The Online Railbird Report: Finns Win, Martonas Returns

Nicole Gordon

Aug 03, 2010 4 min read Last updated Dec 08, 2025

The Online Railbird Report: Finns Win, Martonas Returns 0001

The high-stakes cash game action picked up significantly this week with heavy hitters like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan logging significant hours at the tables. The pot-limit Omaha games also welcomed a special guest star — volatile Swede “martonas,” who reloaded his Full Tilt account after a year-long absence.

Finland wins the week

Two Finns sat atop the leaderboard this week. LokoIsBack topped off an excellent July with another $328,000 in earnings while his countryman Patrik Antonius continued his summer run-good, earning $673,000 this week. Although the cap PLO games still got the most traffic this week, a few uncapped games did run, bringing delighted railbirds a treat they have been missing as of late — the monsterpotten!

The largest pot to unfold this week came in at $256,000 and took place in a four-handed $300/$600 PLO game. Antonius opened for $2,100 from UTG, Gus Hansen raised to $6,900 from the small blind, and Antonius called. Hansen led out for $14,400 on the J♣8♥3♠ flop and Antonius made the call. The turn came the 5♠ and Hansen fired again, this time for $43,200. Antonius moved all-in for $106,178, and Hansen called off the $62,978 he had behind.

Antonius J♦8♠7♠4♦ (top two pair, flush draw)
Hansen K♥Q♣J♥9♣ (top pair, gutshot straight draw)

The A♥ landed on the river and Antonius’ two pair held up to win the $255,557 pot.

Ivey trounces Luukie21 with $693,000 cap PLO win

Luukie21, a Dutch player living in Malta, isn’t exactly a stranger to the high-stakes action on Full Tilt, but this week, he bit off more than he could chew when he sat down with Phil Ivey at the $500/$1,000 cap PLO tables on Sunday. Simply put, Ivey annihilated Luukie21, relieving his bankroll of $693,000 over 652 hands. What’s even more remarkable is that this happened on a cap table, where neither player can put more than $40,000 into any given pot.

In one example of a bluff gone awry, Luukie21 opened for $2,000, then called Ivey’s $6,000 three-bet. Ivey led out for $8,000 on the J♥4♠2♣ flop, Luukie21 capped the betting with a raise to $34,000 and Ivey quickly called. Luukie21 showed A♦10♣8♥4♦ for only middle pair, while Ivey turned over A♣K♥J♦4♣ for top two pair. Lukkie21 did not improve on the 10♦ turn or the K♣ river, Ivey picking up the $80,000 pot.

Welcome back, martonas

Almost exactly one year ago, an unidentified Swedish player called “martonas” took a shot at the nosebleed stakes, playing as high as $500/$1,000 no-limit hold’em against Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, and Patrik Antonius. During the first half of August 2009, martonas went on the run of a lifetime, racking up nearly $2.4 million in earnings in only 17 days. However, as we see all too often at these stakes, he lost it all back and then some, pouring $2.62 million back into the high-stakes economy over only four days. Martonas had been absent from Full Tilt’s tables since then, but re-appeared this week. This time, his game was PLO.

Over the last 48 hours, Martonas played 3,116 hands of PLO at limits ranging from $25/$50 to $200/$400 with a $16,000 cap. Thus far, he is $90,615 in the red.

For his first session back, he sat down at a $50/$100 heads-up PLO table and played close to 1,100 hands against URnotINdanger2, earning $36,342. At the same time he joined a six-handed $100/$200 PLO table, losing nearly $22,000 to a lineup that included Dwan, Luukie21, P-FISH, URnotINdanger2, and Steve Sung. Following that session, he sat at a $200/$400 cap PLO table for 22 hands, making back the $22,000 he lost at $100/$200. The rest of Martonas’ results were, unfortunately, all negative numbers. By that night, regulars like Brian Hastings, Chau “La Key U” Giang, Niki [Removed:552], Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Jani Vilmunen were all lining up to take their shots.

In this pot, Vilmunen opened for $600 from the cutoff, URnotINdanger2 three-bet to $2,280 on the button, and martonas four-bet to $7,820 from the small blind, leaving himself only $2,430 behind. Vilmunen folded and URnotINdanger2 set him the rest of the way in. Martonas made the call, turning up A♠K♠Q♦9♠. URnotINdanger2 had a slight pre-flop edge with K♦K♥Q♥4♦ and maintained it on the 10♣8♣5♣2♥3♥ board. He picked up the $21,240 pot and left martonas to rebuy for another $10,000.