Cash Game Explosion

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

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I was minding my own business after a casual day of live cash games/drinking when my trusty wifi-enabled communication devices began chirping and chiming away. Everyone who knew of my associate with The Tilt began texting and twittering about the cash games blowing up with huge pots, all the big game grinders were getting their “two cents” involved. Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Hold’em, and the 7-Game Mix table were packed with obscene amounts of honest-to-god real money cash that are unimaginable to the vast majority of the poker world. There are many huge poker players who won’t go near these levels.

I did what a respectable member of the poker community would do, especially one whose charter involves keeping an eye on the big games and big names. I found a way to fire up the Full Tilt Poker software and witness some of the craziness for myself. I found all the action spread across several different lobbies with the largest games being found in PLO and 7-game involving Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Brian Townsend, Cole South and Abe “EazyPeazy” Mosseri. Notably absent was new Tilter Tom “durrrr” Dwan who was in London preparing for, and playing in, his “durrrr Million Dollar Challenge”. The Challenge didn’t stop Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies from taking time from his preparations to get in a little action.

Most notably involved was the mysterious Isildur1, it seems all we can figure out about this player is that he’s from Sweden and he’s got a bit of the gamble in him. Isildur1 was a regular in the higher stakes but came out of the blue to blast away at the very highest levels running against those accustomed to the rarefied air. Before Dwan hopped a plane across the pond it was reported the Isildur1 came in an relieved his bankroll of over $3,000,000. His name has been mentioned by every outlet that covers poker and the race is on to find out his/her real identity. Dwan even went so far as to issue a challenge for him to become part of the Live Heads Up matches in London. Isildur1′s lack of response was his decline.

I have a habit of saying “Mother Variance is a right bitch” to just about anyone who brags about huge gains over a short amount of time, well that seems to have jumped up and bit poor Isildur1 a little over the last few nights. Patrik Antonius is not the player you want to run into when it’s your time to give a little back. Not only did Antonius give him a smack on the nose, he popped Isildur1 for the biggest pot in online poker history.

In all the bouncing around I actually managed to miss everything go down but my good friends over at PokerNews.com caught it all. Without digging into the forensic details of the hand, I’ll just tell you that Antonius and Isildur1 had all the money in on the turn with a chop the most likely outcome. Antonius hit one of his ten outs on the river and dragged the new record pot of $878,958.50. That is not your standard home game pot. For the full details of the hand (until I can finally get the hand replayer pasted into this spot), you can check out the PokerNews.com writeup.

That wasn’t the end of the beatdown for Isildur1 as Brian Townsend and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies also stepped up over the last few days trying to take a piece out of his bankroll. Dwan must be licking his chops in London, wanting to get back online and reclaim what was once his. It will be interesting to see how long Isildur1 can hang at these levels, he’s been getting chippy in the chat the last few days and it may doing a number on him already. These tables have been running each evening and are definitely worth checking out for pure entertainment value.

In Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge news, Dwan is currently 1 for 2 in his battle. He is playing three 12 hours Heads Up matches against Marcello “Luckexpress” Marigliano, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Sammy George at $500/$1000 PLO or NLHE. No player can leave the table before 500 hands or going busto. First up was Marigliano who finished with a narrow edge of just over $22,000 and then he defeated Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies by $68,000.

Playing at these stakes you could generally expect a much wider gap at the end of play but the challenge has been very even. Next up is World Class Smack Talker Sammy George, I feel pretty confident that this will not be a close affair no matter who wins in the end.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan