The Online Railbird Report: Sahamies Wins $362,733 to Climb Atop Yearly Leaderboard

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Feb 06, 2015 6 min read

Both Full Tilt and PokerStars played host to some big online cash games this week, but no one did better than Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies, who won $362,733 in 4,073 hands over 31 sessions on PokerStars.

Coming in second was Steven "Zugwat" Silverman, who was actually FTP's biggest winner with $250,721 in profit from 4,866 hands over 18 sessions. Another winner included "JayP-AA" — last week’s biggest winner with $204,576 — who banked $231,976 in 9,413 hands over 85 sessions.

On the flip side, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, who was last week’s biggest loser, had another bad week dropping $195,242 in 5,479 hands over 19 sessions on FTP. The only player to do worse was "AckmaJin," won lost $318,408 in 4,682 hands over 39 sessions on PokerStars.

Other losers included Benny "toweliestar" Spindler ($137,715 in 6 sessions/790 hands), "Patriktortonius" ($130,853 in 2 sessions/599 hands), and "Sanlker" ($120,150 in 1 sessions/679 hands).

Sahamies Closes Out January with $145,500 Win

On Jan. 31, Sahamies closed out the first month of the year by winning $145,500 at the $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha tables on PokerStars. It was there he played two tables for four and a half hours against a plethora of players including "AckmaJin," Ola "Odd_Oddsen" Amundsgard, and Spindler, just to name a few.

Here’s a look at two notable hands from the match:

Hand #1: Action was five-handed when "jricardosc" ($78,774.04) raised to $600 from the small blind and Sahamies ($106,660.60) called from the big blind to see a flop of A♦J♥8♣. Sahamies proceeded to call a bet of $800 from "jricardosc," and then called one of $2,000 on the 5♠ turn.

When the 3♦ completed the board on the river, "jricardosc" bet $4,600 and then called when Sahamies made it $20,595. Sahamies tabled the 4♥2♦2♣A♥ for the wheel, and "jricardosc" mucked before watching the $47,990 pot pushed to his opponent.

Hand #2: With four players sitting at the table, Sahamies ($32,399.68) raised to $700 from the button and "JayP-AA" ($24,755.40) three-bet to $2,200 from the big blind. Sahamies called, the flop came down 8♦7♦J♦, and "JayP-AA" bet $1,840.53. A call was made and then "JayP-AA" check-called bets of $4,100.99 and $14,999.99 on the 4♠ turn and Q♥, respectively. Sahamies tabled the K♦10♦Q♠8♣ for a king-high flush, and it was good enough to win the $46,383.12 pot as "JayP-AA" sent his cards to the muck.

All told Sahamies, who is currently 2015’s biggest online winner, closed out the opening month with $598,000 in profit.

Blom vs. Silverman at $1,000/$2,000 2-7 Triple Draw

On Monday, Feb. 2, Blom and Silverman played for well over 12 hours at the Full Tilt Poker $1,000/$2,000 2-7 triple draw tables. Over the course of 2,282 hands, Blom relieved his opponent of $134,000, which along with an earlier win made him the day’s biggest winner with $148,200 in profit.

According to HighStakesDB, who were tracking the match, Blom fell behind in the first five hours, often down roughly $40,000, but turned the ride in the late afternoon to take a six-figure lead. Still, Silverman battled back to even twice before Blom finally pulled out to a lead and held in over the last 752 hands of the match.

In other Monday news, Sahamies and Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond squared off at $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha. There, Sahamies won $79,000, which included the day’s biggest pot. Have a look:

Silverman Gets It Back

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, Blom and Silverman were back at it, but this time the result was different as Silverman won back $170,300 from his Swedish opponent. The duo played five sessions, and at first it looked like Blom was going to pick up right where he left off as he jumped out to a $120,000 lead in their first match. Fortunately for Silverman, he managed to mitigate his losses down to $32,000, and then won the subsequent four matches.

The Online Railbird Report: Sahamies Wins 2,733 to Climb Atop Yearly Leaderboard 101 — Ola Amundsgard

Here are some other highlights from Tuesday’s action according to HighStakesDB:

"Carlooo13" won $130,500 from "Patriktortonius" at the $500/$1,000 8-game tables;
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond won $119,700 in 680 hands of $1,000/$2,000 2-7 triple draw against "Sanlker";
Amundsgard was the day’s second-biggest winner after profiting $137,100 at the $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha tables in 11 hours.

Check out two of Amundsgard’s biggest hands below:

Hand #1: Action was six-handed when Amundsgard ($70,548.55) raised to $700 from the cutoff seat and "JayP-AA" ($19,379.83) three-bet to $2,400 from the button. Both blinds folded, Amundsgard called, and the flop fell 8♣6♦8♦. Amundsgard checked, "JayP-AA" bet $1,885.15, and Amundsgard woke up with a check-raise to $5,431.27.

"JayP-AA" made the call and then both players checked the A♥ turn. When the 6♣ completed the board on the river, Amundsgard checked and "JayP-AA" moved all in for $11,548.56. Amundsgard called with the A♣K♣J♥2♦ for aces and eights, and it won the $39,059.66 pot as "JayP-AA" missed his straight with the J♣9♣10♥7♥.

Hand #2: With six players at the table, "Lottenice" ($30,901.50) opened for $700 from under the gun and Amundsgard ($112,045.77) called from the button. "JayP-AA" ($6,930.18) and "jricardosc" ($15,060.07) came along from the small and big blind, respectively, and four players saw a flop of J♣Q♠A♥.

"JayP-AA" checked, "jricardosc" bet $1,800, and "Lottenice" folded. Amundsgard made the call, "JayP-AA" folded, and it was heads-up action to the 5♠ turn. Amundsgard proceeded to call a bet of $3,400 and then bet $13,195 after "jricardosc" checked the 2♣ river. "jricardosc" called off his last $9,160.07, but mucked just as soon as Amundsgard rolled over the 10♣K♥Q♣9♣ for a straight. Ship the $31,520.14 pot to the Norwegian.

Gus Hansen Says a "Serious Addressing" Needs to Happen

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, Gus Hansen, 2014’s biggest online loser — and online poker’s all-time biggest loser for that matter — took to Facebook again and addressed his absence from the virtual felt in 2015. The post mirrors Hansen's sentiments from January, that you can read here.

"It has been well documented about my losses recently. A serious addressing of all things poker needs to happen," Hansen admitted. "Table selection and tilt have been my biggest downfalls. Going to do some things 'different' this year. Really enjoyed my return home for the Copenhagen Bridge Invitational and might be back in Europe mid-February to take on some games. A new focus is coming into play."

Overall the comments on the post were positive and supportive, with baseball legend and poker advocate Orel Hershiser even chiming in: "Full support to someone I think is brilliant."

Only time will tell if Hansen, who also missed this year’s Aussie Millions in Melbourne, will be back at the nosebleeds.

Even though he hasn’t been killing it online, rest assured the "Great Dane" still knows how to crush it at the Pac-Man arcade machine just like he did in this classic PokerNews video:

Biggest Winners/Losers from Jan. 29 through Feb. 3

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies	$362,733	"AckmaJin"	$318,408
Steven "Zugwat" Silverman	$250,721	Viktor "Isildur1" Blom	$195,242
"JayP-AA"	$231,976	Benny "toweliestar" Spindler	$137,715
"Trueteller"	$169,032	"Patriktortonius"	$130,853
"gunning4you"	$135,372	"Sanlker"	$120,150
Chun Lei "SamRostan" Zhou	$122,483	Cort "thecortster" Kibler-Melby	$115,457
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond	$119,683	"Sira Al Aziz"	$104,327

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies	$737,172	Viktor "Isildur1" Blom	$737,565
"JayP-AA"	$479,595	"CoeJassidy"	$255,450
Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky	$338,982	Phil "Polarizing" Ivey	$167,853
Vladimir "GVOZDIKA55" Shchemelev	$298,469	"flong78"	$44,488
"EireAbu"	$266,285	Ami "UhhMee" Barer	$36,025
"gunning4you"	$257,383	"ajve_xx"	$34,329
"Faith#1Virtu"	$220,490	"glos"	$33,432