The Online Railbird Report: Antonius, Cates and Thuritz Pulling Away on 2014 Leaderboard

September 06, 2014

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

After a one-week break, the Online Railbird Report is back. In this edition, we take a look at two weeks of high-stakes cash-game winners and losers from both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

From Aug. 21 through Sept. 4, no one performed better than Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius, who won $745,346 in 6,146 hands over 60 sessions. The Finn is one of three players – the other two being Dan “jungleman12” Cates and Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz — separating them from the rest of the pack on the 2014 leaderboard (see charts below). Thuritz also had a good two weeks after winning $429,176 in 6,110 hands spread across 49 sessions, while Cates won a modest $80,412 on PokerStars under his “w00ki3z.” screenname.

One other big winner over the last two weeks was Phil Galfond. On Full Tilt Poker, where he plays under “OMGClayAiken,” he won $294,704 in 6,930 hands over 84 sessions, and padded that with $178,391 in additional winnings on PokerStars, where he plays under the moniker “MrSweets28.”

On the flip side, Gus Hansen was the biggest loser from the same time period after dropping $500,623 in 21,358 hands over 253 sessions. The loss put him down $4,628,995 for the year, which is more than twice as much the next biggest loser, Phil “Polarizing” Ivey. Thanks to losing $391,759 in 3,741 hands over 54 sessions in the last two weeks, Ivey is now down $2,207,576 on the year.

Likewise, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who won $510,793 in the last Online Railbird Report, was a big loser after dropping $295,188 in 4,58 hands over 64 sessions, though that was still less than Niki Jedlicka, who lost $346,928 in 1,405 hands spread across 14 sessions.

August is King to “Denoking” and Antonius

In the penultimate weekend of August, “Denoking” and Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius both fared well booking $392,600 and $324,800 wins respectively. The latter won playing 8-Game, while the former’s profit came from a heads-up no-limit hold’em match against “JaeggerJack” on Saturday the 23rd.

Denoking and JaeggerJack played for 4.5 hours at three tables of $100/$200 NLHE, and everything seemed to go Denoking’s way. Not surprisingly, he won the biggest pot of the day. It began when JaeggerJack ($59,308.75) opened for $500 on the button and then called a Denoking’s three-bet to $2,400, which brought about a flop of K♥7♣3♥. Denoking bet $2,500, JaeggerJack called, and the A♣ appeared on the turn.

Denoking bet again, this time $9,000, and again JaeggerJack came along. When the K♦ completed the board on the river, Denoking slowed down with a check and JaeggerJack shoved all in for $45,408.75. Denoking snap-called with the A♦A♥ for a full house, and JaeggerJack showed the J♥8♥ for a missed flush draw. The $118,617.50 pot was shipped over to Denoking.

Kostritsyn, Antonius & Zhou Clean Up at Nosebleeds in Wednesday Action

On Wednesday, Aug. 27, the nosebleeds were in full swing, and a slew of notables took advantage, though none more so than Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn, who finished as the day’s biggest winner with $230,700 in profit after playing mixed games for 3.5 hours against the likes of Chun Lei “samrostan” Zhou, Gus Hansen and Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion, just to name a few.

Likewise, Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius had another winning day, banking $222,300 at the 8-Game tables, while the aforementioned Zhou also finished in the black after winning $205,100 — $119,400 playing 2-7 triple draw and $85,800 at the 8-Game tables. It was in the latter format that Zhou won the day’s biggest pot. Have a look:

In addition to that hand, there were two other six-figure pots that took place on Wednesday. Here’s a look at one that took place in a six-handed game during a round of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha.

Hand #1: Action folded to Antonius ($54,947) in the cutoff and he opened for $1,200, which Dan “jungleman12” Cates ($60,000) called from the small blind. Phil “Polarizing” Ivey ($23,697) came along from the big blind, and three players saw a flop of A♥Q♥3♣. Cates led out for $2,880, Ivey folded, and Antonius popped it to $11,400. Cates called and then fired out $26,400 on the 8♣ turn. Antonius made the call and then moved all in for his last $15,947 after Cates had checked the 9♣ river. Cates called to create a pot of $111,094 but mucked when Antonius rolled over the K♥J♥10♦5♦ for the nuts.

A Good Day for Zhou; Cates Wins Big Pots but Not Big Profit

The Online Railbird Report: Antonius, Cates and Thuritz Pulling Away on 2014 Leaderboard 101 — Dan Cates

On Friday, Aug. 29, Chun Lei “samrostan” Zhou put in an 18-hour session playing 3,147 hands consisting of 2-7 triple draw, $500/$1,000 CAP PLO, and mixed games. By the time he logged off, the man from Macau was a $465,300 winner. Another player who was primed to have a big day was Dan “jungleman12” Cates, who was up $300,000 at one point after winning the two biggest pots of the day. Unfortunately Cates continued to play and gave all but $10,000 back. Nonetheless, here’s a look at the biggest pot of the day.

Hand #1: In a round of $300/$600 PLO, action was fourhanded when Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius ($26,397.25) opened for 1,200 from the button and Cates ($60,000) called from the small blind. Zhou ($60,000) then three-bet to $4,800 from the big blind, Antonius folded, and Cates called to see a flop of 4♣5♣3♦. Cates led out for $5,400, Zhou called and the J♦ appeared on the turn. Cates bet again, this time $21,600, and then called when Zhou moved all in for $49,800.

Cates: A♦8♦2♦K♠
Zhou: A♠5♠J♣9♣

Zhou held two pair with a club flush draw, but he needed to improve as Cates had flopped a wheel and turned a diamond flush draw. The river was run twice, but neither the K♥ on the first run nor 10♥ on the second helped Zhou, and he watched the $121,200 pot pushed to Cates.

Thuritz Banks $220K; Cates Wins Another Big Pot

On Monday, Sept. 1, the high-stakes cash games were in full swing on Full Tilt Poker, and Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz played for nearly five hours at the 8-Game tables. It was a profitable decision as he booked a $220,500 win and finished as the day’s biggest winner.

Meanwhile, Dan “jungleman12” Cates ended up winning $136,800 playing 8-Game, though he finished the day up just $5,700 after losing big at the 2-7 triple draw tables. Even so, Cates once again won the biggest pot of the day.

Here are some other highlights from Monday’s action:

Patrik Antonius won $104,300, which put him up more than $6 million lifetime under the “FinddaGrind” moniker.
”Trueteller” won $182,500, of which $125,000 came off Chun Lei “samrostan” Zhou playing 54 hands of $500/$1,000 CAP PLO. It took just 26 minutes.
Alex “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn won $97,800 on the day.
Gus Hansen lost $362,500, making him Monday’s biggest loser.

Ivey Cuts Down the Jungle

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, Phil “Polarizing” Ivey waged war against numerous opponents across a variety of games including 8-Game, fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo, and 2-7 triple draws. After 750 hands, Ivey logged off a $354,100 winner. According to HighStakesDB, most of it came when Ivey took $291,000 off Dan “jungleman12” Cates in 138 hands of $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw, a feat that took just 67 minutes to accomplish.

Before that, Ivey had lost $74,000 playing FLO8 against Kyle “KPR16” Ray, and then mitigated it by winning $74,400 off Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius and Alex “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn at the 8-game tables.

Biggest Winners/Losers from Aug. 21 thru Sept. 4

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius	$745,346	Gus Hansen	$500,623
Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz	$429,176	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	$391,759
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond	$294,704	Niki Jedlicka	$346,928
Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond	$178,391	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$295,188

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Dan “jungleman12” Cates	$2,856,499	Gus Hansen	$4,628,995
Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz	$2,179,400	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	$2,207,576
Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius	$1,941,941	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$1,672,305
Doug “WCGRider” Polk	$754,099	Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion	$1,135,429
Christoph “Tight-Man1” Vogelsang	$666,807	Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond	$1,003,150
Niki Jedlicka	$624,921	Paul “MalACEsia” Phua	$823,325
Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton	$582,932	Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky	$730,155