Kostritsyn up $740k in October

We have all the High Stakes action from last month, which was a lot quieter since Gus Hansen has stopped playing.

Russian Pro Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn had the most to smile about last month, winning $740,796 on PokerStars to take his annual profit over the $1 million mark. 

German pro 'Sanlker' narrowly missed on losing seven-figures for the month, but still was the biggest loser of October, with $990,130 in losses. 

'Punting-Peddler' and Daniel Cates continued their excellent years with smaller but welcome wins too. 

The games have dried up

Perhaps the more interesting story of the month, however, is how dramatically the online landscape has changed since Gus Hansen stopped playing. 

Although Kostritsyn and Sanilker both almost had seven-figure swings, the rest of the biggest winners and losers are much lower than previous months. Only four other players had six-figure wins (all under $300,000) and only one other player had a six-figure loss. In September 12 players had six-figure wins and six had six-figure losses. 

The other big change is that the high stakes games are mostly PokerStars this month, whereas previously they were almost exclusively on Full Tilt. 

With just two months to go, it looks like there is no stopping Daniel Cates, who is up $2,807,509 on Full Tilt and $374,979 on PokerStars in 2014. 

Elsewhere we all know that Gus Hansen is the big loser, down $5,22,853 this year so far. The only question is whether he will return to the tables? 

The biggest surprise of the year, however, might be the extended downswing of Phil Ivey, who is down $2,501,002 so far in 2014. 

Are the high stakes games dead without Gus? Let us know in the comments box.