The Online Railbird Report: Hansen Loses a Million; Amundsgard & Cates Finish on Top
The high-stakes online action tends to slow down a bit whenever a European Poker Tour (EPT) event is being held, but that didn’t seem to be the case today. Despite players like Gus Hansen, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, and Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates being at the EPT10 Vienna, all managed to find time to play on Full Tilt Poker, though with varying results.
For instance, Cates, who lost a million dollars the week before, managed to win $521,682 in 2,611 hands spread across 35 sessions, which was second only to Ola “no_Ola” Amundsgard, who was the week’s biggest winner after banking $544,148 in 1,569 hands across 22 sessions. Other weekly winners included Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn (+$366,552 in 12 sessions/582 hands) and “Trueteller” (+$199,000 in 17 sessions/1,686 hands).
Cates’ win actually put him atop the yearly leaderboard, due in part to Blom losing $504,024 (50 sessions/4,903 hands) on the week. Blom was the second-biggest loser, as Hansen, who lost $148,181 last week, dropped a hefty $1,050,621 this week. It was a sting Hansen couldn’t shake, and he subsequently revealed on the PokerNews Podcast that he may very well take a break from the virtual felt.
Hansen’s Bad Week Begins; Tollerene Books a Win
On Thursday, March 20, Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby emerged as the day’s biggest winner thanks to a $313,200 score at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables. Kibler-Melby got off to a bad start after losing nearly $125,000 in a morning session, but he returned later that evening to take on “samrostan,” Blom, and Hansen. Kibler-Melby walked away a $301,000 winner, with his biggest victim being "The Great Dane," who finished $213,000 in the red. That wasn’t the end of Hansen’s misery, either. He had lost $116,8000 earlier in the day to Blom, and then went on to lose an additional $124,000.
In other Thursday news, Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene, who recently opted out of having his long-term results tracked, played $200/$400 pot-limit Omaha for five hours and banked $190,100.
Amundsgard Wins $562,000 in Friday Foray
On Friday, March 21, Blom got off to a good start when he took Phil “Polarizing” Ivey for $143,000 at the $2,000/$4,000 fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo tables, and then switched to $200/$400 PLO and pulled out to a $300,000 lead against the likes of Hac “trex313” Dang and Amundsgard, who you may recall is the Norwegian player fighting for online poker reform in his home country.
Blom ended up giving two-thirds of his profit back in that game, which allowed Amundsgard to win $200,000. From there, all three players upped the stakes to $500/$1,000 PLO, which is where the day’s biggest pot took place.
It began when Amundsgard ($99,135.50) called from the button, Blom ($69,238) limped from the small blind, and Dang ($57,941) raised to $4,000 from the big blind. Both his opponents called, and then all three players checked the 2♥J♥5♦ flop. When the 6♣ turned, Blom led out for $10,000 and Dang responded by capping it at $36,000. Amundsgard called, as did Blom, and the cards were turned up.
Blom: 8♥8♣9♦7♦
Dang: 2♣2♦K♦K♠
Amundsgard: 4♠4♥3♠6♦
The turn card gave Blom an open-ended straight draw, while Dang was sitting with bottom set; however, both players were behind the turned nuts of Amundsgard. The K♥ river was a blank, and Amundsgard was pushed the $120,000 pot.
Amundsgard ended up winning $360,000 at the higher stakes, which brought his daily take to a healthy $562,000.
Saturday Belongs to “Trueteller”; Ivey Books a Win
On Saturday, March 22, there was quite a bit of action at the high-stakes tables. For instance, Ivey and Cates went head to head at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables. The match lasted a little over an hour, and during that time Ivey won $99,000.
Another big winner was “samrostan,” who won $350,000 playing the same game. Unfortunately, he lost $88,000 of it playing FLO8, meaning he ended up winning $260,700 on the day. Both he and Ivey managed healthy scores, but both were behind the $384,100 pulled in by “Trueteller” at the $200/$400 no-limit hold’em and 2-7 triple draw tables.
In the former game, “Trueteller” played for three hours and walked away a $102,000 winner, thanks in no small part to the day’s biggest pot:
“Trueteller” went on to take $282,000 from Hansen at the 2-7 triple draw tables, so all in all it turned out to be a pretty good day.
Speaking of “Trueteller,” he was back at the $200/$400 NLHE tables on Wednesday (the game seems to be spreading fairly regularly these days) mixing it up with some regulars. During the match two notable hands took place. Have a look.
Hand #1: Action was six handed when “Rhje” ($83,4223.30) opened for $1,200 from the cutoff and Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar ($64,160.10) called from the button. “MalACEsia” ($75,596.30) then three-bet to $4,400 from the small blind, and Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky ($81,365.20) popped it to $12,800 out of the big blind. Two folds put action back on “MalACEsia,” and he five-bet to $26,000. Sulsky just called, and when the flop came down K♠J♥9♠, “MalACEsia” moved all in for $49,596.30. Sulsky made the call and the cards were turned up:
“MalACEsia”: A♠A♣
Sulsky: A♥A♦
It looked as if the $153,592.60 pot would be chopped as both players held aces, but “MalACEsia” was freerolling to running spades. Wouldn’t you know it, the 7♠ and 5♠ appeared on the turn and river, respectively, and “MalACEsia” was pushed the entire pot.
Hand #2: Action was once again six handed when “Trueteller” ($52,574.50) raised to $1,000 from the cutoff and Millar ($57,832.70) defended from the big blind. When the flop came down 8♠J♣A♣, Millar checked and “Trueteller” fired out $1,100. Millar sprung to life with a check-raise to $4,000, “Trueteller” called.
The 5♥ turned, Millar bet $11,600, “Trueteller” called, and the 9♣ completed the board on the river. Millar proceeded to move all in for $41,232.70, and “Trueteller” wasted little time in calling off his remaining $35,974.50. Millar tabled the 10♣7♣ for a flush, and it was good as “Trueteller” simply mucked.
As for Wednesday’s biggest winner, that turned out to be Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who you may recall lost over a million dollars last week. Galfond won $291,900 in four hours at the 2-7 triple draw tables against “Trueteller,” Hansen, “Kagome Kagome,” and Ivey. Of those, “Kagome Kagome” finished as the biggest loser after dropping $134,100.
Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)
Week's Biggest Winners (3/21-3/26): Ola “no_Ola” Amundsgard (+$544,148), Dan “jungleman12” Cates ($521,682), Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn (+$366,552), “Trueteller” (+$199,000)
Week's Biggest Losers (3/21-3/26): Gus Hansen (-$1,050,621), Viktor “Isildru1” Blom (-$504,024), “Rhje” (-$229,377), Hac “trex313” Dang (-$131,705), Phil “Polarizing” Ivey (-$127,322)
Year's Biggest Winners: Dan "jungleman12" Cates (+$1,624,168), Doug "WCGRider" Polk (+$792,322), Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (+$624,986), "Tight-Man1" (+$493,283), "mikki696" (+$445,049), Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion* (+$412,469), Isaac "luvtheWNBA" Haxton ($284,244)
Year's Biggest Losers: Gus Hansen (-$2,318,940), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$1,142,824), "samrostan" (-$940,690), Alex "IReadYrSoul" Millar (-$658,905), Patrik "FinddaGrind" Antonius (-$477,447), "tyme2gamb0|111" (-$287,479)
*Denotes PokerStars
Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com
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