The Online Railbird Report: Galfond and Hansen Battle

Mickey Doft
Live Reporter
4 min read
Phil Galfond

The action at the Full Tilt Poker high-stakes cash-game tables over the last few days had its share of six-figure pots. In fact, Gus Hansen and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond played in a session on Monday that had several. The biggest winner and loser from the last few days came from the playing of the "durrrr Challange," as Daniel "jungleman12" Cates booked another winning session against Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

Hansen and Galfond Battle

Playing $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha, Hansen raised to $1,800 on the button. Galfond reraised to $5,400, but Hansen went the four-bet route, making it $16,200. Galfond called and checked when the Q52 flop appeared. A pot-sized bet of $32,400 was Hansen's next move, but Galfond reraised with the bigger stack. Hansen called all in for another $29,000-ish and tabled KK43 for an overpair of kings, as well as an open-ended straight draw. Galfond showed QJ98 for just top pair and looked to improve. They ran it twice, but there was no help anywhere for Galfond. The 6 popped off on the turn of the first run and locked up half the pot for Hansen with a straight. The second run brought the 7 turn followed by the 10 river, neither of which helped Galfond. Ship the $155,592 pot to Denmark.

The Great Dane has been pretty invincible lately, although Galfond also managed to win some big pots. The preflop action played out exactly the same as the first hand with a 1075 flop hitting the board. Galfond led out for $13,800, only to see Hansen raise the pot an additional $60,000. With just more than $44,000 behind, Galfond called all in.

Galfond: KJ104 - top pair, flush draw
Hansen: AAK3 - overpair of aces

It wasn't the best spot for Hansen — just under 43 percent to win the hand. They ran it twice and Galfond quickly earned the first half of the pot as the 2 fell to make an unbeatable flush. It was a similar story on the second run with the 10 popping off on the turn, giving Galfond trips and leaving Hansen only two outs to chop. The Q wasn't what the doctor ordered for Hansen, who watched the $148,378 pot head Galfond's way.

The next biggest hand between the two also went Galfond's way. Hansen kicked off the action with a min-raise to $1,200 on the button. Galfond made it $3,600 to go from the big blind. A call from Hansen delivered a KQ3 flop, at which Galfond bet $4,200, and Hansen tagged along to see the Q turn fall. It was more of the same on the turn with Hansen calling $10,800 from his opponent, resulting in the 10 river. Galfond checked this time and Hansen took the opportunity to bet $24,000, but Galfond responded with a cagey min-raise to $48,000. Hansen called, but mucked when Galfond tabled AKQ10 for a full house, winning the $133,200 pot.

Hansen Against "NoPasaran"

"NoPasaran" has not made much noise since a winning session against the mysterious "XWINK" a few week ago but has mixed it up with Hansen a bit since Friday. The two battled at $300/$600 PLO. In one hand, on the button, NoPasaran min-raised to $1,200. Hansen called, and when the flop came down 954, he led out $2,400. Not taking too kindly to that, NoPasaran popped it to $7,800. A call from Hansen led to the Q turn and he fired again, this time for $18,000. Apparently NoPasaran doesn't like it when someone bets into him because he raised again, making it $72,000 to play.

Hansen called all in for about $30,000 and revealed Q974 for top two pair (three pair, even). NoPasaran showed 10943 for the same and inferior two pair in Hansen's hand, but did have outs to win the pot with a flush. They ran it twice and on the first run, NoPasaran got there with the Q river. However, that spade gave Hansen a full house and half the pot. The 3 river on the second run sealed the second half for Hansen, as well, to win the $114,188 pot.

Who's Up? Who's Down?

Week’s biggest winners (3/25-3/28): Daniel "jungleman12" Cates (+$291,000), Seb86 (+$239,000), Rui Cao (+$235,000), kagome kagome (+119,000) *Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo (+$113,000)

Week’s biggest losers: Tom “durrrr” Dwan(-$546,000), Niki Jedlicka (-$153,000), Patrik Antonius (-$142,000), *Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies (-$109,000)

Year-to-date winners: Gus Hansen (+$4,593,000), Daniel “jungleman12” Cates (+$1,920,000) *Gavin "gavz101" Cochrane ($1,800,000), Matt Hawrilenko (+$1,604,000), Abe "EazyPeazy" Mosseri (+$1,258,000), Phil Ivey (+$1,186,000)

Year-to-date losers: Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$1,914,000), kagome kagome (-$1,738,000), fishosaurusREX (-$1,296,000), UarePileous (-$977,000), cadillac1944 (-$939,000)

*on PokerStars

*data obtained from HighStakesDB.com

If you have the skills, we have $55,000 in added prizes. The PokerNews Skills Challenge at Full Tilt Poker is a series of money-added tournaments every Wednesday night, which culminate in a $20,000 Freeroll. Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Share this article
Mickey Doft
Live Reporter

More Stories

Other Stories