The Online Railbird Report, Vol. 16: Dwan’s $1.7 Million Swing

Nicole Gordon

Jun 07, 2009 4 min read Last updated Dec 08, 2025

The World Series of Poker may be in full swing, but that didn’t stop many of your favorite high-stakes online poker players from hitting the virtual tables. Though the $500/1,000 action was sparse, the action at the ante-added $300/600 and $200/400 pot-limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt Poker has been steadily increasing, highlighted by appearances from Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro, Niki [Removed:552], and Di “Urindanger” Dang. Even Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey put in a few sessions in between sweating sports bets and winning WSOP bracelets.

Kelopuro Posts Banner Week

Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro has endured a rough year at the online tables, but in between sessions in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, Kelopuro managed to post some excellent sessions on Full Tilt, pulling in $419,000 on Thursday alone. First up for Kelopuro was a session of $500/1,000 HA with the likes of Gus Hansen, luckexpress10, Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, and Niki [Removed:552]. Over the course of 369 hands, Kelopuro posted a $214,000 win, including this massive hold’em pot against [Removed:552]:

Playing four-handed, Niki Jedlick opened for $2,400, Kelopuro reraised to $8,000 and [Removed:552] called. The flop came down 8♥7♥7♠ and Kelopuro fired out a cheeky bet of $11,111. [Removed:552] called and they went to the turn, which fell the 10♥. Kelopuro led again, this time for $24,000 and was met with an all-in raise from [Removed:552] for $95,926. Kelopuro made the call and turned up K♥Q♥ for a king-high flush while [Removed:552] showed J♥5♥ for a jack-high flush. The river was the J♠ and Kelopuro dragged the $163,043 pot.

Later that day, Kelopuro sat in at three tables of pot-limit Omaha—two at $300/600 stakes with a $100 ante, one at $200/400 with a $70 ante, and one standard $200/400 table, facing largely the same cast of characters. Kelopuro picked up another $204,000 in winnings over the course of just over 200 hands, one of his confrontations unfolding in this pot against Ashton Griffin.

Playing $200/400/70, Griffin opened for $1,410 from the small blind and Kelopuro called from the big blind. Griffin led out for $2,800 on the J♠8♠2♥ flop and Kelopuro flat-called. The turn was the Q♣ and Griffin fired again for $6,300. Kelopuro raised to $27,530, but Griffin came back over the top for $48,760. Kelopuro called all in and turned up 10♦9♦7♦7♥ for the queen-high straight while Griffin revealed Q♦J♦J♣10♠ for top set and a gutshot straight draw. The river was the 7♠ and the $80,069 pot was shipped Sami’s way.

Dwan Digs $1.2 Million Hole… and Crawls Out

It takes an extraordinary amount of emotional fortitude (and/or a healthy disdain for money) to dig oneself into a $1.2 million hole and then manage to climb out. Love him or loathe him, that’s exactly what Tom “durrrr” Dwan manage to do last Sunday night. Dwan started off playing heads-up $500/1,000 PLO with Gus Hansen and managed to drop two huge pots straight away to give Hansen a massive lead. Hansen was up by more than $1.2 million when Dwan got it together and completely turned things around, erasing the entire loss and even finishing $4,000 to the good. Much of that turnaround came courtesy of this monster pot:

Dwan led off the action with a raise to $3,000. Hansen three-bet to $9,000, and Dwan came back over the top for $27,000. Hansen called and checked the 7♠5♣3♣ flop. Dwan bet $37,200 and Hansen called. The turn was the 4♣ and Hansen fired out $83,000. Dwan smooth-called and they went to the river, the J♦. Hansen moved all in for the $204,854 he had behind and Dwan called all in, turning up Q♠8♠7♣6♣ for a seven-high straight flush to Hansen’s K♣Q♦10♦2♣ for the king-high flush. Hansen’s headlong river bet into the stone nuts earned Dwan the $672,352 pot, enough to buy a lovely two-bedroom bungalow at the base of the Hollywood Hills.

While still playing Hansen heads-up, Dwan decided to take on Phil Ivey mano a mano, and managed to take $498,000 off the now six-time WSOP bracelet winner in the space of ninety minutes. Once again, the pots were sky-high, the largest this $421,000 behemoth won by “durrrr”.

Phil Ivey reaised to $3,000, Dwan three-bet to $9,000 and Ivey called. The flop was 10♦4♥2♠ and Dwan led out for $11,200. Ivey raised to $41,000, Dwan came back over the top for $141,000, and Ivey moved in for $368,266. Dwan called off his last $60,500 and turned up A♦10♣9♦2♣ for two pair tens and deuces to Ivey’s A♣Q♣2♦4♦ for fours and deuces. The turn was the 3♣, the river was the 7♥ and Dwan raked in the pot.

PixKim Takes on DIN_FRU

Matt Hawrilenko may have quit DIN_FRU last week, but a Finnish player known only as PixKim decided to take a shot at him, playing more than four hours of heads-up $500/1,000 Omaha Hi/Lo over the course of two sessions. PixKim managed to pull in a $51,000 win in just over 800 hands over his opponent, who has been dominating heads-up limit games as of late.

In one of their larger confrontations, PixKim opened for a raise, DIN_FRU three-bet and PixKim called. The flop was K♥10♦6♦. DIN_FRU bet out, PixKim raised and they capped the betting. The turn came the A♣ and DIN_FRU led again. PixKim raised and DIN_FRU smooth-called. The river was the J♣ and DIN_FRU check-called one more bet from PixKim. PixKim tabled A♦Q♦10♠10♣ for an ace-high straight. With no possible low hand, PixKim scooped the $13,000 pot.