The Online Railbird Report: Antonius & Heinecker Fly High; Cates Fires Off in Chat

December 13, 2013

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Whenever PokerStars holds a live event, it seems the online cash games slow down. Given the European Poker Tour Prague kicked off this week — which you can follow in our live reporting section — it’s no surprise things were relatively slow on the virtual felt.

Continuing his success, Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker, who is the year’s biggest winner, added to his yearly total, but his streak of finishing as the week’s biggest winner came to an end. That said, he did win $270,324 in just 866 hands over eight sessions. Two players actually did better than that in “samrostan” (+$358,238 in 20 sessions/3,550 hands) and Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius (+$287,401 in 12 sessions/926 hands).

The week’s biggest loser was Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn, who dropped $323,870 in 4,941 hands over 64 sessions on Full Tilt Poker. Likewise, Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates was the biggest loser on PokerStars after dropping $301,420 in 9,323 hands over 27 sessions. Other losers included Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$222,575 in 62 sessions/4,415 hands), Rui Cao (-$177,314 in 7 sessions/1,625 hands), and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$166,370 in 14 sessions/2,444 hands).

On a side note, check out my recent Op-Ed titled The Problems of Opting Out from Online Tracking, which examines the recent trend of high-stakes players (i.e. Kyle “cottonseed1” Hendon) deciding not to have their long-term results displayed — which of course has influenced the Online Railbird Report.

Galfond Saturday’s Only Six-Figure Winner

On Saturday, December 7, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond finished as the only six-figure winner thanks to a $158,500 win against Rui Cao in a $1,000/$2,000 2-7 triple draw match that lasted 11 hours. The two hovered around even for the vast majority of the match, but around nine hours in Galfond started to pull out to a big lead. Cao battled back, and then Galfond caught fire in the last hour of the match.

The Online Railbird Report: Antonius & Heinecker Fly High; Cates Fires Off in Chat 101 — Phil \"OMGClayAiken\" Galfond

In other 2-7 triple draw news, Eugene “fishosaurusREX” Yanayt won $79,600 playing 2,708 hands at the $200/$400 limits, which took more than 15 hours; meanwhile, Gus Hansen banked $60,000 in just 36 hands against Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn at the $1,000/$2,000 level.

As far as the biggest pots are concerned, they occurred over at PokerStars at the $100/$200 no-limit hold’em tables in a heads-up match between “wilhasha” and “donthnrmepls.” Here’s a look at Saturday’s two biggest hands:

Hand #1: “Wilhasha” ($71,955) opened for $600 and was met by a three-bet to $1,800 by “donthnrmepls” ($64,696). “Wilhasha” pushed back with a four-bet to $5,600, “donthnrmepls” called, and the flop came down 6♥J♦5♥. After both players checked, the 3♥ appeared on the turn and “donthnrmepls” check-called a bet of $12,800. When the Q♣ completed the board on the river, “donthnrmepls” checked for a third time and snap-called off for $46,296 after “wilhasha” moved all in. “Wilhasha” tabled the J♣3♣ for two pair, but it was not good enough to win the $129,390 pot as “donthnrmepls” held a flush with the Q♥10♥.

Hand #2: “Wilhasha” ($76,458.50) raised to $600 and then called when “donthnrmepls” ($50,596) three-bet to $1,800, which led to a 4♦2♠3♦ flop. “Donthnrmepls” led out for $1,799 and then called a raise to $5,900 by “wilhasha.” “Donthnrmepls” then check-called a bet of $9,200 on the 9♣ turn before checking the A♦ river. “Wilhasha” took the opportunity to move all in, and “donthnrmepls” wasted little time in calling off for $33,696. “Wilhasha” tabled the 10♠7♠ for complete air, and “donthnrmepls” took down the $101,190 pot with the 5♥4♥ for a wheel.

Cates Gets Irritated

On Sunday, December 8, “bajskorven87” finished as the day’s biggest winner with $108,000 in profit, which came courtesy of a five-hour, three-table heads-up match against Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates. The duo played more than 2,100 hands, and “bajskorven87” was out in front the entire time. Cates became frustrated toward the end of the match, which showed in the following chat box exchange:

The Online Railbird Report: Antonius & Heinecker Fly High; Cates Fires Off in Chat 102 — Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates

bajskorven87: can u reload?
w00ki3z.: die
w00ki3z.: need to make a transfer
bajskorven87: u sitting at PLO?
w00ki3z.: go f yourself
w00ki3z.: hope you die seriously
w00ki3z.: llucky piece of ****
w00ki3z.: insane how lucky you are
bajskorven87: broke piece of ****

Cates eventually logged out a $130,000 winner, though he was able to mitigate that a bit over on Full Tilt Poker, where he won $41,500 playing $25/$50 pot-limit Omaha against Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky.

Antonius & Heinecker Emerge as Monday’s Biggest Winners

On Monday, Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius profited $275,400 to finish as the day’s biggest winner. Most of that ($226,000 to be exact) came from a nearly two-hour, 212-hand heads-up match against Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables.

Likewise, the year’s biggest online winner, Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker, scored big at the 2-7 triple draw tables, winning $180,400 in two hours against the likes of “Kagome Kagome” and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, the latter finishing as the day’s biggest loser with a $262,000 loss.

8-Game Highlights Tuesday Action; “Samrostan” Wins Big

The 8-Game tables ran for several hours on Tuesday, December 10 and included “samrostan,” Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius, Rui Cao, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, and Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn.

About three hours into the match, “samrostan” was up $50,000 and then hit a heater that saw him vault to a $450,000 winner! “Samrostan” lost a little back and ended up finishing up $385,700, due in no small part to the day’s biggest pot:

The Russian vs. The Swede

On Thursday, 8-Game was spread once again as Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn squared off against one another. The two players for approximately 90 minutes, and during that time Blom slowly chipped up to a $30,000 lead. Unfortunately for him, the day’s biggest pot went to Kostritsyn and wiped out his profit.

The hand happened in $300/$600 PLO and when Kostritsyn ($65,399.50) opened for $18,000 and then called when Blom ($122,494.60) three-bet to $5,400. The flop fell 9♥3♠5♣, Blom bet $7,200, and Kostritsyn called. After the K♥ turned, Kostritsyn called a bet of $15,600 and then moved all in for $37,199.50 when Blom checked the 5♥ river.

The Swede made the call, but mucked when Kostritsyn rolled over the 8♥3♥2♥4♦ for a flush. Ship the $130,799 pot to the Russian.

Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)

Week's Biggest Winners (12/06-12/11): “samrostan” (+$358,238), Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius (+$287,401), Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker (+$270,324), “Crazy Elior”* (+$173,239), “donthnrmepls” (+$172,929)

Week's Biggest Losers (12/06-12/11): Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn (-$323,870), Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates* (-$301,420), Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$222,575), Rui Cao (-$177,314), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$166,370)

Year's Biggest Winners: Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker (+$6,192,380), Ben "Bttech86" Tollerene (+$3,007,955), Alex "IReadYrSoul" Millar (+$2,007,052), Hac "trex313" Dang (+$1,886,417), "no_Ola" (+$1,868,146), Patrik "FinddaGrind" Antonius (+$1,764,977), "Odd_Oddsen"* (+$1,731,737)

Year's Biggest Losers: Gus Hansen (-$8,534,786), "samrostan" (-$4,051,689), "MalACEsia" (-$3,773,524), Phil "Polarizing" Ivey (-$2,433,773), "punting-peddler" (-$1,649,306), Ben "Sauce1234" Sulsky (-$1,473,088), "patpatpanda" (-$1,330,885), Scott "mastrblastr" Seiver (-$1,220,399), "davin77" (-$1,037,057), Rui Cao (-$1,031,550), "Johnbest" (-$992,253)

_{*Denotes PokerStars}