The Online Railbird Report: Cates and Blom Victorious While Antonius and Palmer Stumble
A busy live tournament schedule has not slowed action at the online high-stakes tables at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Patrik Antonius and Daniel "jungleman12" Cates met for some pot-limit Omaha and pot-limit hold'em. In addition, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom took on Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer at the pot-limit Omaha tables on PokerStars and one of them banked about half a million dollars.
Cates Beats Up On Antonius
A $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha and pot-limit hold'em session on Sunday between Daniel "jungleman12" Cates and Patrik Antonius was completely one-sided. Only three pots made it into six figures during the match, and Cates took all of them, defeating Antonius to the tune of $608,000.
Cates opened to $1,800 on the button and Antonius made it $5,400 to play from the big blind. Cates called and the flop came down K♦4♣2♠. Antonius fired $9,000 at the pot, but Cates quickly popped it to $23,400. Antonius came over the top to $81,000 and it was clear at this point that Cates loved his hand when he reraised enough to cover the rest of Antonius' stack at the table The Finn called all-in for another $76,000 with K♥2♣J♥J♣ for top and bottom pair with a backdoor club flush draw, while Cates tabled K♠4♥10♠8♠ for top two pair and a backdoor spade flush draw.
A pot of nearly $350,000 was at stake and it was run twice, both going Cates' way. The first run brought the 10♣ turn card and gave Antonius a flush draw, but the river 3♥ did not save him. The second run delivered the 6♠ followed by the Q♦, notching both halves of the pot to Cates with the better two pair.
Another six-figure pot and another Cates win, this one in pot-limit hold'em. He opened the pot to $1,800 on the button, and once again, Antonius popped it to $5,400 from the big blind. Cates called and an 8♠3♠2♦ flop followed. Antonius bet $8,400 and Cates wasn't going anywhere. The Q♥ turn card led to another bet from Antonius, this time for $21,600. Cates again called to see the 5♥ river card fall. Antonius kept up the heat and fired $48,600, but Cates liked his hand enough and called. Antonius tabled J♠J♦, but Cates took over the lead on the turn with A♣Q♦, winning a $168,000 pot in the process.
Back to PLO now, but it made no difference in this session. Antonius made the standard $1,800 raise on the button. Cates made the standard three-bet to $5,400 and Antonius called, delivering a Q♦9♣4♥ flop. Cates bet $7,200 and Antonius called, leading to the 9♥ turn card. Cates bet again, settling on $18,600 with Antonius sticking around. The 9♦ fell on the river and Cates fired a third shell, this one for $48,600. Antonius called, but mucked when Cates tabled A♠A♦J♣8♠ for nines full of aces to win the $159,600 pot.
Blom Victorious Against Palmer
Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer played a nice session of $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha on Monday at PokerStars and Blom emerged victorious for about a half-million dollars.
He raised to $600 on the button and Palmer bumped it to $1,800 from the big blind. A four-bet to $5,400 was Blom's next move, but Palmer wasn't done, promptly five-betting to $16,200. Blom put an end to the raising, opting to call and see a K♠J♣5♠ flop. A pot-sized bet of about $32,400 came from Palmer, leading Blom to get his stack of roughly $55,800 into the middle. Palmer called with A♣A♦8♣2♥ for the overpair while Blom turned over K♦J♦Q♠7♣ for top two pair. The 3♣ fell on the turn and gave Palmer extra outs to a flush and a better two pair. A club did fall on the river to give Palmer a flush, but it was the K♣ to fill up the Swede's hand to clinch the near $112,000 pot.
Who's Up? Who's Down?
Week’s biggest winners (2/25-2/28): Daniel “jungleman12” Cates (+$908,000), Andreas "skjervoy" Torbergsen (+$850,000), *compris (+$393,000), *Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (+$385,000)
Week’s biggest losers: Patrik Antonius (-$639,000), *Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer (-$521,000), Gus Hansen (-$494,000), * Alexey "LuckyGump" Makarov (-$453,000)
Year-to-date winners: Gus Hansen (+$2,586,000), Matt Hawrilenko (+$1,715.000), Daniel “jungleman12” Cates (+$1,196,000), *Gavin "gavz101" Cochrane ($983,000)
Year-to-date losers: Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$1,107,000), “kagome kagome” (-$1,061,000), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$1,053,000), "cadillac1944" (-$939,000)
*on PokerStars
We have on more $15,000 Sunday Million Freeroll with PokerStars left to qualify for, with $1,000 to the winner and 260 tournament tickets, including 45 Sunday Million Tickets on offer.
