Poker promises major highs and crushing lows to those who are brave enough to participate. High stakes promise big excitement so it’s not surprising that so many are willing to bet equally high amounts.

Here’s a breakdown of 2009’s biggest movers and shakers.

The biggest winners

Patrik Antonius is our number 1 player for 2009. This former model and tennis pro made a delicious $8.9 million profit in 2009.

Phil Ivey is our number 2 player. He’s a Nevada boy and has won 7 World Series of Poker bracelets. His profit in 2009 stands at $6.2 million and let’s also give him props for being one of this year’s most consistent players.

Brian Hastings is number 3 on our list. He beat Isildur1, an anonymous player from Switzerland, and walked away with $4.2 million.

Ashton Griffin aka theASHMAN103 is number 4 this year. The 20-year-old has made up for his mediocre performance during the rest of the year and managed to score more than $3.3 million in just 3 months.

The biggest losers

Gus Hansen tops our list of the biggest losers of 2009. He’ll be taking a break from poker to get some perspective after a tough year – he lost more than $5.5 million in 2009.

Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has had a roller-coaster 2009 and is number two on our list. Some of his losses will make any poker player wince but Dwan kept at it. He closed 2009 only $4.5 million in the red.

Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Kelopuro is a 22-year-old Fin who makes number 3 on our list. 2009 has been tough to him: he didn’t make any profit. He lost $4 million during 2009 but let’s not write him off just yet.

David Benyamine is number 4 on the list of biggest losers. He lost $2.9 million, which is in sharp contrast to his 2008 winnings of $3 million.

However, the biggest losers aren’t really these players who’ve lost these incredible amounts of money on slots; the biggest losers are potential players whose resident countries do not allow them to play.

Author bio:

This article was written by Piggs Peak Poker on online gambling Informing you about the latest online Poker news and trends.