The Online Railbird Report, Vol. 18: Dwan, Dang, DIN_FRU Dominate Busy Week
This week��s high-stakes online action was as big as it��s been all year this week, with games running literally around the clock. Many of the nosebleed regulars have been doing a lot more than sneaking in the occasional session or two in between WSOP events, with players such as Tom ��durrrr�� Dwan, Niki Jedlicka, David ��MR B 2 U SON,�� Gus Hansen, Sami ��LarsLuzak�� Kelopuro, and Patrik Antonius logging long hours in front of the screen. The last seven days brought an epic, 15-hour session of the ��durrrr Challenge��, a number of classic heads-up battles, and innumerable six-figure swings from your favorite nosebleed regulars.
Dwan Takes on Ivey, Hansen and Kostritsyn Amid 15-hour ��durrrr Challenge�� Session
When you��re Tom ��durrrr�� Dwan, sometime four tables just isn��t enough. While playing Patrik Antonius in the longest ��durrrr�� Challenge session to date, Dwan separately took on Phil Ivey, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Gus Hansen in a few heads-up sessions on the side. During his dinner break from a WSOP event, Ivey played a two-table $500/1,000 PLO match with Dwan and was up by as much as $575,000 at one point, before ��durrrr�� went on a $200,000 rush. Ivey ended up quitting Dwan with a $372,000 win after 40 minutes of play.
The largest pot of the match came in at over $209,000. Ivey kicked things off with a raise to $3,000 and Dwan called. Dwan checked the A?Q?7? flop over to Ivey, who bet $5,000. Dwan called and they went to the turn, which fell the 6?. Dwan checked again, Ivey bet $14,000, Dwan raised to $58,000, Ivey shoved for $120,298 and Dwan made the call, turning up A?9?5?4? for top pair and a flush draw to Ivey��s set of queens with Q?Q?9?2?. The river was the 9? and Ivey��s hand held up to win the pot.
Dwan also played Gus Hansen on two separate occasions during the challenge session, dropping about $300,000 to the Great Dane in their first match, and winning about half of that back in the second. Also popping in for some action was Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn, who sat down at the ��durrrr #2�� $500/1,000 PLO table around 3 a.m. Pacific time. Though the two played for only five minutes, Kostritsyn managed to lose $58,000.
By the end of the week, Dwan had erased all his year-to-date losses, which once totaled more than $4 million. He is now up nearly $180,000 for 2009.
DIN_FRU Takes on Griffin, Jedlicka
The Finnish player known only as ��DIN_FRU�� continued to take on all comers this week in a variety of heads-up matches across nearly every discipline of poker. He started off Tuesday morning with a little $500/1,000 Omaha hi/lo, picking up $55,000 in just under 200 hands against ��NO IT ALL.�� Later that evening, however, he took on Niki Jedlicka at $500/1,000 limit hold��em and ended up having quite a rough match, with Jedlicka booking an $85,000 win after 80 minutes of play.
Early Wednesday morning, DIN_FRU switched over to pot-limit Omaha, taking on Ashton ��theASHMAN103�� Griffin at the $50/100 level. After a little over an hour and an $83,000 loss for DIN_FRU, they upped the stakes to $200/400 and played there for another hour and fifteen minutes, DIN_FRU��s stack sliding another $24,000. For their third hour of play, they switched up the blinds again, playing $100/$200 and DIN_FRU losing another $24,000. At this point stuck in the neighborhood of $128,000, DIN_FRU was in the mood to gamble and they played a series of 24 all-in ��flips�� for $10,000 a shot. They broke nearly even, DIN_FRU finishing only $10,000 to the good to cut his losses to $118,000. DIN_FRU erased all of those losses and more then next day after an hour-long evening heads-up match with John D��Agostino at $500/1,000 H.E.R.O.S. where he banked a $41,000 win and a $1,000/2,000 H.E.R.O.S. battle with Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn, where he picked up another $115,000.
It was on Thursday when the action really took off for DIN_FRU. He started off the day dropping $62,000 to Alexander Kostritsyn at $1,000/2,000 H.E.R.O.S. Then, in the afternoon hours, he��d take on the big daddy of them all, Phil Ivey, in what would become an epic five-and-a-half-hour battle at $1,000/2,000 limit hold��em. Ivey ran away with the match, booking a $382,000 win over the course of nearly 1,300 hands, all the more remarkable considering the largest pots of the session were in the $30,000 range.
Not all was lost for DIN_FRU, though, despite the heavy loss to Ivey. He came back strong the next day, picking up a $124,000 win in a heads-up $1,000/2,000 half limit hold��em, half Omaha hi/lo session against Patrik Antonius. All in all, DIN_FRU earned $422,000 for the week.
Urindanger Plays Rush, Hauls in Over $500,000 in $300/600/$100 PLO
Once in a $2-million-plus hole for the year, Di ��Urindanger�� Dang has now nearly dug himself out of the red, booking over $600,000 in winnings this week alone to leave himself down about $200,000 for the year. The vast majority of that win came from a night of multi-tabling $300/600 pot-limit Omaha with a $100 ante, his opponents including Phil Ivey, Niki Jedlicka, ��Bomberman,�� and Sami ��LarsLuzak�� Kelopuro. Suffering the heaviest losses in this session were Ivey, who quit about $217,000 down and Bomberman, who lost over $400,000.
The pot of the night unfolded on the aptly named ��This is Nuts�� table, with Jedlicka and Dang playing heads-up. Over $34,000 went into the pot pre-flop, Dang opening for $1,800 with Q?10?9?7?, Jedlicka three-betting to to $5,600 with A?K?9?8?, Dang coming back over the top for $17,000 and Jedlicka making the call. Jedicka checked the Q?10?2? flop over to Dang, who bet $23,200. Jedlicka moved all in for the $102,410 he had behind and Dang made the call. Jedlicka was looking for his nut flush draw and gutshot straight draw to outrun Dang��s top two pair, but he blanked out, the turn and river falling the 7? and the 9? to give the $239,019 pot to Dang.
Jedlicka Resurgent in High-stakes Action
Speaking of Niki Jedlicka, it��s time for a hearty ��welcome back�� to the high-stakes tables. After taking an extended hiatus from online poker to recover from an extended downswing, the young Austrian is back in action and had quite a good week to boot, raking in nearly $253,000 in the last seven days playing pot-limit Omaha and limit hold��em.
Who��s Up? Who��s Down?
This week��s biggest winners: Di ��Urindanger�� Dang (+$611,000), Tom ��durrrr�� Dwan (+$516,000), DIN_FRU (+$422,000)
This week��s biggest losers: Gus Hansen (-$876,000), Sami ��LarsLuzak�� Kelopuro (-$615,000), ��Bomberman�� (-$405,000)
