Railbird Report: Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies is Back

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Oct 26, 2017 7 min read

Flashback: It's 2009 and Full Tilt Poker is the poker site where all the high-stakes action is. No-limit hold'em and pot limit Omaha are both popular, and tables with blinds of $500 and $1,000 are busy. Full ring action is common, ultra-high stakes 6-max tables fill up rather quickly.

On one of those tables, the action is already heating up as the player "Luck123" takes his seat. Instead of posting, he waits until he's in the big blind to join the game. While already at the table, but not involved in the action just yet, he greets the table with a sincere "Hi everyone!"

For a moment, the chat box remains quiet. Then, out of nowhere, the player with the screen name "Ziigmund" responds: "f u Luck!"

The railbirds, still abundant at the time, go mental. They love it! "Ziigmund", real name Ilari Sahamies, quickly grows into a cult hero for the people that follow along with the high stakes. Sahamies is abrasive, both at the table and in the chat. He gets into banter with just about everyone. His chat privileges get revoked often, but he gets them back every time.

The high time of Sahamies' online adventures was at the end of 2009. In December of that year, he was up $6,860,000 on Full Tilt. The year that followed wasn't as good. In March of 2011, he had dropped $6 million, leaving him up "only" $840,000 lifetime. He lost a bit more before quitting Full Tilt Poker as the action died down. On PokerStars, where he plays under the moniker "Ilari FIN", he's up $1.3 million since 2011.

Since 2015, Sahamies has been relatively quiet. He still plays online, but only sporadically on the high stakes tables. This week, though, he made a surprise appearance in the Top 10 of biggest winners, banking $68,335 in 3,910 hands. We celebrate Sahamies' return to the list of winners with a trip down memory lane, reminiscing the greatest and most offensive of chat banter we've seen from him. And while the Full Tilt Poker screen name has long been retired, we'll keep on calling him "Ziigmund".

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies Chat

J.C. "OnTheRize" Tran
Ziigmund: good slowroll
OnTheRize: slow internet
Ziigmund: u guys r f omg tilt
OnTheRize: all day
OnTheRize: u know it
Ziigmund: f u

David Benyamine
Ziigmund: your wife is in very good shape
Ziigmund: she is nice too
Ziigmund: so she is very much unlike you
Ziigmund: joking man
Ziigmund: u r cool

Gus Hansen
Ziigmund: gus is from czech rebubplik
Ziigmund: from ROMANIA HE IS
Ziigmund: gus should sing in eurovision..team chez romanisa
Ziigmund: czech rebuplic singer from eurovision gay bar GUSTAV HANSEN
Ziigmund: Gustav likes to sing karaoke with his gipsy friends

Hac "Trex313" Dang
Ziigmund: wp f idiot
trex313: shut up crybaby
Ziigmund: fu
Ziigmund: f retard
Ziigmund: u should be your countrys president....same skills same intelligence
Ziigmund: R u typical american.....fat ,lazy and totally idiot?
Ziigmund: call to dr phil f moron

Cole "CTS" South
Ziigmund: as gay as u look
Cole South: lol
Ziigmund: gay boi

Observers
Ziigmund: why u ask so f stupid questiosn
Ziigmund: u have to be american,only usa people r so stupid
Ziigmund: BUSH IS SO F CLEVER U RETARDS
Ziigmund: americans dont know where is finland u retards fat idiots

Aeron73
Aeron73: ups
Ziigmund: shut up moron
Ziigmund: hope u die
Aeron73: thats not very nice
Ziigmund: f u

If you have some time to spare, there's some great material from Sahamies online. You can see him do the tequila Stunt Man (snort the salt, lime in the eye), see him leave the Helsinki Freeze Out heads up to take a leak, almost crying when he returns and finds out he was blinded off. Or watch him 6-bet Q♣8♣ 3-handed in an EPT Main Event, rapping, compete on the Finish fear factor, beat Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan in the old Poker After Dark and see him battle that same Dwan in the Million Dollar Challenge in London:

Sahamies' Biggest Pot Online

The biggest online pot Sahamies won in his career was played against Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. On Nov. 29, 2009, the two played heads up $500/$1,000 Omaha 354 big blinds deep.

Blom opened the button for $3,000 and called as Sahamies 3-bet to $9,000. Sahamies bet pot for $18,000 on 10♣Q♥3♣ and Blom was quick to raise to $56,000. Sahamies called.

Sahamies check-called another $96,000 on the K♠ turn and checked again on the 4♥ river. With $322,000 in the middle already, Blom pushed while having Sahamies covered. Sahamies called all in for $193,494.

Blom showed 3♥6♦2♠A♣ for a bluff gone awry. Sahamies tabled Q♠J♠9♦J♥ for a straight with two blockers to the nuts and took down the massive pot.

Catching Up on High Stakes Action: Three Biggest Pots Online

While Sahamies made his return to the winner circle, he wasn't a participant in the three biggest pots of the week. Here's who was:

1) "JayP-AA" Wins a $76,224 Pot (762 Big Blinds) from "Venividi1993"
^{($50/$100 PLO Heads Up)}

On October 23rd, 2017, JayP-AA" and "Venividi1993" squared off against each other on table Rauma, a $50/$100 PLO heads up table. The biggest hand of the session went as followed.

"JayP-AA" opened the button for $340 and "Venividi1993" 3-bet to $1,060. "JayP-AA" called to see a flop with $2,200 in the middle to fight for.

On J♥10♥5♠, "Venividi1993" bet $1,400. "JayP-AA" raised to $5,264 and "Venividi1993" called.

As the 7♣ hit the turn and with $12,728 already in the pot, "Venividi1993" bet out again. This time, leading into "JayP-AA" who had raised the flop, a bet of $10,783 was pushed forward. "JayP-AA" called.

The river 3♦ completed the board and "Venividi1993" shoved all in for $20,964 into the pot worth $34,294. "JayP-AA" called holding J♣3♣A♣J♦ for top set. Fortunately for him, "Venividi1993" didn't show an eight-nine and only had two blockers to that hand with 10♠K♥8♠8♥. A pot worth over 760 big blinds to "JayP-AA".

2) Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov Wins a $59,831 Pot (299 Big Blinds) from Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger
^{($100/$200 NLHM 3-handed)}

On table Delvaux, again on October 23rd, some of the best players in the world played each other in the good ol' game of no limit hold'em. Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger, Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov, and Jonas "OtB_RedBaron" Mols played 3-handed $100/$200.

Loeliger opened the button for $506 and small blind Kuznetsov 3-bet to $2,200. This got rid of big blind Mols, Loeliger called.

Kuznetsov checked on 5♠J♣4♥ and Loeliger bet $1,838 into $4,600. Kuznetsov check-raised to $6,400 and Loeliger called to grow the pot to $17,400.

The A♦ hit the turn and Kuznetsov bet a modest $6,100. Loeliger called, growing the pot to $29,600 leaving himself $15,115 behind.

The 3♣ completed the board and Kuznetsov shoved. Loeliger called with 4♠4♣ but would soon see the pot get moved to his opponent as Kuznetshov tabled 6♥7♥ for the nuts.

3) Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger Wins a $51,694 Pot (258 Big Blinds) from Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov
^{($100/$200 NLHM 6-Max)}

The third biggest hand of the week resulted in a chop as Loeliger and Kuznetsov got it on the river, both playing the straight on the board. The fourth biggest hand, did see one person take it all down.

Loeliger opened the button for $506 and small blind Mols folded. Big blind Kuznetsov 3-bet to $2,200 and called as Loeliger 4-bet to $5,200.

With already $10,500 in the middle, Kuznetsov checked on 7♠7♥Q♠. Loeliger bet $2,603 and Kuznetsov check-raised to $6,400. Loeliger pushed for $20,597 and Kuznetsov called.

Loeliger was a decent favorite and saw his hand hold up twice. The first time they ran the turn and river, it came 10♥, 9♥, the second time it came 2♣, 4♥. No spades on either turn or river and the pot went to Loeliger.

This Week's Online High-Stakes Biggest Winners and Losers

Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies is back. His good friend, whom he drank with three-handed in the EPT Barcelona Main Event back in 2012 only to finish in third and second place, Joni "bustoville" Jouhkimainen, ended up the biggest winner this week.

The 2017 Leaderboard

Not much has changed compared to last week. The Top 3 biggest winners and losers are unchanged. "BERRI SWEET" and the recently retied Dani "supernova9" Stern didn't play, while the others on this leaderboard only had small wins or losses.

The above top winning and losing players in online poker for 2017 only takes into consideration PokerStars accounts. All public data courtesy of HighStakesDB.com. If you want to opt out of being listed in this PokerNews update on the high-stakes action, send an email with your username to [email protected].

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