And here we are once again with today’s Under The Gun, the “Top 3 Biggest Losing Days in the History of Poker”. What a dream it would be to just sit at home on a cozy couch and make a decent living just by playing poker for a few hours a day. No regular ‘9-5’ jobs, which means no bosses, no reports, no meetings…and I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point! Ahhh what a dream.

But I’m sure you will agree that regular ‘9-5’ jobs are for the most part a lot more stable than poker. Of course there may be stress, emotional lows and rough times that you have to go through – maybe a tiff with a fellow employee, lengthy reports or tight deadlines – but at the end of the month, you know you will get paid. When it comes to poker, making money isn’t as easy as you may think. Some months will leave you feeling like an invincible and unstoppable Poker God while others will make you doubt whether you are even capable of being a winning player anymore…. That’s poker.

Being a professional in the world of poker does not make you immune to downswings and stress. While they may deal with it better than the average person, professionals are still human. The point is, no matter how good you are or how great you play, if you cannot control your emotions, or if you make your decisions based on your emotions, you might end up losing a fortune that may cost you a month’s profit or even much more. With that being said, let’s have a look at the 3 biggest losing days in the history of poker (it should be noted that there may have been bigger losing days in games that have not been officially recorded).

We’ll begin with the American dynamite who goes by the screen name “durrrr” – Tom Dwan. Earlier this week, Dwan, who is considered one of the most aggressive and fearless poker players in the world, took to Twitter to reveal that he had experienced his biggest loss ever:

In taiwan for the 1st time ever… Not leaving the airport tho. Maybe next trip. Had my biggest loss ever yesterday

– Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) September 24, 2013

Considering his jaw-dropping swings he may have dropped an enormous amount of money to one lucky player. Although he didn’t mention how much he lost, Dwan is known to have lost $2 million to Swedish pro Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom; so this must have been more than $2 million to qualify as his “biggest loss ever”.

Coming to our next spot we have the handsome Gus Hansen who boasts over $11m in live tournament earnings. His downswing began on the 16th of November 2012 when he played 27 consecutive hours on FTP which included some $1,500/$3,000 2-7 Triple Draw, $200/$400 pot-limit Omaha, and $2,000/$4,000 fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo (FLO8). He played non-stop at the PLO tables but in 23 hours he found himself completely destroyed having dropped $1.4 million against Kyle “cottonseed1” Hendon, “SallyWoo”, and Kyle “KPR16” Ray.

Finally how can we forget the swing king Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom! A few years ago, Blom suffered the biggest loss of his career when he lost a rib-crunching $4.5 million to Brian Hastings in one session. But the twist was that Brian, Cole South and a third player, Brian Townsend, had collaborated and made joint statistics of how Blom played his hands. Here’s what the Swede had to say when he found out:

“I think that that they tried to create an advantage, and they are cowards. I was playing against Cole South in a 300/600 game and became really tilted and 3-betted every hand. He was in the lead and suddenly decided to stop playing. I said, “what the hell?” and he apologized and said he must go. Then, just seconds later, Brian Hastings took his seat. They probably sat next to each other. Anyhow, Hastings won $4.5 million against me.”

Wow! That’s a bit overwhelming isn’t it? Of course there are lots of other players who we haven’t yet covered but here’s the thing, losing large sums of money hurts A LOT. However, with confidence and positive thinking these pros somehow manage (or at least try) to put the past behind them and look forward to profitable years in poker. An appropriate quote to end this article would be the following one by ‘Isildur1’ :

“…all players have to put their bankroll at risk in order to develop…”

Even if that means you will sometimes relate very well to his guy: