The Online Railbird Report: Kostritsyn Wins Big, Hansen Punts, and Dwan Eats Crawfish

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May 23, 2014 5 min read Last updated May 29, 2014

There are only a couple of weeks in between the conclusion of PokerStars' Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and the start of the World Series of Poker, and the online cash game grinder grinders took advantage of it this week as the games were in full swing over at Full Tilt Poker.

Last week, Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn finished as the biggest winner with $547,804 in profit, and he topped that performance this week with a $742,509 win in 7,641 hands over 46 sessions, which was enough to make him the biggest winner for the second week in a row.

Other winners included "punting-peddler" (+$650,488 in 27 sessions/4,471 hands), Phil "Polarizing" Ivey (+$507,238 in 70 sessions/9,510 hands), "Osama_no_Brunch" (+$245,457 in 30 sessions/30,63 hands), and Elior "Crazy Elior" Scion (+$242,852 in 7 sessions/1,150 hands).

Despite winning nearly a million in two days – which you can read about below — Gus Hansen finished as the week's biggest loser with $713,100 in losses that came from 10,628 hands over 63 sessions. Other losers included Hac "trex313" Dang (-$575,220 in 47 sessions/5,442 hands), Kyle "KPR16" Ray (-$558,944 in 33 sessions/6,623 hands), and Alex "Alexonmoon" Luneau (-$508,304 in 49 sessions/6,139 hands). Luneau lost $446,803 the week before, so he is down nearly a million in two weeks.

Ivey Keeps the Ball Rolling in Friday Action

Last week, Phil "Polarizing" Ivey won $338,069, which helped ease his $589,730 loss the week before. On Friday, May 16, Ivey kept the heater going as he added $426,000 to his bankroll.

That was enough to make him the day's biggest winner, a title he took on three separate days last week. Ivey began Friday by winning $49,000 off Kyle "KPR16" Ray at the fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo (FLO8) tables, and then took another $144,000 from Ray later in the evening.

Ivey also won $277,100 playing $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw for six hours against the likes of Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, and Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou, just to name a few. Another winner from that came was Cort "thecortster" Kibler-Melby who won $169,000.

In other Friday news, Alexander "Postflopaction" Kostritsyn won $190,700 playing for two hours at the $1,500/$3,000 8-Game tables. However, he ended up losing a little back to finish the day a $142,500 winner. Likewise, Niki Jedlicka won $102,300 playing the same game.

The Saturday Mixed Games Bonanza

On Saturday, May 17, the mixed games were in full swing, and there were quite a few highlights. Check them out:

• Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou was the day's biggest winner after profiting $357,300 playing both FLO8 and 2-7 triple draw.
• "punting-peddler" was the day's second-biggest winner after banking $286,200. More than half of that — $193,000 to be exact – came from 276 hands of 8-Game at table Hudson against players that included Phil "Polarizing" Ivey, Alex "Alexonmoon" Luneau, and Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn.
• Hac "trec313" Dang won $215,900 playing both 2-7 triple draw and 8-Game, with the latter game providing $150,000 of his winnings.
• Ivey got off to a bad start on Saturday as he found himself a $160,000 loser, but he stormed back and ended up getting it all back plus an additional $190,000. That came in no small part to a $171,000 win at the $1,500/$3,000 8-Game tables.
• Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond won $114,500 playing 2-7 triple draw, all of which came from a morning match against Viktor "Isildur1" Blom.

Hansen Can't Keep It Together

Earlier this week, we told you how Gus Hansen started the week by winning $482,264 after three days of play.

According to that report, Hansen's march to the top of the week's biggest winners list started already on Sunday, when the 1,465 poker hands he played in 18 sessions brought him winnings for $546,688. On Monday, he finished as the day's biggest winner for the second consecutive day after winning $692,000 in 2,359 hands played over 15 different sessions.

Unfortunately for Hansen, who is currently 2014's biggest online loser, he went on to finish as Tuesday's biggest loser after dropping $756,264 in 3,917 hands over 12 sessions.

Here's a look at Gus Hansen's results from May 13-20:

In addition, here is a look at Tuesday's biggest pot, which Hansen got unlucky to lose:

Dwan Enjoys Crawfish Wednesday

We haven't had the chance to write about Tom "durrrr" Dwan in the Online Railbird Report this year, but something happened on Wednesday that we thought was worth sharing. Unfortunately it didn't take place on the virtual felt, but it involved Dwan and another notable online player, Di" Urindanger" Dang, the brother of Hac "trex313" Dang.

Dwan was in Virginia at Chasin' Tails Cajun Seafood and Bar, a business Dang opened after Black Friday took away his primary source of income. Dwan even tweeted a picture with the caption: "Was at @chasintailscf" in Arlington. Urindanger from ftp next to me in the goofy pink shirt. From 500-1k to crawfish."

Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn Wins $317,700 In a 7-Hour Session Against Gus Hansen

Wednesday was another exciting day at the nosebleeds, with Russia's Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn finishing as the day's biggest winner after putting together a profit of $281,000, mostly at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables.

During the day, Kostritsyn engaged in an epic seven-hour heads-up battle against Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen, a battle that the Russian player closed with winnings of $317,700.

The game against Hansen has seen both players taking turns to run a rollercoaster, with Kostritsyn taking an early lead and a six-digit profit already soon after the start. Right after that, Hansen tried his best to get back on his feet and managed to climb up recovering from all of his losses at the table when the clock marked the fourth hour of play.

Yet, the game went on, and during the last three hour of this memorable session, Kostritsyn went on yet another great run that allowed him to close the table with a profit of $317,700.

Here's Alexander Kostritsyn's impressive graph from his last seven days online:

The day closed on the positive side also for Viktor "Isildur1" Blom as the Swede managed to put together a $182,600 profit. Most of Blom's winnings came from the 2-7 triple draw tables, as in one session at the $2,000/$4,000 Upper table, Blom managed to win $149,500 playing against Hansen, Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou, "Osama_no_Brunch," and Hac "trex313" Dang.

Week's Biggest Winners/Losers (May 16-22, 2014)

Winners	Profit		Losers	Loss
Alex "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn	$742,509		Gus Hansen	$713,110
"punting-peddler"	$650,488		Hac "trex313" Dang	$575,220
Phil "Polarizing" Ivey	$507,238		Kyle "KPR16" Ray	$558,944
"Osama_no_Brunch"	$245,457		Alex "Alexonmoon" Luneau	$508,304
Elior "Crazy Elior" Scion	$242,852		Sebastian "takloss47" Ruthenberg	$377,748

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit		Losers	Loss
Dan "jungleman12" Cates	$1,355,295		Gus Hansen	$3,860,874
Niki Jedlicka	$1,244,033		Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou	$2,000,411
Alex "Alexonmoon" Luneau	$832,788		Viktor "Isildur1" Blom	$1,837,775
Patrik "FinddaGrind" Antonius	$804,942		Phil "Polarizing" Ivey	$1,639,239
Doug "WCGRider" Polk	$755,773		Elior "Crazy Elior" Sion	$950,531
Christoph "Tight-Man1" Vogelsang	$661,022		Paul "MalACEsia" Phua	$823,325

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

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• Tags Alexander Kostritsyn Full Tilt Poker Gus Hansen Isildur1 Online Poker Phil Ivey Railbird Report Tom Dwan Viktor Blom
• Related Players Phil IveyAlexander KostritsynGus HansenTom DwanViktor Blom