The Online Railbird Report: Phil "Polarizing" Ivey Drops $945K; Galfond Wins & More

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Apr 05, 2014 4 min read Last updated Apr 06, 2014

There was plenty of high-stakes action on Full Tilt Poker this week, and it resulted in four of the biggest names in poker each losing six figures.

The biggest loser (we can’t say that often) turned out to be Phil “Polarizing” Ivey, who lost $945,412 in 7,982 hands over 71 sessions playing primarily 2-7 triple draw and pot-limit Omaha. Then came Dan “jungleman12” Cates, who saw his yearly lead drop by $765,480 over 2,727 hands in 28 sessions. Likewise, both Gus Hansen (-$465,366 in 119 sessions/15,064 hands) and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$268,427 in 140 sessions/14,162 hands) finished in the red.

The week’s biggest winner was Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker, who has opted out of having his long-term results being tracked. Heinecker is up $973,498 in 7,360 hands this week. The next biggest winner was “samrostan,” who profited $464,096 in 8,190 hands over 76 sessions. Additionally, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond righted the ship from last week by winning $268,184 in 6,490 hands over 50 sessions, while Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion ($160,996 in 28 sessions/4,991 hands) and Jens “Ingenious89” Kyllönen ($127,322 in 30 sessions/1,135 hands) also booked solid wins.

Galfond Finishes Out Last Week Strong; Some $300/$600 NLHE Action

On Thursday, March 27, Galfond topped the daily leaderboard for the second day in a row. Galfond started his early-morning sessions winning $597,000 at the 2-7 triple draw tables, but he ended up giving $339,000 of it back a little later on. Even so, he still finished the day $318,200 in the black.

Thursday also saw some $300/$600 no-limit hold’em spread, which saw both “Denoking” and “Trueteller” clean up to the tune of $174,600 and $157,500, respectively. Not surprisingly, the duo took down the two biggest pots of the day. Have a look.

Hand #1: Six players were at the table when action folded to “Rhje” ($186,060.30)) on the button. He promptly raised to $1,200, which “Denoking” ($116,090.30) three-bet to $4,800 from the small blind. Not to be outdone, “Rhje” four-bet to $13,200, “Denoking” five-bet to $28,400, and then “Rhje” moved all in. “Denoking” called off and the two agreed to run it twice.

“Denoking”: A♣A♥
“Rhje”: Q♥Q♣

The K♣J♥10♣ flop on the first run gave “Rhje” an open-ended straight draw, but of course “Denoking” killed two of his outs. Neither the 7♥ turn nor 5♦ river ended up completing it, and “Denoking” locked up half the pot.

The 5♥9♣6♦ flop on the second run wasn’t nearly as kind to “Rhje,” and the J♦ turn meant he needed a lady on the river. That didn’t happen as the 6♥ blanked and “Denoking” scooped the $233,378 pot.

Hand #2: Action was once again six handed when “MalACEsia” ($237,614.85) opened for $1,200 from the hijack and was met by a three-bet to $4,200 from “Trueteller” (94,710.30) in the cutoff. Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar called from the small blind, the big folded, and “MalACEsia” responded by four-betting to $16,000. “Trueteller” five-bet to $28,800, Millar folded, and “MalACEsia” moved all in. “Trueteller” called off and the cards were turned up.

“MalACEsia”: A♥K♦
“Trueteller”: K♠K♣

“Trueteller” was looking to dodge an ace to win the $194,218, which is exactly what he did when the board ran out a dry 6♥J♠7♦9♥3♥.

Luneau’s Turn to Dominate 2-7

The $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw games from Thursday ran straight into Friday, which is when Alex “Alexonmoon” Luneau cleaned up and finished atop the daily leader board with $529,900 in profit. That said, a couple others did quite well for themselves too including Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker ($214,100) and Sebastian “taktloss47” Ruthenberg ($161,600).

Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker On a Rush

Earlier this week we told you how 2013’s biggest online winner, Germany's Heinecker, won $754,750 in a 48-hour period playing $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables. He actually managed to push that closer to $1.4 million in three days as he was down $388,830 on March 30 and then up $976,580 on April 2.

We won’t go into the details as you can read all about it in our dedicated article. As you can see, Heinecker’s graph from the week was quite impressive. Check it out:

The Online Railbird Report: Phil "Polarizing" Ivey Drops 5K; Galfond Wins & More 101

Three Big Winners in Tuesday PLO Action

On Tuesday, April 1, The pot-limit Omaha tables were going strong and saw several players emerge as six-figure winners including Hac “trex313” Dang (+$255,500), Jens “Ingenious89” Kyllönen (+$131,700), and Ola “no_Ola” Amundsgard (+$134,700).

Have a look at the biggest pot of the day:

In the second-biggest pot of the day, which actually took place at a $400/$800 NLHE table, action was heads up between “Sanlker” ($151,547.50) and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom ($128,143.40) when the former opened for $2,400 and the latter three-bet to $8,000. “Sanlker” responded by four-betting to $19,200, Blom called, and the flop came down J♠4♥8♣.

Blom check-called a bet of $13,500, the 9♠ turned, and Blom checked for a second time. “Sanlker” bet $24,000, Blom called, and the 8♦ completed the board on the river. The Swede checked for a third and final time and ended up folding when “Sanlker” moved all in for $94,847.50. Ship the $113,700 pot to “Sanlker.”

Bonus Hand of the Week

On Thursday, April 3, “Kagome Kagome” finished as the day’s biggest winner after banking $369,300 at the 2-7 triple draw tables; however, the day’s biggest pot came from a $300/$600 NLHE table between “Denoking” and Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton. Have a look:

Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)

Week's Biggest Winners (3/27-4/3): Niklas "ragen70" Heinecker (+$973,498), “samrostan” (+$464,096), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (+$268,184), Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion (+$160,996), Jens “Ingenious89” Kyllönen (+$127,322)

Week's Biggest Losers (3/27-4/3): Phil “Polarizing” Ivey (-$945,412), Dan “jungleman12” Cates (-$765,480), Gus Hansen (-$465,366), Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$268,427)

Year's Biggest Winners: Dan "jungleman12" Cates (+$858,687), Doug "WCGRider" Polk (+$760,028), “mikki696" (+$549,000), "Tight-Man1" (+$462,119), Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion* (+$379,135), Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (+$356,559)

Year's Biggest Losers: Gus Hansen (-$2,784,306), Phil “Polarizing” Ivey (-$1,069,783), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$874,640), Patrik "FinddaGrind" Antonius (-$587,759), Alex "IReadYrSoul" Millar (-$548,707), “samrostan” (-$476,595)

_{*Denotes PokerStars}

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

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Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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