them."

Check out more high-stakes action in the MarketPulse section.