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Over the first few months of 2011 there was only one player being mentioned when it came to online poker winnings, Gus Hansen. And then Black Friday came and went, and while we lost interest in the nosebleed tables after players like Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond, Phil Ivey, and Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates were given their pink slips courtesy of the US Government, the action has continued amongst the European high-stakes players, and for the first time all year a player other than Gus Hansen is sitting in the top earner spot, Patrik Antonius.

Antonius is no stranger to cleaning up at the online poker tables –considering he is the second most profitable online poker player of all-time according to www.highstakesdb.com– but after a disastrous start to 2011 that saw him down over seven-figures, it’s remarkable that Antonius is now the year’s most profitable online poker player.

Antonius overtook Hansen thanks to a massive $900k day this week, as well as a slow downswing by Hansen who was up over $4million at one point in March, but now finds himself up roughly $2.5 million according to highstakesdb.com. Antonius’ run has his profits over the $2.8 million mark for the year.

The only other player posting over $2million in winnings is UK poker pro Gavin Cochrane, who plays under the screen-name “gavz101” at both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.