The Online Railbird Report: Galfond & Blom Experience Million-Dollar Swings

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Jan 18, 2013 6 min read

In last week’s Online Railbird Report, we told you how Viktor “Isildur1” Blom made $4,073,070 during the first week of 2013. Blom’s heater continued for a bit on Full Tilt Poker as he climbed over $5 million in profit, but then Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who had lost $379,179 the week before, got in his way.

Blom ended up losing $1,173,536 this week in 17,209 hands across 143 sessions, enough to make him the week’s biggest loser. Even so, he is still 2013’s biggest winner with $2,899,534. Meanwhile, Galfond finished as the week’s biggest winner with $1,737,524 from 5,415 hands across 36 sessions. Not too far behind was “SallyWoo”, who banked $1,534,898 in 24 sessions/4,728 hands.

Needless to say, those two were far and away the biggest winners with the next biggest winners being Sebastien “Seb86” Sabic (+$446,760 in 15 sessions/1,185 hands), Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene (+$376,585 in 26 sessions/2,314 hands) and Alex “Alexonmoon” Luneau (+$321,636 in 19 sessions/3,917 hands).

On the other end of the spectrum, Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky (-$1,051,168 in 88 sessions/7,382 hands) was the second-biggest loser of the week followed by Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar (-$703,978 6 sessions/822 hands), Erik “Erik1223” Sagström (-$451,699 in 38 sessions/8,906 hands) and “kagome kagome” (-$431,336 in 12 sessions/939 hands).

Big Day for Both Galfond and Blom

On Saturday, Jan. 12, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond won $507,800 playing a combination of 2-7 Triple Draw and Fixed-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo (FLO8). It was at the latter game that Galfond beat “patpatpanda” out of $282,000 in a three-hour session while also taking some from Viktor “Isildur1” Blom at the 2-7 tables.

Blom made waves of his own by taking on Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar and Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky in $300/$600 no-limit hold’em and $250/$500 pot-limit Omaha respectively. It was against the former that Blom won a healthy $704,000 in 90 minutes.

In their biggest pot, Blom ($155,244.25) opened for $1,800 and called when Millar ($102,953) three-bet to $6,300. The 5♦10♥2♥ flop saw Millar check, Blom bet $6,600, and Millar check-raise to $18,600. Blom not only called the raise, but he also called a bet of $26,100 on the K♣ turn, which brought about the J♣ on the river. Millar reverted to checking, but called off his remaining $51,953 when Blom moved all in. The Swede then tabled K♦2♦, which was good enough to win the $205,906 pot as Millar simply mucked his hand.

Blom also had some luck against Sulsky, winning $273,000 in nearly three hours of play. Luck is the right word, too, because most of Blom’s winnings in that match came from one big hand. It began when Sulsky ($205,649) raised to $1,700 on the button and Blom ($200,808) three-bet to $5,300. Sulsky opted for a four-bet to $16,100, Blom called and flop fell A♦4♦6♠. Blom checked, Sulsky fired out $20,500, and Blom woke up with a check-raise to $93,900. Sulsky then three-bet to $169,000, Blom moved all in for $184,608, and Sulsky called the additional $15,708, which created a monster $401,616 pot.

Blom: 9♦3♦10♣5♣
Sulsky: A♠K♠Q♦6♦

Sulsky got it in great with two pair and the better flush draw but nonetheless agreed to run it twice. Amazingly, he lost both as the 2♠9♥ on the first run and the J♥2♥ on the second each gave Blom a straight.

The two wins put Blom up $1.1 million on the day, but he went on to lose $250,800 to “SallyWoo” and $146,000 to Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn before calling it quits.

Galfond Takes Blom for $1 Million at the PLO Tables; Hansen Experiences Up-and-Down Week

On Sunday, Jan. 13, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond took Viktor “Isildur1” Blom for $1.077 million in 1,973 hands of pot-limit Omaha. Their match started with three tables of $200/$400 PLO, and the Swede immediately jumped out to a $400,000 lead in 200 hands. Unfortunately for him, the cards turned against him, and by Hand #517 Blom was down $76,000. From there, it was all downhill.

The two agreed to up the stakes to $300/$600 PLO with the run-it-twice option enabled, and Galfond proceeded to relieve Blom of another $415,000 in 197 hands. Blom took a brief break after that, but later in the day, Galfond won another $370,000 from his nemesis. As if that wasn’t enough, Blom took yet another break to win $187,000 playing limit games and then took another shot at Galfond only to lose $250,000 in 20 minutes at the $300/$600 PLO tables.

During all those matches, the two obviously played some big pots.

Hand #1: Blom ($137,790) opened for $1,800 and was met by a three-bet to $5,400 by Galfond ($131,821) in the big blind. Blom pushed back to the tune of $16,200, Galfond called, and the flop came out 3♠3♦3♣. Galfond check-called a bet of $11,400, and then checked the K♦ turn. Blom took the opportunity to bet $25,200, but this time Galfond check-raised to $63,900. Blom called and then called Galfond’s $40,321 shove on the 5♥ river. Unfortunately for him, Galfond flipped over K♣K♠J♣7♣ for kings full to win the $263,,600 pot.

Hand #2: Blom ($150,854) opened for $1,800 on the button and then called when Galfond ($153,081) three-bet to $5,100, bringing about a flop of K♣4♠2♣. Both players checked, the Q♠ turned, and Galfond led out for $7,500. Not to be outdone, Blom raised to $32,700, Galfond three-bet to $115,800, Blom called, and the 7♣ completed the board on the river. Galfond moved all in for $32,181, and Blom, who only had 29,954 behind, opted to give up on the $226,800 pot.

Hand #3: Blom ($167,087) opened for $1,200 and then called when Galfond ($110,247.50) three-bet to $3,600. The latter then led out for $4,248, and called when Blom raised to $12,400. Galfond slowed down with a check on the 4♠, but then shifted gears with an all-in check-raise to $94,247.50 after Blom had bet $23,600. Blom called, creating a pot worth $220,495, and the K♥ completed the board on the river. Blom rolled over 10♥6♦3♣2♠ for a six-high straight, but it was no good against Galfond’s 6♣7♦8♣4♦ eight-high straight.

It’s also worth noting that 2012’s biggest online loser, Gus Hansen, won $538,000 at the 2-7 Triple Draw tables. It was there he took $205,000 from Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn and $197,000 from “kagome kagome.” Combined that with his $352,000 win from the day before, and it was a good weekend for the “Great Dane.” Unfortunately for him it didn't last. All the momentum Hansen had built up over the weekend came to a screeching halt on Wednesday, Jan. 16 when he lost $953,600 playing 2-7 Triple Draw and FLO8.

Hansen’s bad day started by his losing $164,000 to Sebastien “Seb86” Sabic in a 90-minute session of 2-7, and then followed that up by losing $364,000 to Alex “Alexonmoon” Luneau, who won $452,600 on the day over the course of the next 13 hours. It was also during this time that Hansen fired up some $2,000/$4,000 FlO8 and squared off against “SallyWoo” in an eight-hour match. When the dust settled after 847 hands, “SallyWoo” was in the black $520,000—though he eventually lost some of that profit back and ended the day a $434,600 winner.

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Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)

Week’s biggest winners (1/9-1/16): Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (+$1,737,524), “SallyWoo” (+$1,534,898), Sebastien “Seb86” Sabic (+$446,760), Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene (+$376,585), Alex “Alexonmoon” Luneau (+$321,636)

Week’s biggest losers: Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$1,173,536), Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky (-$1,051,168), Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar (-$703,978), Erik “Erik1223” Sagström (-$451,699), “kagome kagome” (-$431,336)

Year’s biggest winners: Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (+$2,899,534), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (+$1,358,345), Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene (+$1,045,472), “SallyWoo” (+$1,007,142), “noobmare”* (+$283,334)

Year’s biggest losers: Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky (-$1,683,370), Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar (-$699,378), Kyle “cottonseed1” Hendon (-$586,346), Kyle “KPR16” Ray (-$582,878), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$531,348), “Schoitl” (-$510,318), “kagome kagome” (-$495,880)

*DenotesPokerStars

_{Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com}

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