The Online Railbird Report: Kibler-Melby Wins Big, Ivey vs. Thuritz, and More

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Dec 12, 2014 5 min read

December is nearly halfway over, which means there’s just two weeks left in the race to become online poker’s biggest winner of 2014. All year long we’ve been brining you weekly updates in the Online Railbird Report, which recaps the high-stakes action on both Full Tilt and PokerStars.

As of last week’s report, Dan “jungleman12” Cates sits atop the leaderboard with $2,806,158 in profit. Meanwhile, Gus Hansen lingers at the opposite end a massive $5,466,295 loser.

Neither of those players was spotted on the virtual felt this week, which opened the door for some other players to play catch up. To that end, no one did better than Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby, who was the week’s biggest winner with $479,492 in profit from 2,353 hands spread across 17 sessions.

Others who did well were “Sanlker” (+$470,628 in 14 sessions/3,185 hands), who you may recall as last week’s biggest winner with nearly $600,000 in profit; pot-limit Omaha beast Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene (+$298,628 in 2,054 hands/10 sessions); and “AthaCliath,” who pipped last week’s $225,000 win by banking $237,197 in 4,192 hands over 49 sessions.

On the flip side, it was a disastrous week for Phil “Polarizing” Ivey, who dropped $807,404 in 5,187 hands over 26 sessions. PokerNews previously touched upon Ivey’s downswing, which you can read about by clicking here.

Ivey was far and away the week’s biggest loser, but four others ended up losing over $200,000 including “bajskorven” (-$266,460 in 8 sessions/1,950 hands), “KingSp00k” (-$219,591 in 19 sessions/1,647 hands), “Trueteller” (-$207,373 in 11 sessions/1,183 hands), and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$201,151 in 23 sessions/2,685 hands).

Thuritz Cleans Up in Mixed Games

The Online Railbird Report: Kibler-Melby Wins Big, Ivey vs. Thuritz, and More 101 — Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz

On Sunday, Dec. 7, Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz and Ivey squared off at the mixed-game tables. The duo played two sessions, the first of which lasted 64 hands and saw Thuritz win $23,800 in 20 minutes. Later in the day, the two returned for a lengthier eight-hour session and once again things went the Swede’s way.

Thuritz jumped out to the lead straight away, and after about five hours he was up $200,000. Ivey got a little back, but Thuritz still banked more than $135,000 to bring his total haul up to $159,100, which was enough to make him the day’s biggest winner.

Here’s a look at three notable pots from that match, all of which occurred in rounds of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha.

Hand #1: Ivey ($68,285.25) opened for $1,800 on the button and then called after Thuritz ($126,581.25) three-bet to $5,400, which brought about a flop of 4♦9♦7♥. Thuritz led out for $7,200, Ivey called, and the 7♣ paired the board on the turn. Thuritz bet again, this time $9,600, and Ivey came along to see the 2♠ river. Thuritz fired out a hefty $33,600, and Ivey called only to muck when his opponent rolled over the 7♠9♠8♠10♣ for a full house. Ship the $111,600 pot to Thuritz.

Hand #2: Ivey ($41,147) raised to $1,800 only to have Thuritz ($258,548) three-bet to $5,400. Not to be outdone, Ivey four-bet to $16,200, Thuritz called, and the flop came down 5♥5♦4♥. Thuritz checked, Ivey bet all in for $24,947, and Thuritz made a quick call.

Ivey: A♦9♦7♠K♠
Thuritz: 5♣6♥7♥8♥

Thuritz had flopped trips with a straight flush draw, which had Ivey absolutely crushed. Neither the J♠ turn nor 10♥ river helped Ivey, and he watched the $82,294 pot pushed to Thuritz.

Hand #3: Thuritz ($146,463.90) opened for $1,200 and then called Ivey’s ($27,427.10) three-bet to $3,600. When the flop fell 6♠J♥2♠, Ivey bet $7,200, Thuritz called, and the 10♣ appeared on the turn. Ivey moved all in for his last $16,627.10 and Thuritz called.

Ivey: A♦A♠8♦2♣
Thuritz: 6♦4♥9♥8♣

Ivey’s aces were out in front, but Thuritz had plenty of outs. He found one too as the 6♥ spiked on the river to give him trips and the $54,854.20 pot.

Interestingly, things went even better for Thuritz, who also put in some time playing $800/$1,600 mixed on PokerStars, where he plays under “ChaoRen160.” Thuritz played heads up against Vladimir “GVODZIKA55” Shchemelev and won $107,000. Some other profits on the site brought Thuritz’s PokerStars winnings up to $137,800, meaning he won nearly $300,000 on Sunday.

Kibler-Melby Cleans Up in Monday Action

The Online Railbird Report: Kibler-Melby Wins Big, Ivey vs. Thuritz, and More 102 — Cort Kibler-Melby

Kibler-Melby finished as the week’s biggest overall winner, and nearly all of his profit came from a four-hour stretch on Monday. It was then that Kibler-Melby was seated at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables against the likes of Ivey, “Sanlker,” and “Trueteller.”

Kibler-Melby put in 504 hands and managed to win $333,900 off his opponents, with Ivey taking the brunt of it with a $304,000 loss. Combined with $60,000 Kibler-Melby had won earlier in the afternoon, he was able to finish as the day’s biggest winner by a huge margin; in fact, the next biggest winner was Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky, who won a more modest $85,400 playing $400/$800 mixed for six hours on PokerStars.

“KingSp00k” Loses Chat Privileges After Going Off on “AthaCliath”

It was also on Monday that “AthaCliath” won $163,000 from “KingSp00k” playing $200/$400 Cap PLO. The loss must have tilted “KingSp00k” as he launched into a tirade, one that ultimately resulted in him losing his chat privileges for five minutes. Here’s the exchange as reported by HighStakesDB:

KingSp00k: UR SUCVHA F KING JOKE
KingSp00k: HOW FKING BAD R U
KingSp00k: SERIOSULY
AthaCliath: bad
AthaCliath: down 400k lifetime on ftp

KingSp00k: back in 5-10 minutes
KingSp00k: run fkign better
KingSp00k: my fking god
KingSp00k: FUKGIN SHOCKER
KingSp00k: JESUS CHRIST UR A FKING JOKE
KingSp00k: SO FKIGN RIGGED
KingSp00k: GO FKING DIE
KingSp00k: FKING KILL YOURSE;F
KingSp00k: FKKKKKK UUU
Chat Monitor (Support): KingSp00k has lost their chat privilege for 5 minutes. Inappropriate language is not tolerated.
KingSp00k: U R THE BIGGEST FKIKNG JOKE
KingSp00k: u play so fkign bad

Patrik Antonius vs. “Patriktortonius”

We wouldn’t fault you if you mistakenly thought Full Tilt Poker’s “Patriktortonius” was poker pro Patrik Antonius, but that’s just not the case as the Finnish star actually plays under the moniker “FinddaGrind.” Indeed, the two are separate people, and on Tuesday, Dec. 9 they played heads-up against one another at the $1,000/$2,000 8-game tables.

The two played for nearly 700 hands over four hours, and Antonius led every step of the way. At one point he even snagged the day’s biggest pot, which as HighStakesDB points out, “Patriktortonius” folded despite getting better than 140:1 odds. Check it out:

Here is some other noteworthy news from Tuesday’s action:

”bbvisbadforme” was the day’s second-biggest winner after profiting $123,000 playing Phil “Polarizing” Ivey and “Kagome Kagome” at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables.
”AthaCliath” won $117,700 playing $200/$400 CAP PLO. Most of it came off Dani “Ansky451” Stern.
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby won $107,800 in approximately 30 minutes playing 2-7 triple draw.

Biggest Winners/Losers from Dec. 5-Dec. 11

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby	$479,492	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	$807,404
“Sanlker”	$470,628	“bajskorven”	$266,460
Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene	$298,628	“KingSp00k”	$219,591
“AthaCliath”	$237,197	“Trueteller”	$207,373
Kyle “KPR16” Ray	$217,358	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$201,151
Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius	$199,081	“Denoking”	$180,010

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Dan “jungleman12” Cates	$2,806,158	Gus Hansen	$5,466,295
Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz	$2,493,723	Phil “Polarizing” Ivey	$2,574,887
Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius	$1,704,154	Viktor “Isildur1” Blom	$1596,491
Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton	$1,277,272	Elior “Crazy Elior” Sion	$1,222,910
Doug “WCGRider” Polk	$1,077,969	Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond	$1,082,089
“EireAbu”	$814,804	Paul “MalACEsia” Phua	$823,325
Christoph “Tight-Man1” Vogelsang	$676,317	Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky	$687,215