The Online Railbird Report: Antonius Stuck, Sahamies Up, and ��Isildur1�� Returns
Full Tilt Poker��s high-stakes cash games roared back to life this week, as online poker luminaries Patrik Antonius, Ilari ��Ziigmund�� Sahamies, Brian Townsend and Gus Hansen hit the virtual felt. $100,000 turn raises and $300,000 pots were the norm once again as Sahamies continued riding the hot streak that earned him more than a million dollars during the month of January while Antonius endured over $1.8 million in losses, despite winning the week��s largest pot at nearly $500,000.
Antonius Sputters, Sahamies Scores in 2010��s Biggest Action
Railbirds rejoiced at the return of the monsterpotten this week, as Sahamies, Antonius and Phil Ivey engaged in several $300/$600 and $500/$1,000 pot-limit Omaha matches, sending pot sizes soaring. In a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, 50 six-figure pots were recorded on Full Tilt Poker, 16 of them over $200,000, six over $300,000 and the largest of them all coming in just short of half a million dollars at $497,594.
Unfortunately for Antonius, this onslaught of action came amidst a massive downswing for the Finn. After dropping over $800,000 at the PLO tables on Wednesday night and losing over $250,000 in two sessions of the ��durrrr�� Challenge, Antonius lost another $225,000 over the course of 1,259 hands of $300/$600 PLO. Remarkably, these losses came despite Antonius finding himself on the winning end of that aforementioned $497,000 pot. Here��s how the hand played out.
Playing heads-up $300/$600 PLO against Sahamies, Antonius ignited a pre-flop raising war after opening for $2,000 from the button. Sahamies reraised to $6,200, Antonius four-bet to $18,800, Sahamies came back over the top for $56,600 and Antonius put in a sixth raise to $170,000. Sahamies called and the Finns went to the flop with $340,000 already in the middle. The rest of their stacks naturally went in the middle after the flop came down Q?Q?4?, Sahamies moving all in for $78,697 and Antonius making the call. Sahamies turned over A?K?J?9? for the third-nut flush draw while Antonius flipped up A?A?J?5? for a pair of aces and the nut flush draw. Antonius�� hand held through the J? on the turn and the 9? on the river, earning him the $497,594 pot.
That same evening, Sahamies also played a heads-up match with Phil Ivey, in his eponymous ��Thunderdome.�� Thus far this year Ivey has only made sporadic appearances online, playing only a bit over 1,300 hands in 2010. In this session Ivey couldn��t find any traction against Sahamies, dropping close to $300,000 over the course of 162 hands of $500/$1,000 PLO.
Antonius couldn��t stop the bleeding over the weekend as his downswing continued. He took a $572,000 hit on Sunday over the course of 357 hands, bringing his 2010 losses to a staggering $1.86 million. To put it in perpective, Antonius�� losses over the first 32 days of the year are more than double what Brian Townsend (second on 2010��s ��In the Red�� list thus far with -$893,000) has endured.
Kostritsyn Crushes 7-Game
Alexander ��PostFlopAction�� Kostritsyn��s regular online game these days is $100/$200 PLO, but this week, the young Russian took a shot at $1,500/$3,000 7-Game that paid off. On Thursday night, Kostritsyn took on Sahamies in a heads-up 7-Game match that netted him $79,000 and made a return engagement on Friday, relieving Sahamies of another $497,000.
The largest pot of their match came in at $317,000 and occurred during the PLO round. Kostritsyn opened for $1,800 from the small blind, Sahamies three-bet to $5,400 and Kostritsyn called. Sahamies led out for $10,800 on the 10?6?4? flop, Kostritsyn making the call. The turn came the Q? and Sahamies fired again for $32,400. Kostritsyn repotted to $129,600 and Sahamies called, leaving himself only $12,484 behind. The J? hit the river and Sahamies committed the rest of his stack and Kostritsyn called, turning over K?10?9?4? for two pair on the flop that improved to a king-high straight on the river. Despite rivering a queen-high straight with 9?9?8?7?, Sahamies�� hand was toast and Kostritsyn raked in the $316,567 pot.
��Isildur1�� Reappears at $25/$50 PLO
As we reported in yesterday��s Nightly Turbo, everyone��s favorite Swedish mystery man ��Isildur1�� made two short appearances on Full Tilt Poker this week. On Saturday night, Isildur1 lost $1,000 over the course of 14 hands of $25/$50 six-max PLO, then returned yesterday afternoon for 55 hands of $25/$50 capped PLO. He dropped another $2,458 before vanishing once again. Although it��s been several months since he played a high-stakes session on Full Tilt, he has reportedly been grinding $50/$100, $100/$200, and $250/$500 PLO on Betfair under the screen name ��Omlphalotus.��
Hansen Pulls in $384K at 7-Game
��Ziigmund�� isn��t the only one riding a hot streak. After losing more than $5.5 million in 2009, Gus Hansen ended January with over $1.7 million in profits, primarily from the 7-Game tables. He raked in another $384,000 this weekend, most of his earnings coming from Brian Townsend, who dropped about $230,000.
Hansen��s largest pot of the session came against Sahamies in the PLO round of 7-Game. Playing six-handed, Sahamies opened for $2,100 from UTG+1 and the action folded around to Hansen, who made the call from the small blind. Hansen checked the A?9?2? flop over to Sahamies, who bet $3,000. Hansen raised to $8,400, Sahamies reraised to $29,700 and Hansen called. Once the 10? hit the turn, Hansen bet $63,900, setting Sahamies all-in. Sahamies called off the $31,541 he had behind, turning over Q?Q?J?10? for a pair of queens, the nut flush draw and a straight draw. Hansen, however, led the hand with A?3?3?2? for two pair. The J? on the river missed Sahamies�� draws and Hansen raked in the $126,979 pot.
Who��s Up? Who��s Down?
This week��s biggest winners (1/25-1/31): Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn (+$823,000), Cole South (+$741,000), Gus Hansen (+$490,000)
In the red: Patrik Antonius (-$1,843,000), John ��world1969�� Hennigan (-$495,000), Phil Ivey (-$444,000)
January's top five earners: Gus Hansen (+$1,743,000), Cole South (+$1,507,000), Di ��Urindanger�� Dang (+$1,239,000), Ilari ��Ziigmund�� Sahamies (+$1,104,000), Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn (+$1,011,000).
The highest-stakes action online all unfolds on Full Tilt Poker. Open an account today and see for yourself.
