The Online Railbird Report: Blom Drives Action While Kostritsyn Wins On PokerStars

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Oct 10, 2014 4 min read

Whenever there are big land-based poker events taking place, the online high-stakes cash games seem to dawdle. With the World Poker Tour Alpha8 London, UKIPT Isle of Man, UKIPT London, European Poker Tour London, and of course the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific all going on, it’s no surprise it was a slow week.

Fortunately, between the limited high-stakes action on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker there was enough to keep the Online Railbird Report entertaining.

That’s thanks in no small part to Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who was driving much of the action. Blom played on both sites and actually walked away a $117,457 (32 sessions/7,318 hands) and $67,955 (10 sessions/2,338 hands) winner on Full Tilt and PokerStars, respectively. The only player to do better was Alexander Kostritsyn, who finished as the week’s biggest winner.

We’re used to seeing him play on Full Tilt under the “PostflopAction” moniker, and while he certainly did that this past week, Kostritsyn actually made his mark over at PokerStars. That is where he won $270,716 in 4,111 hands over 33 sessions under his “joiso” screen name.

Other winners included Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz (+$115,599 in 8 sessions/1,382 hands) and Doug “WCGRider” Polk (+$93,620 in 8 sessions/417 hands), who both won on Full Tilt Poker. It’s worth noting that last week’s biggest winner, Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker, was nowhere to be found this week.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, “Sanlker,” who was the second-biggest loser last week after dropping $343,510, was this week’s biggest loser after finishing $576,753 in the red. That came in 3,928 hands over 15 sessions on Full Tilt.

Other losers included Phil “Polarizing” Ivey (-$122,352 in 7 sessions/354 hands) and “bajskorven” (-$88,937 in 1,148 hands over 3 sessions).

Blom Drives the Action; Kostritsyn Shines on PokerStars

We don’t see much of Blom on PokerStars these days, but at the end of September the Swede finished ninth in the 2014 World Championship of Online Poker for $107,100. On Sunday, Oct. 5, Blom was back on PokerStars playing the $500/$1,000 2-7 triple draw tables. It was there that he won $34,000, more than half of which came from “RaulGonzalez.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Blom also won $77,000 on Full Tilt Poker at the $500/$1,000 and $1,000/$2,000 2-7 triple draw tables. He won $30,500 at the former against “Sanlker,” but then “Sanlker” won $55,000 back at the higher stakes. Fortunately for Blom, he battled back to finish as a winner.

Blom was the biggest winner between the two sites, but the biggest single-site winner was Kostritsyn, who won $85,600 playing $200/$400 mixed on PokerStars.

One day later, Blom was back at the Full Tilt Poker 2-7 triple draw tables as well as at the fixed-limit Omaha hi-lo (FLO8) tables. He played four sessions against “Sanlker” at triple draw, winning $289,000, and then later on in the day added $162,200 and $88,000 2-7 wins against Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby and Sebastian “taktloss47” Ruthenberg, respectively. Toss in a $109,800 win against “Carlooo13” at the $2,000/$4,000 FLO8 tables, and Blom ended the day a $592,300 winner.

Here are some other highlights from Monday’s action as pointed out by HighStakesDB:

Kostritsyn won $183,900 — $22,700 from Blom and $147,300 from Ivey. It took just 50 minutes for him to win against Ivey, who was obviously playing from England while in the midst of his edge-sorting trial.
Polk won $93,600 in 1,162 hands against “bajskorven” at the $50/$100 no-limit hold’em tables.

Blom and Thuritz Battle for Six-Figure Pots in Tuesday Tussle

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, Blom was driving the action at the 2-7 triple draw and 8-game tables. He played against various opponents for over 12 hours, but after all that time he ended a modest $27,000 winner. However, while playing three tables of 8-game against Thuritz, who won $92,800 on the day, the two played some big pots. Here’s a look at the top three:

Hand #1: In a hand of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha, Thuritz ($162,152.25) opened for $1,800 on the button and then called when Blom ($100,993.65) three-bet to $5,400, which brought about a flop of J♥Q♠A♣. Blom led out for $7,200, Thuritz called, and the 4♣ appeared on the turn. Blom bet again, this time $18,600, and again Thuritz just called.

When the 8♣ completed the board on the river, Blom slowed down with a check, but he called when Thuritz bet $54,000. Thuritz tabled the Q♣7♣K♥4♦ for a runner-runner flush, and it was good enough to win the $170,400 pot as Blom sent his cards to the muck.

Hand #2: In a hand of $300/$600 no-limit hold’em, Blom ($181,625.50) opened for $1,800 and was met by a three-bet to $6,000 from Thuritz ($72,248.50). Blom pushed back with a four-bet to $13,800, Thuritz five-bet jammed, and Blom called to create a pot of $144,497.

Blom: A♣K♠
Thuritz: A♦A♠

The two agreed to run it twice, but neither the A♥Q♣4♦3♠K♦ board on the first run nor 9♠7♦8♠3♦10♥ on the second helped Blom, and he watched Thuritz scoop the pot.

Hand #3:

Biggest Winners/Losers from Oct. 1-8

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn	$270,716	“Sanlker”	-$576,753
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$117,457	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	-$122,352
Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz	$115,599	“bajskorven”	-$88,937
Doug “WCGRider” Polk	$93,620	“KingSp00k”	-$28,656

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Dan “jungleman12” Cates	$2,809,789	Gus Hansen	$5,522,853
Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz	$2,397,929	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	$2,398,664
Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius	$1,757,199	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$1,401,491
Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton	$1,299,576	Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion	$1,137,765
Doug “WCGRider” Polk	$1,110,009	Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond	$1,082,089
Christoph “Tight-Man1” Vogelsang	$663,177	Paul “MalACEsia” Phua	$823,325