You win some. You lose some.

In hedge fund manager John Paulson’s case, you sometimes lose a bundle.

Paulson has lost at least $1.5 billion from falling gold values so this year, more than any other hedge fund manager, according to the Financial Times.

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Paulson has about 85 percent of his own money in his firm, Paulson & Co., linked to gold, and has allowed clients denominate their holdings in gold instead of U.S. dollars.

His hedge funds manage about $18 billion, and Paulson — famous for making billions by betting against subprime mortgages — controls a little over half of that, the Times reports. The 17 percent drop in gold so far this year translates into about a $1.4 billion loss.

He also controls most of a fund dedicated to making leveraged bets on gold. This fund was down 28 percent in the first quarter.

Plus, the hedge fund owns about $1.1 billion of mining stocks, including a 7.35 percent stake in AngloGold Ashanti. Shares of that mining firm are down 41 percent so far this year, according to the Times.

At least the company has made money outside of gold — all its non-gold-based investments are in positive territory.

Paulson hired former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as an advisor in 2008. Greenspan believes the Fed’s quantitative easing effort that has caused its balance sheet to balloon will prompt higher inflation.

“Federal governments have been printing money at an unprecedented rate creating demand for gold as an alternative currency,” said Paulson & Co. Partner John Reade, according to the Times. “It is this expectation of global paper currency debasement which makes gold an attractive long-term investment.”

“The recent decline in gold prices has not changed our intermediate to long-term thesis,” Reade says, according to Reuters. “We set up the gold share class at an average cost of around $950 in April 2009, and while it’s down from its peak, it’s up considerably from our cost.”

Paulson isn’t the only one to lose on gold, but his losses are large because he held both physical gold and gold mining companies.

Passport Capital hedge fund manager John Burbank says his fund owns physical gold and bet against mining companies, according to Reuters. The fund was up 5.9 percent in the first quarter.

“Most people who are long gold are only long,” Burbank tells Reuters, saying those who didn’t protect themselves by hedging suffered.

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