It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Viktor “Isildur1” Blom on the virtual felt. In last week’s Online Railbird Report, the Swede finished as the biggest loser after dropping $1,366,606, and unfortunately for him, his downswing continued as he lost an additional $557,556 this week in 7,283 hands over 176 sessions — enough to make him the week’s biggest loser.
Others who failed to finish in the black this week were Sebastien “Seb86” Sabic (-$509,092 in 17 sessions/1,770 hands), “SallyWoo” (-$453,581 in 8 sessions/1,401 hands), Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky (-$334,246 in 24 sessions/4,996 hands), and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$298,044 in 8 sessions/1,946 hands).
On the flip side, German pro Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker was the week’s biggest winner after banking $631,566 in 4,170 hands over 25 sessions. It was a modest win by the standards the million-dollar swings the Online Railbird Report has become accustomed to, but it’s still a healthy score nonetheless. Others who had a good week were “punting-peddler” (+$464,218 in 113 sessions/5,688 hands), Harry “Schoitl” Cassagrande (+$441,485 in 54 sessions/4,527 hands), Phil “Polarizing” Ivey (+$359,248 in 83 sessions/3,880 hands), and Doug “WGCRider” Polk (+$324,689 in 53 sessions/5,808 hands).
The Moorman Watch
The Online Railbird Report is dedicated to the high-stakes online cash games, but we felt compelled to tell you of some exciting news from the online tournament realm. On Wednesday, Sept. 18, PokerNewspublished an article that announced Chris "Moorman1" Moorman was less than $100,000 in online tournament winnings away from an unprecedented $10 million in lifetime online earnings. As of Friday morning, he’s just $77,000 away from the milestone.
"Being the first person to hit $10 million in online tournament cashes is incredibly important to me," Moorman told PokerNews on Wednesday. "I started playing online tournaments way back in 2006, and to have continued success throughout the last seven years, especially with the ever-changing environment of the game, is more than I could have hoped for."
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for continued updates on Moorman's record-setting quest.
Polk Takes Lead Against Sulsky in FTP HUNL Challenge
The challenge will consist of 15,000 hands of $100/$200 NLHE over a number of sessions. Each session will come to a halt if either player builds an effective chip stack of more than 250 big blinds, and the player who is ahead at the time the 15,000th hand is complete will be awarded the $100,000 put up by the losing player.
In their first bout, the duo played for nearly 2,500 hands over eight and a half hours, during which time Polk pulled into the lead to the tune of $227,000. Polk pulled out to an early lead and never looked back, even winning the three biggest pots of the day (though in all fairness he did run well as you’ll see).
Hand #1: Sulsky ($46,902.09) opened for $600 only to have Polk ($53,527.25) three-bet to $2,200. Not to be outdone, Sulsky pushed back with a four-bet to $5,444, Polk called and the flop came down 4♦2♣Q♥. Polk check-called a bet of $5,872 and then checked the 7♥ turn. Sulsky took the opportunity to bet $12,379, Polk once again check-called and the J♣ completed the board on the river.
Polk checked for a third time and called when Sulsky shoved his last $23,207.09. Sulsky tabled the K♥K♣, but it was no good as Polk had flopped a set with his Q♦Q♣ to win the $93,804 pot.
Hand #2: Polk ($99,447.25) opened for $480 and was met by a three-bet to $1,440 from Sulsky ($35,941.75). Polk responded with a four-bet to $4,600, Sulsky called and the flop fell 10♠8♣2♥. Sulsky check-called a bet of $4,000, the 6♠ turned, and Sulsky checked for a second time. Polk opted to move all in and Sulsky quickly called off for $27,341.75.
Sulsky: 10♦10♥
Polk: K♠J♠
Sulsky got it in good with top set, but Polk was drawing live to a flush. The turn and river were run twice, and amazingly Polk scooped the entire $71,883 pot when both the 4♠ on the first run and A♠ on the second have him the winning flush.