For the second week in a row, “samrostan” finished as the week’s biggest winner in the high-stakes scene, which is helping him mitigate the losses he piled up earlier in 2013. Last week he put together a $358,238 win, and this week he followed it up with a hefty $912,134 win in 7,543 hands over 27 sessions.
"Samrostan" was far and away the biggest winner as only three other players managed to notch six-figure wins. The others were “taktloss47” (+$116,942 in 12 sessions/848 hands) and Alex “Alexonmoon” Luneau (+$102,619 in 14 sessions/2,381 hands) on Full Tilt Poker, and Vladimir “Gvozdika55” Shchemelev (+$104,535 in 12 sessions/1,912 hands) on PokerStars.
When there’s only one big winner, there tends to be a lone big loser, and that was the case as Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who lost $166,370 last week, was this week’s biggest loser after dropping $620,888 in 5,708 hands over 28 sessions.
Other weekly losers included Ronny “ronnyr37617” Kaiser (-$215,448 in 35 sessions/1,486 hands), Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$134,450 in 111 sessions/9,192 hands), and “O Fortuna PLS” (-$93,136 in 14 sessions/1,950 hands).
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the parting between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Full Tilt Poker. I won’t get into it here, but if you want to read more you can check it out by clicking here.
On a side note, check out my recent Op-Ed titled The Problems of Opting Out from Online Tracking, which examines the recent trend of high-stakes players (i.e. Kyle “cottonseed1” Hendon) deciding not to have their long-term results displayed — which of course has influenced the Online Railbird Report.
“Samrostan” Gets Things Started
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
Late last week, “samrostan” joined an 8-Game table alongside Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and Alexander “PostFlopAction” Kostritsyn. In less than two hours, “samrostan” relieved the two of a combined $200,000.
At that point Blom logged off down $205,000 at the table, and then Kostritsyn hit a heater to win all of “samrostan’s” profit. Blom then returned an hour later, won $37,000, and took off again. He was replaced by “punting-peddler,” who promptly dropped $300,000, which resulted in “samrostan” bringing his profit back up to nearly $350,000. Kostritsyn lost all the momentum (and profit) that he had and eventually left the game a $42,800 loser, while “punting-peddler” managed to win back $200,000 or so. All told “samrostan” left the table a $328,600 winner, but due to some earlier losses finished the day up $308,500.
As far as big pots go, the biggest actually happened between Blom and Kostritsyn. It happened in a hand of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha when Kostritsyn ($65,399.50) opened for $1,800 and then called a three-bet to $5,400 by Blom ($122,494.60). When the flop came down 9♥3♠5♣ Blom bet $7,200, Kostritsyn called, and the K♥ hit the turn. Kostritsyn called another bet from the Swede, this time $15,600, and the 5♥ completed the board on the river. This time Blom checked and then called Kostritsyn’s shove of $37,199.50. Kostritsyn tabled the 8♥3♥2♥4♦ for a flush, and it was good enough to win the $130,799 pot as Blom sent his cards to the muck.
Plenty of Cash Game Action on Sunday
For years, Sundays have been the day for online tournaments. As a result, the cash game action tends to be lacking. That wasn’t the case this past week as plenty of different games spread. Here are some highlights from Sunday’s action:
There were three six-figure winners in Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (+$161,100), Gus Hansen (+$134,300), and “Lottenice” (+$114,100).
Galfond’s win came from playing 2.5 hours of $200/$400 CAP PLO. At one point he was up approximately $75,000 at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables against “taktloss47,” but then his opponent hit an upswing and ended up winning $37,000 from Galfond.
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom played at three tables of $500/$1,000 2-7 triple draw, and surprisingly the game didn’t result in any big winners. That said, Blom did finish with a profit on Sunday, albeit for a modest $11,700.
Hansen played an hour of fixed-limit Omaha hi/low (FLO8) against Kyle “KPR16” Ray and won $143,000 in 121 hands.
The $50/$100 and $200/$400 games spread over on PokerStars, and “Lottenice” ended up the biggest beneficiary. He won $70,000 by playing against “Trueteller” at three heads-up tables $200/$400 stakes, which is where the day’s biggest pot came from (check it out below):
