Poker From The Rail
a Poker Blog brought to you by Full Tilt Poker
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Looking back on 2009, one of the top stories was the emergence of the extreme limit cash games on Full Tilt Poker. Never has online poker seen games spread at such levels, so high only a tiny percentage could even imagine joining the games but they consumed both players and railbirds throughout the year.
Things really began exploding with the “durrrr Challenge” announcement in which Tom Dwan offered to take on any player in 50,000 hands of Pot Limit Omaha. He put up $1,500,000 of his money versus just $500,000 of his opponent. Patrik Antonius was the first take up the challenge and the year of big stakes online poker was underway. Progress in the heads up battle would slow down as bigger, juicier games began popping up. Games playing bigger than their $200/$400 stakes, neither could pass up the opportunity to shred through stacks of dead money playing larger than realistic.
Soon it was common to see a table of players tossing around stacks on the $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha or the $2,000/$4,000 mix games. Action moved into the upper reaches of sanity where only the deeply rolled would consider taking a seat. The record for biggest pot was broken several times during the year but this was just the opening act to the last few months of 2009. The entrance (and exit?) of online legend Isildur1 into the world’s biggest online poker games.
The unknown Finnish player burst onto the scene and sparked interest in high-limit poker not seen since Andy Beal took on The Corporation. Twitter would go all a-tweet whenever Isildur1 would sit at the biggest tables, the poker media would dedicate several articles per week to the action, the forums did exactly what forums do in general by sending a flock of railbirds to witness the destruction. He went on an incredible heater tearing through the bankroll of the newly minted Team Full Tilt member Tom Dwan. Within no time at all, Isildur1 was involved in ten of the biggest hands in online poker history including the only 2 pots over $1,000,000. (You can watch Phil Gordon and Patrik Antonius discuss hands here)
Isildur1 seems to have only made one mistake, he followed the big bankrolls from the No Limit Hold’em games to Pot Limit Omaha. He was a massive winner at NLHE but PLO would eventually see him get felted and the world awaits his return. There are several rumors floating around about him building up a roll for another run or even getting a stake from crazy man Tony G.
With the start of the new year, several publications have gone over the raw numbers to determine the top winners and losers in the online cash games. My favorite writeup of the bunch comes from “friend of the blog” Nicole Gordon (aka Change100) on PokerNews.com. “The Online Railbird Report: 2009’s High-Stakes Winners and Losers” breaks down the action. It’s nearly impossible for the casual poker player to fathom the staggering swings and numbers these players deal have at stake.
When the history of online poker is written, 2009 will be remembered as the year the action on Full Tilt Poker’s high-stakes cash tables exploded, as $500/$1,000 pot-limit Omaha became the game of choice and pot sizes soared into the millions for the first time.
While the “durrrr” Challenge grabbed headlines during the first half of the year, and Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin’s $3.6 million run was a summer highlight, the fourth-quarter emergence of “Isildur1” at the nosebleed stakes was by far online poker’s dominant 2009 story.
She ran the numbers and brings you the top ten winners and losers. Here are your big winners, you can find the breakdown and losers here.
1. Patrik Antonius – $8,973,946
2. Phil Ivey – $6,337,702
3. Brian Hastings – $4,731,848
4. Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin – $3,640,000
5. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies – $3,060,680
6. Hac “trex313″ Dang – $2,641,250
7. Brian Townsend – $2,400,819
8. Rafi “howisitfeellike” Amit – $2,235,756
9. Cole South – $2,128,686
10. Mark Vos – $2,101,161
Here’s hoping things will continue to amaze during 2010.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I laid my head down for just a few short hours, a little respite before throwing myself back in front of the keyboard to writeup everything that happened during Big Money Sunday. Whatever plans I had to knock out a few hundred words hit a speed bump when I fired up the Full Tilt client once again and saw the PLO cash lobby. That has been my default setting since Isildur1 came on the scene. There sat four active tables at $500/$1000 HU PLO and Isildur1 having money spread across 8 other tables at various levels as “low” as $300/$600. It becomes a distraction as I watch the action instead of typing.
These big time tables were mostly quite over the last four days, perhaps the Swedish newcomer was observing the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday but this morning they were running steady for a few thousands hands. In the end it appears that Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies had the edge when they finished the session, continuing a streak following Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. Are the regulars starting to figure out new guy? Is there a degree of wrath in the works from sweet Mother Variance? I’m still waiting for Tom “durrrr” Dwan to get back in the ring to take another shot. Keep your eyes on the tables.
Your regularly scheduled action during the Sunday majors was setting up to be eventful for a handful of players making their biggest scores. Nothing terribly exciting was occurring in the Sunday Brawl, $750k Guarantee or Double Deuce that screamed to me to pull up the tables and watch the action. That changed once the Sunday Mulligan was down under 100 players with plenty of big names shooting for the top. Mark “newhizzle” Newhouse was running over players or coming behind with his monster stack to brutalize anyone in his way. Imagine his joy when he found himself sitting in the big blind with KK and watching 3 people shove before his action. The damage is screenprinted below, included in the knockout was Lauren “locoenlacabeza” Kling.
He was later moved to a very entertaining table featureing Lee “acumen3″ Childs, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Stian “JohnnyBelow” Stabell. The action was everything you would expect from the last major tournament of the evening. Newhouse was unable to maintain his commanding chip lead going out short of the final two tables, while Adam “Roothlus” Levy moved his way up the leaderboard. He went into the final table as one of the big stacks but fell short in 7th place. A disappointing finish for the pro who had everything set to win it all.
You can find all the final table results after the jump, as well as the spectacular end to my evening on the tables.
Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
This weekend was already destined to have more huge action then usual with the $25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship running in addition to the regular slate of Sunday Majors. On top of all the scheduled action, most of the poker world now knows about the spectacle going down on the HIGH limit cash tables on Full Tilt. Isildur1 spent the entire week make news on an almost daily basis but shifting insane amounts of money back and forth across the virtual felt. The Swede has already pushed around some of the top online players, participate in the biggest ever online pot on Wednesday, and gave back quite a few after that. It’s not very often you see something for the first time, Saturday it happened.
It was only a matter of time at these elevated levels that we would finally see a 7-digit online pot, it finally happened Saturday evening setting the poker forums, blogs, and tweeters (?) into a frenzy. With nearly $2,000,000 sitting on the table between Patrik Antonius and Isildur1 all the pieces were in place to witness history. There was $162,000 in the pot before the players saw the 4s 5c 2h flop and then things went nutty. It only took a few re-pots before Isildur1 was all-in for his final $597,000 as a slight underdog. Antonius flopped the wheel but Isildur1 was holding a ton of out. The 5h on the turn did him no favors and he didn’t hit one of his final 9 outs on the river.
The $1,356,946.50 pot was shipped across to Antonius. Online poker’s largest and first million dollar cash game pot.
The action would go well into the evening with pots in the high 6-digits becoming commonplace and the swings mind boggling. By most online calculations it seems that Isildur1 gave back nearly $2.7million to both Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey. The session came to an abrupt end right after Phil Ivey smacked him on the nose for almost $1.5million within moments. Screen printed below for your enjoyment, click to enlarge.
35 players put down a cool $25,000 earlier in the day for a chance at the Heads-Up PLO World Championship including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Andy_Bloch and the enigmatic Isildur1. Phil Ivey let the Swedish player know that he put a little side wager down on his victory, getting 10-1 on his money. None of the Full Tilt pros would feature in the final payouts with Cole South and Justin “Boosted J” Smith coming up one victory short. After a HU chop, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Andrew “Browndog19″ Brown would add this tournament to his resume.
All this action around the tables also generated plenty of available prizepool money in the Big Money Sunday tournaments. $1.9 million was on the line between The Sunday Brawl, Double Deuce, $750k Guarantee, and The Sunday Mulligan. “roddiass” was the big winner of the evening collecting $114,743.18 after a 3-way chop followed by “pytcheye1111″ ($108,726.80 in the Sunday Brawl) and “zavor4ik” ($107,757.59 in the $750k Guarantee).
Action continues Monday evening with the obviously named “$1K Monday” tournament, railbirds should also keep one eye on the high limit cash game tables. You never know when the next “biggest pot in history” will occur.
Tournament final table results after the jump, as well as my unfortunate exit from Michael Craig’s “Relay for Life” charity tournament.
Tags: $25K Heads-Up World Championship, AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1, Michael Craig, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Patrik Antonius" width="250" />
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
Most Popular Posts
- (none)
Authors
Blogroll
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
sweet!...Disclaimer
The opinions expressed by this blog and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the author of this blog nor any content contained herein.
