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Instead, as is his wont, he dominated the action at the online high-stakes tables.

For a change last week, though, he won.

After a few long, dark weeks in the red zone of the biggest losers Blom battled back to claim a profit over the week.

Another old friend in the top 5 earners was Finn Ilari Sahamies, who is now up $500k for the year.

Blom Enters God Mode

This is something we haven’t seen in a while. While others were hunting for immortality in Las Vegas, Blom went into god mode at the online tables.

Seven thousand hands in seven days isn't quite the top of his range but it was still a lot more than his competitors played.

Ben Sulsky is back.

 

Four days in a row Blom managed to top the field. Mostly he played $2k/$4k 2-7 Triple Draw and $500/$1000 Cap PLO, but he wisely chose to stay away from the NLHE tables.

The Swede profited -- especially from a reunion with an old adversary.

In January 2013 Blom won almost $3m in eight days from Ben "Sauce1234" Sulsky. Prior to that Sulsky had been the #1 player in 2012; afterwards, he disappeared.

Sulsky suddenly reappeared yesterday at $300/$600 PLO and lost another $580k to Isildur1, making him the biggest loser of the week.

Blom went on to add another $313k profit against No_Ola from Norway, before then losing part of his winnings, mostly to Niklas "Ragen70" Heinecker and Trueteller (still rumored/unconfirmed as Johannes Strassmann). Despite winning last week, none of them made it into the top 5 of the week.

Dwan, Ivey, Blom tear SanIker apart

One of the top heads-up specialists in No-Limit Hold'em, SanIker started playing high stakes in February 2013.

Within weeks he had taken money from Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom playing heads-up NLHE. But now the tides have turned and they're taking their money back.

SanIker tried different games last week but the results were pretty much the same as he fell to the second-worst spot of the week behind Ben Sulsky. He's now lost a total of $1.3m in 2014.

Biggest Pot of the Week

No surprise, then, that the biggest hand of the week played out heads-up and one of the players was SanIker.

In this hand he was playing Denoking at $300/$600 NLHE. Denoking raised it to $1,800 from the SB. SanIker reraised to $5,400 from the big and Denoking called. The flop fell:

SanIker bet out another $5400 but that wasn’t enough for Denoking, who made it $17,000. Call. The turn was the

Denoking now took a firm grip on this pot. After SanIker’s check he bet out a massive $56k, which received another call. The river was the

A dangerous card as now a 9 was enough to make a straight. Still, SanIker only check-called another $60k bet from his opponent. Denoking showed

which was good enough to take it down. The set won him the $275k pot.

Biggest Winners of the Week

Biggest Losers of the Week

2014 working out well for Kostritsyn.

 

Biggest Winners of 2014

Biggest Losers of 2014

Viktor Blom is one of the only big-game players that shies away from Vegas, but due to lack of opponents, he even had to cut down on the number of hands he played over the last week.

The winner of the week was KagomeKagome, the biggest loser was none other than outspoken Finnish pro Ilari Sahamies.

Kagome up, Ziigmund down

Ilari Sahamies

 

German limit expert KagomeKagome has not been identified yet, so we have never had the chance to watch him at a tournament.

That’s a pity, because he would have the chance to play his favourite game in a big tournament in Las Vegas these days.

However, he prefers to stay anonymous and play online. With $150k profit, he didn’t really make much last week, but then there was no one else who was able to win more.

The Las Vegas heat does not seem to attract Finnish poker legend Ilari Sahamies either. The 30-year-old is slowly making his way back to the tables, climbing in numbers slowly.

He’s not back to his old winning ways yet, though. With over $100k losses, which he generated within one single 214 hands session of $100/$200 PLO against Jacob Lottenice Rasmussen, he went straight to the top of the loserboard.

Blom vs. Carloo13

If there is but one player left at the online nosebleed tables, it’s probably Viktor Blom. If he didn’t have a sponsored contract, he would probably play online only.

The one guy who was still willing to play him at his favourite game was anonymous player Carloo13. So they met in a duel of PLO, the game that Blom turned into one of the most famous and infamous players worldwide.

On Monday, the two played a session that lasted six and a half hours and 3350 hands. Blom was dominating most of the time, but lost almost all the big pots.

A the end of the day, that meant a lot of action but no clear winner.

Carloo13 made his way to second spot in the leaderboard by winning another heads-up match aganst Norwegian player Ola NO_OLA Amundsgaard.

It took two hours of $100/$200 PLO, until $140k went to the bankroll of Carloo13, making him the second best winner of the week.

Biggest Hand of the Week

The biggest hand of the week was played between Carloo13 and Isildur1. The limits were $100/$200, rather moderate indeed, which is why Blom complained several times about how tired he was, and that he would only wake up again if they raised the stakes.

Carloo13 refused, but they still played some eight six digit pots. In the biggest hand, the polarizing phase began pre-flop already.

Blom started the war with a raise to $600, Carloo13 responded with a re-raise to $1,800, and Blom came back with a 4-bet to $5600. Still not enough for Carloo13, who 5-bet to $16k.

The flop fell      

Mystery player Carloo13 took the lead with a bet of $20k, but Blom had already made up his mind. He raised all-in with almost $100k, which factually put Carloo all-in to call. Call!

These were the hands at showdown:

Isildur1:        

Carlooo13:        

Carloo13 had hit top set, but Blow was drawing to flush and backdoor straight. Turn and river blanked, however, with

  ---  

And it was Carloo13 who won the biggest pot of last week.

Leaderboard and Loserboard

Winners of the Week:

KagomeKagome: $+147,684

Carlooo13: $+137,222

Jacob Lottenice Rasmussen: $+117,791

Educa-P0ker: $+73,249

Ben Sauce1234 Sulsky: $+68,809

Losers of the Week:

Ilari Ilari_FIN Sahamies: $-102,764

Ola No_Ola Amundsgaard: $-101,388

BedoliFE: $-90,281

berchkamp: $-70,780

anna164: $-54,601

Biggest Winners in 2014:

Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066

Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,463,133

Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295

Patrik FinddaGrind Antonius: $+1,183,736

Niki Jedlicka: $+1,149,684

Biggest Losers in 2014:

Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491

Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-2,890,245

Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,815,817

SanIker: $-1,293,520

Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,130,769

Two regulars are still driving the action, though, as Cort Kibler-Melby rose to the top this week while Viktor Blom – again – lost more money than anyone else.

Isildur vs the Cortster

There are roughly 30 top players with German backgrounds grinding the poker tables in Las Vegas these days.

One of them is not Cort Kibler-Melby, as he's one of the few grinders who specializes entirely in cash games.

One player who appreciates that? Viktor Blom, because without “The Cortster” he wouldn’t have had much action last week.

Over two days they dueled at the 2-7 Triple Draw tables with Kibler-Melby coming out $250k ahead and Blom down about the same amount.

New shot takers dead in the water?

 

Rise of the Unknowns

With most of the regulars missing, lots of unknown players took their places at the the tables to try and make a name for themselves.

Usually you'd find players like Doorbread, NittySlick, timepkr and JaeggarJack at lower stakes but the shark void at the top is giving them a shot to play higher than usual.

The only one to take advantage this week was Doorbread, who managed to win around $100k and might now become one of the regulars himself.

Biggest Hand of the Week

The largest pot this week was at $100/$200 NLHE and was one of the few hands without Blom or Kibler-Melby that actually topped 100k.

It was a heads-up pot between NLHE expert Denoking and high-stakes novice JaeggerJack. There were several raises before the flop with both players putting in around $k.

On the flop:

Both players checked. On the turn:

As it turned out, at this stage, nobody was going to quit. JaeggerJack took the lead with a careful bet of $7k and Denoking just called. On the river:

There was no holding back anymore. JaeggerJack went all-in with $51k and was quickly called by Denoking. Hands at showdown:

JaeggerJack:    

Denoking:    

Top set/full house versus second set/full house. In a situation like this there's simply no way out. $120k was moved into the bankroll of the more experienced Denoking. Hopefully, JaeggerJack didn’t put his whole bankroll on the line.

Winners of the Week

Respite for Hansen simply because he's not online.

 

Losers of the Week

Biggest Winners in 2014

Biggest Losers in 2014

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But apart from regulars like “Denoking,” "SanIker” and the inevitable Viktor Blom  - who made a surprising move down the stakes this week - there was also an old friend who re-appeared on the high-stakes stage this week.

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies is back, and with a bang.

Isildur1 Moves Down

He might be living in London but his living room is the high-stakes area of online poker.

Even with almost all top pros in Vegas right now Blom is still managing to play 10,000 hands a week. Obviously, he had to move down in the limits to find sufficient action.

Hence, we found Blom playing a lot of $25/$50 PLO and $20/$40 8-Game tables last week.

Surely regulars on these levels like Doorbread, FollowTheHawk and anna164 must have felt honored because of the distinguished visitor, but they surely weren’t graced with his money.

Thus the often suffering Isildur managed to make more than a $100k profit last week, which made him look a little better in the yearly rankings, too.

Not in the $1m Big One this time around, Ziigmund looking for action.

 

Ziigmund Returns After One-Year Break

One player to used to clash frequently with Blom and players like Cole South on the nosebleed levels is Ilari Sahamies.

The infamous Finn has not been seen for much of the year at the high-stakes tables and his only appearances were very short sessions on lower levels as Ilari_FIN on PokerStars.

Last week, however, the legendary Ziigmund nickname on Full Tilt made a comeback, and some comeback it was.

The 30-year-old Finn won $220,000 over 5,000 hands and ended the week at the top of the leaderboard.

The Battle Between SanIker and Denoking Continues

The most interesting duel of last week was the one between SanIker and Denoking. Both players are recognized as NLHE heads-up specialists.

As the big players were missing those two seemed to fight for the title of “best mid-stakes HU NLHE player” last week.

For now, it's Denoking by a mile. Of the 10 biggest pots those two played over a two-day session – which turned out to be the biggest pots of the week overall – seven went to the mystery player Denoking.

In the weekly rankings,that was enough for him to take second place. SanIker, on the other hand, became the biggest loser of the week and consolidated his place in the bottom five of the 2014 rankings.

Biggest Pot of the Week

The largest pot online was generated by the aforementioned Denoking and SanIker. The limits were $300/$600 at this NLHE HU table, and after a raise by Denoking to $1500 SanIker reraised to $5k.

The flop came:

and both players checked. The turn:

SanIker checked again but this time Denoking fired $20k. The German player with a weakness for Spanish goalkeepers wouldn’t go away, though, and made the call. The river:

SanIker checked a third time and now Denoking moved all of his $231k in the middle. SanIker had only $95k left and decided to call it off. At showdown, Denoking showed     for two pair and SanIker mucked his hand.

Forced to move down to find the action.

 

Biggest Winners of the Week

Ilari Ziigmund Sahamies: $+220,393

Denoking: $+217,455

Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $+138,804

tyme2gamb0l111: $+118,672

David Pokerbluffs Eldar: $+73,805

Biggest Losers of the Week

SanIker: $-287,507

AceHasslehoff: $-69,853

FakeMonies: $-46,501

FallAtYourFeet: $-45,790

anna164: $-41,864

Biggest Winners in 2014

Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066

Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,463,133

Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295

Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+1,203,128

Patrik FinddaGrind Antonius: $+1,183,736

Biggest Losers in 2014

Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491

Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-2,890,245

Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,815,817

SanIker: $-1,581,028

Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,233,965 

In the online high-stakes games it seems even Viktor Blom - the man of 10,000 hands in the blink of an eye - need a vacation sometimes.

Fellow Swedish player Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz used Blom’s break to take a couple of steps up online, though, and “Denoking” and “SanIker” kept on battling..

Thuritz Makes Biggest Profit

A “punting peddler” is something like a successful travelling merchant. Mikael Thuritz, now in his thirties, deserves his online nickname, because that’s exactly what he is.

A winner everywhere he's played.

 

Thuritz has been in the game since the early 2000s and he’s generally been just as busy as he is successful.

He made it as a live player in Las Vegas, he prevailed in the high-stakes games in Macau and for the last three or four months he’s been running hot at the online tables.

In 2013, Thuritz was paying more than he was earning in the online games – almost a million dollars – but now it seems he’s found his stride.

Within the last seven days he made a profit of $160k. Over the current year Thuritz has already made $700k+ which puts the Swede close to the top 5 earners of 2014.

Ding, Ding! New round for Denoking vs SanIker

When Blom is away, other experts come out to play. The still unknown Denoking and SanIker have entered another round of their ongoing NLHE heads-up duel and made sure that there was some action for the railbirds.

Again, these two generated the biggest pots of the week and it was again Denoking who emerged victorious. SanIker had to settle for the bottom of the leaderboard.

Recently there have been rumors about the identity of Denoking. Some say the man behind the name is Bosnian player Denis Bahonjic.

Bahonjic has been living in Sweden for a long time and is close friends with Viktor Blom, which could explain why these two never play each other.

Also, Bahonjic is rumored to be wilhasha on PokerStars.

Biggest Pot of the Week

At the moment it seems like SanIker und Denoking seem to have subscribed to playing the largest hand of the week.

This week’s hand will show you that their duel is really heating up -- or is it just the heat outside?

The game was NLHE heads-up $200/$400 and the hand started with SanIker raising to $800. Quite a normal thing to happen, but from there things went crazy.

Denoking in particular was playing a little jauntily here, as you will see. He 3-bet to $3k and then re-raised the 4-bet of his opponent again, this time to $18k.

The call was made by SanIker and finally the flop was dealt:

Denoking wasn’t going to stop here. He bet out another $12k and Saniker made the call. On the turn

Denoking took the lead again and bet $15k. SanIker  called again. The river was the

and Denoking fired the last barrel. $67k all-in was the bet, and Saniker didn’t hold back. He pushed his virtual money into the middle, too.

At showdown, Denoking showed 8♠ 6♦ – a little surprising – and SanIker’s hand went into the muck.

No action for Hansen at least means he hasn't lost anymore.

 

Biggest Winners of the Week

Mikael punting-peddler Thuritz: $+157,713

Denoking: $+131,774

Trueteller: $+100,101

krzeyeskila: $+94,572

Carlooo13: $+81,805

Biggest Losers of the Week

SanIker: $-135,541

Doorbread: $-99,768

Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-79,573

tyme2gamb0l111: $-69,926

alexo18: $-33,428

Biggest Winners in 2014

Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066

Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,463,133

Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295

Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+1,203,128

Denoking: $+1,199,312

Biggest Losers in 2014

Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491

Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-2,890,245

Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,815,817

SanIker: $-1,716,568

Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,313,539

The ones who are still there: Viktor Blom (no surprise), his Swedish counterpart Denoking, and the recently very active (and succcesful) Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz.

But it was American player and Team PokerStars Online pro Isaac Haxton who made the biggest profit last week.

Sweden vs. Sweden

Can't stop won't stop punting-peddler

 

Scandinavian winters are long and hard. That’s why inhabitants spend a lot of time in front of their computers, which gives them an advantage when it comes to gaming in general and poker in particular.

As it’s summer now even the men from the North should be outside and on holiday, but at least Viktor Blom and Mikael Thuritz prefer nosebleeds to vacations.

After Bosnian player Denis Bahonjic (PokerStars: “wilhasha”; Full Tilt Poker: “Denoking”) accompanied Blom on his journey through the high-stakes world in June Thuritz now seems to have taken his place.

But whereas “Denoking” never crosses swords with a friend the “punting-peddler” challenged “Isildur1” several times and rarely with positive results.

Still, Thuritz made a lot of money in sessions against other players. So much money, in fact, that both Swedes ended their week with a six-figure profit.

Winner of the Week: Isaac Haxton

Isaac Haxton is 27 years old, holds a degree in computer science and is part of Team PokerStars Online. He's also a feared NHLE heads-up player.

Due to lack of competition, however, he had to turn to other games last week.

In what was one of the most action-packed sessions Haxton met unknown player “n0d1ceb4by” at $50/$100 and $100/$200 PLO. It took less than five hours for Haxton to take $150k from his opponent.

Biggest Hand of the Week

Neither Haxton nor “Denoking” had anything to do with the largest pot that was played last week, which is surprising regarding “Denoking” as he had played most of the record pots in the recent past.

Rather, Viktor Blom and Mikael Thuritz met at a $300/$600 NLHE heads-up table and the action started before the flop as you would expect.

Thuritz raised to $1,200 and Blom 3-bet to $4k. The flop came down

Blom took the lead with a careful bet of $5k. But when “punting-peddler” raised it up to $11k, both players went into full-speed-ahead mode.

Isildur went all-in with $50k and Thuritz made the call.

Turn and river were dealt twice. This is what they looked like:

And these were the hands at showdown:

Isildur1:    

punting-peddler:    

Both players were drawing to the flush but Blom also had bottom pair. Thuritz managed to hit his eight in the first draw and the flush didn’t hit, so they split the pot. There was $133k in the middle.

Blom quietly brings in $130k.

 

Biggest Winners of the Week

Biggest Losers of the Week

Biggest Winners in 2014

Biggest Losers in 2014

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Sahamies is an expert in PLO and he’s known to make exceptional plays.

In our Hand of the Week this week, though, he goes down an unusual path but unfortunately his opponent Ackmalin is in total control.

The Hand

The stakes are $100/$200 Pot-Limit Omaha and effective stacks are $58,000, which corresponds to 290 big blinds.

Ackmalin opens from the button to $434. Sahamies has

He re-raises to $1422. Ackmalin calls and the flop comes

There's now $2,844 in the pot. Sahamies checks, Ackmalin bets pot and gets a call. The pot is now $8528.

The turn is the  

Sahamies checks again and Ackmalin makes another pot-size bet. Sahamies calls again and the pot has now grown to $25,580.

The river comes  

Now Sahamies takes the lead and bets the pot. Ackmalin raises him all-in and he calls.

Ackmalin shows         for the nuts. He wins a $115k pot.

$115k pot goes the other way.

 

Analysis

Pre-flop Ackmalin raises with what is a very nice hand for heads-up PLO. His best-case scenario is to flop a set with the nut-flush draw (which is exactly what happens).

Sahamies in the big blind also holds a very strong hand. He has a pair of kings, an ace, and a nine that is the same suit as one of the kings and could make him the second nut flush.

As both players are very deep, position is paramount in this situation. Still, Sahamies’ re-raise is nothing to sneeze at.

After the flop Sahamies is interestingly playing rope-a-dope. With an overpair and a draw to the second nuts most players would follow suit here with a continuation bet. Sahamies doesn’t have position and instead goes for pot control.

For his opponent Ackmalin, of course, the hand pretty much plays itself. He finds the perfect flop – set plus nut-flush draw – and he bets pot on the flop and turn.

Sahamies has no chance of knowing how far he is behind. Actually, his equity is only 9% and 5% on the flop and turn, respectively.

His play, however, would make a lot of weaker hands bluff. He's also drawing to the second nuts, which is very valuable in a heads-up match.

Maximum Punishment on the River

On the river, Sahamies receives maximum punishment. Thanks to his smart pot-control play out of position, he has invested less than a third of his stack and is not pot-committed.

On the river, Sahamies receives maximum punishment.

 

If the river is a blank he would have either called another pot bet or maybe even folded to keep his losses to a minimum.

However, the flush comes in and now Sahamies takes over the initiative with a big pot bet.

When Ackmalin goes all-in Sahamies gets 5-1 pot odds which means he only has to make the correct decision one in five times to make it profitable.

Of course, Ackmalin’s play smells like the nuts but the pot odds are so good that Ilari can hardly fold.

Classic Case of Bad Luck

Basically Ilari Sahamies does everything right in this hand and shows he's very capable of mixing up his play with a less-aggressive style.

He just got very unlucky because his opponent completely dominated his hand from the flop onwards and a lot of Sahamies’ outs were poisoned.

The draw came in, the Finn made the infamous second best hand and it cost him dearly.

A classic case of bad luck!

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Chinese player Chun Lei Zhou, aka “samrostan,” in particualr got back into the action at the 8-Game and Triple Draw tables and actually had a very profitable week.

On the losing end of the table, Cort Kibler-Melby had a terrible time.

“Samrostan” wins on Full Tilt and PokerStars

Some of the Malaysian-Chinese high rollers, like Paul Phua (MalACEsia) and Richard Yong, are currently in some legal hot water over allegedly running illegal betting operations in Las Vegas during the football World Cup.

samrostan rolls on both PokerStars and Full Tilt.

 

Another well known Chinese high roller, Chun Lei Zhou - better known under his online nicknames samrostan, patpatman or patpatpanda - seems to have nothing to do with it, however.

He was also in Las Vegas for the summer, playing the $50k Players Championship among other tournaments, but was free to leave and as soon as he got back home he rampaged the high-stakes tables online like never before.

The highlight, from his point of view, was last Wednesday when he won on Full Tilt and on PokerStars. The first victim of the multi-millionaire in god mode was NLHE expert Trueteller, who lost $400k within five hours in 8-Game.

Then, one after another, Viktor Blom, Alexandre Luneau and KagomeKagome – now identified as Julius Fleischer from Germany – fell victim to the man from Macau. They lost $221k to him playing 2-7 Triple Draw.

If you add up his winnings on Full Tilt and PokerStars, Chun’s overall profit last week was more than $400k - significantly more than the official weekly leaderboard winner SanIker made (see below).

Cortster Crushed, SanIker saved

After weeks of suffering the NLHE heads-up specialist with the weakness for a certain Spanish goalkeeper finally managed to turn things around.

He did so at the cost of a fellow countryman, though. For two days samrostan, Trueteller, SanIker and theCortster battled each other on $2k/$4k Triple Draw.

At first it was Trueteller who took $250k from Kibler-Melby, but 24 hours later SanIker had taken the same amount from the German-American.

SanIker ended a successful week with a profit of $250k, good enough for the top spot in the leaderboard.

Kibler-Melby, on the other hand, experienced a disaster. He lost $600k, way more than anybody else, and he cut his winnings in 2014 in half in just a single week.

It goes almost without saying that he also lost his spot in the top five winners of the year.

Biggest Hand of the Week

Two of last week’s protagonists were involved in the largest pot of the last seven days.

It happened at an $300/$600 8-Game table and the game was NLHE. It came down to a battle between Trueteller and samrostan.

Pre-flop, Trueteller raised to $1,500 and samrostan flat-called. The flop was

Samrostan checked and then called another $1,500 bet from Trueteller so both players got to see a cheap turn.

Chun Lei Zhou now took the lead and bet $4k. Trueteller, however, wanted to play a little higher and raised it to $14k. Call. The river was a highly interesting

Now samrostan checked again. Trueteller took the initiative and bet $25k only to see his opponent raise all-in with $82k. Snap-call.

At showdown, the railbirds understood why both players were so willing to risk their stacks:

Samrostan:    

Trueteller:    

The $200k pot was spilt in half.

Another solid week for Alex Luneau.

 

Winners of the Week

Losers of the Week

Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $-617,026
Ola Odd_Oddsen Amundsgaard: $-147,012
Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-144,525
Ilari Ilari_FIN Sahamies: $-141,521
Trueteller (PS): $-137,759

Biggest Winners of 2014

Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066
Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,463,133
Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295
Alexandre Alexonmoon Luneau: $+1,221,706
Denoking: $+1,199,312

Biggest Losers of 2014

Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491

If you haven’t been following the $500k of Summer Freerolls, Full Tilt has been giving away $1,500 in tickets through freerolls every day.

$500k of Summer Freerolls got a significant boost this week when the daily amount of prize money was boosted to $10,000.

This weekend there will be over 20 separate freeroll events with $50,000 in prizes up for grabs along with two “mystery” events.

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Jackpot Sit & Gos, Ring-Game Ticket Discounts

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Over the last seven days Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and German player SanIker were by far the two most successful players.

Two more Germans – Julius “Kagome Kagome” Fleischer and Cort “the Cortster” Kibler-Melby – also made the top 5 while the biggest donators were Chun “samrostan” Lei Zhou and “Carlooo13."

SanIker and Blom Dominate

This year hasn’t been a very good one for either SanIker or Blom. Both of them have been pretty much regulars on the top 5 biggest losers of the week.

Last week, however, they both went on dramatic heaters that brought them around $1m profit each.

While the German - who once claimed to be a better NLHE heads-up player than Dwan, Blom, or Ivey - mainly stuck to the 2-7 Triple Draw tables, Blom spent most of his time at $1k/2k FL08.

A five-hour session against Carlooo13 was crucial for Blom’s success. He won a massive $630k, relegating Carlooo13 to second-biggest-loser-of-the-week status.

Chun Lei Zhou Pays a Big Bill, Opts Out

Zhou: Not so keen on tracking right now.

 

Chinese whale Chun Lei Zhou seems to be pretty fed up. In our last report, he was presented as one of the big-action givers and it actually paid off big time for him.

Over the last seven days, though, he went in the opposite direction again.

The man from Macau produced losses amounting to $800k, which brought him dangerously close to Gus Hansen as the biggest loser of the year so far.

And although samrostan used to be quite open about his losses in the past, he now seems to prefer to lose money more privately.

Just like Alexander Kostritsyn, Ben Tollerene, Niklas Heinecker, Sebastian Ruthenberg and many more, Chun Lei Zhou has now taken the opt-out option and vanished from most of the databases.

Of course we keep track of the stats every day so we will still be able to bring you samrostan’s adventures in the future.

Biggest Pot of the Week

Last week the most expensive hand played out in Pot Limit Omaha for a change.

The limits were $300/$600 and the players at the table were Alexandre alexonmoon Luneau, Chun Lei samrostan Zhou, Mikael punting-peddler Thuritz and AthaCliath.

Thuritz raised pre-flop to $1,800 and AthaCliath 3-bet to $4,200. The other players got out of the way but Thuritz wanted to see a flop. It was

Punting-peddler check-called a bet of $3,400. The turn was the

Now things started to heat up. Punting-peddler checked again, but then raised the $11k bet of his opponent to $36,600. Call from AthaCliath. On the river

Punting-peddler took the lead and moved all-in with his last $72k. Quick call from AthaCliath, and it was an easy decision.

These were the hands at showdown:

Thuritz:        

AthaCliath:        

Thuritz’s bluff didn’t work against the flopped full house of AthaCliath, who cashed in the full $233k pot.

Rare appearance for Jedlicka on the losers list.

 

Biggest Winners of the Week

Biggest Losers of the Week

Biggest Winners in 2014

Biggest Losers in 2014

This past week a famous name who battled on the highest levels two years ago might have celebrated a comeback.

“Atha Cliath” (“Dublin” in the Gaelic language), reported to be Irish player Andrew Grimason (who may or may not have been “Eire Abu"), fought his way to the top and won the biggest pot of the week.

The Hand

The table is a $300/$600 Mixed Game and next to Atha Cliath are sitting Mikael "punting-peddler" Thuritz, Alex "alexonmoon" Luneau and Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou.

The game is Pot Limit Omaha and the effective stacks of the players involved – punting-peddler and Atha Cliath - are 194 BB, equal to roughly $116.000.

From the cut-off punting-peddler raises to $1,800 but Atha Cliath re-pops it to $4,200 with

Both blinds fold but punting-peddler calls. There's now $9,300 in the pot and the flop falls

A check from punting-peddler, Atha Cliath bets out $3,400 and punting-peddler calls. There's now $16,100 in the pot. The turn is the

Another check from punting-peddler but then he responds to Atha Cliath’s bet of $11,300 with a check-raise to $36,600. Atha Cliath calls and the pot has now grown to $89,300. The river is the

Now punting-peddler moves in with his last $72,300. Atha Cliath calls with a full house and owns the punting-peddler’s total bluff with

It's a dream flop for Atha Cliath, who may or may not be Andrew Grimason.

 

Analysis

Pre-flop both players are taking a pretty standard approach as they are both playing very deep stacks.

Punting-peddler's A♦ 5♥ 5♣ 4♦ has the potential to flop a set and a nut-flush draw. He’s in position and raises.

Behind him Atha Cliath comes in with another raise with his J♥ T♣ T♥ 7♠ – not a terrific hand, but well sorted. He also has position, which is an amazing advantage when you play deep-stacked.

Luck of the Irish: Atha Cliath flops the world. It’s not actually the nuts, but the chance of his opponents holding the other two threes are extremely slim.

It's important here that there are a lot of high pairs, Broadway connectors and double-suited cards in Atha Cliath’s range. Pocket tens are on the low edge of this range, which is why his monster is hidden very well.

When punting-peddler calls Atha Cliath’s small bet without position and without a good draw, he's preparing himself for a disaster that’s going to cost him all his chips.

The 2♠ on the turn gives punting-peddler a wrap draw - he now needs an ace, four, five, or six for a straight. If he hadn’t been given that card (after which he is really drawing dead), he would probably just have given up.

However, after Atha Cliath’s second bet, he sees an additional chance to win and check-raises Atha Cliath’s bet with a semi-bluff. He is now representing trips or a full house, and he hopes to hit the supposedly winning card on the river.

It's a Dream

It’s a dream for Atha Cliath. He’s holding a huge hand and his opponent is building up the pot so high they can go all-in on the river. The river is a blank and punting-peddler decides to go with plan B, the big bluff.

With pot odds of 2.23 to 1, Atha Cliath would have had a hard time folding even a weaker hand but with the second nuts it’s an easy call.

Something bizarre happened at one of the most expensive tables with Viktor Isildur1 Blom, Chun samrostan Lei Zhou, and Ben Bttech86 Tollerene. Lift the curtain!

From the Deal to the River

It’s a Pot-Limit Omaha table with blinds of $500/$1000, but it is a capped table, and you can’t bet more than 40 blinds per hand.

There are four players at the table, with Ben Bttech86 Tollerene first to act. He holds

And raises to $3,500. Chun Lei Zhou calls from the button, but Viktor Blom in the Small Blind doesn’t appreciate the game that way. He raises to $15,000.

German high-roller Follow the hawk folds, but Tollerene pushes $40,000 all-in. Now samrostan calls, and so does Blom.

Suddenly, three players are all-in in a pot of $121,000. The board runs

Ben Tollerene has hit a pair of threes, which gives him two pair (threes and fours) and an ace kicker. Not exactly a big hand, but then Blom shows

for a pair of fours with king kicker, while samrostan opens

for a pair of fours with a ten kicker. Suddenly Tollerene’s “monster”

is worth $121,000.

Analysis

Wow, definitely not your average hand. To have a pair of treys win the complete pot three-handed pre-flop all-in in PLO, that doesn’t happen very often.

But let’s look a little closer at what happened here. Bear in mind that this is a capped table, which means that position has less significance than in regular PLO.

Viktor Blom

 

If you can’t bet more than 40 big blinds per hand, the implied odds are lower, and certain AAxx hands are easier to play from the blinds, as the road to showdown is much shorter.

Pre-flop, Ben Tollerene has a nice double suited hand definitely worth a raise. Samrostan calls from the button with a pretty well connected hand, and then Blom follows up with his double-suited hand and another raise.

Of course, the Swedish player could have just called and see a flop, as his hand is mediocre and he doesn’t have position, but that’s just not his style.

There are additional problems with his hand, as his potential club flush is dominated. That is also why a hand like Tollerene’s with Broadway cards is definitely preferable.

With his re-raise to $15,000 Blom invests 37.5% of his effective stack and demonstrates he is not going to fold anymore. It is questionable, though, whether his hand is really strong enough to play like that.

When Tollerene raises it up again, all players find themselves all-in. Look at the pot equity, and it quickly becomes clear that Tollerene is the clear favourite here.

Blom: 22.04% win; 4.9% split pot

Chun Lei Zhou: 26.66% win; 4.9% split pot

Tollerene: 46.38% win; 0% split pot

A big lead for Tollerene, that even increases to 57.36% on the flop. The 4♠ gives Blom a couple of outs, but at the extraordinary showdown, it is Tollerene’s single hit with his only low card that wins the hand.

The hand we picked out this week shows why PLO exerts so much attraction – and so much variance. It just isn’t a game for the faint-hearted.

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Points Needed Per Day for Four Days and Reward:

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Majors Summer Series Continues on Party Poker

Party Poker's Mike Sexton

 

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For the low leaderboard you can win anywhere from $2-$200 in tickets whereas the high one will offer $5-$500.

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Unidentified German player “Trueteller” dominated four straight days of action on Full Tilt Poker.

It didn’t only make him the biggest winner of the week - it made him the biggest winner of the year.

Meanwhile Julius Fleischer, better known as “KagomeKagome,” was the biggest loser of the week, dropping over $800k according to highstakesDB.com.

High Stakes Made in Germany

These days it’s tough to find a high-stakes table on Full Tilt Poker that doesn’t have at least one German player.

Seven Germans signed up for the $1m Big One for One Drop this year; none of them won the event, but they do feature prominently in every big live tournament or massive cash game.

Phil Galfond couldn't stop Trueteller either.

 

Last month it was still unidentified player SanIker who became the biggest winner with a profit of $1.6 million. Last week another German made his mark.

Beside denoking and Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker it was Trueteller who played the most sessions of NLHE last week - even though his usual for, Paul MalACEsia Phua, is currently out of the action.

Different Games, Different Opponents

Trueteller (there aren’t even rumours about his identity) is showing that he can also make money without having a whale like MalACEsia at the table.

He was most efficient playing 2-7 Triple Draw ($1k/$2k und $1.5k/$3k).

His main “victims” were Julius KagomeKagome Fleischer, Viktor Isildur1 Blom and Phil OMGClayAiken Galfond. All three players were hit so hard by Trueteller they had the dubious honor of making the top five biggest losers list.

With almost $1m profit this week Trueteller now has made $1.8 million over the year, clearly topping the leaderboard.

Bad Time for the Butcher

It wasn’t all good for the Germans this week.

Ben Tollerene recorded another solid week.

 

Julius Fleischer (whose last name literally translates as “butcher”) had the worst week of all, losing $800k.

Fleischer is perhaps most well-known for his controversial former online handle IHateJuice, which he claimed he picked to tilt opponents but later regretted.

He used to be almost unbeatable, especially when it came to Limit Hold’em. Before Black Friday he played Phil Ivey and asked to raise the stakes from $2k/$4k to $3k/$6k, and Ivey responded with a now famous line in the chat:

“I think we both know you play Limit Hold’em better than me.”

But since Fleischer changed his nickname to KagomeKagome and doesn’t get action anymore in his favorite game it’s been harder to turn a profit.

He doesn’t seem to be good enough in other games and 2-7 Triple Draw in particular seems to be his downfall.

Up to now he has amassed losses of $1.5 million in 2014 and he is desperately trying to turn the tides.

Biggest Pot of the Week

The largest hand of the week played out without German participation. The players at the tables were Chun samrostan Lei Zhou, Viktor Isildur1 Blom and Mikael punting-peddler Thuritz.

The game was $300/$600 NLHE. Blom raised pre-flop UTG to $1,800. Fellow Swedish player Thuritz – also making money last week as ChaoRen160 on PokerStars – re-raised to $6k.

Chun folded his Big Blind and Blom decided to take it slow with just a call. The flop fell

Thuritz checked and then called an $8k bet from Viktor Blom. The turn was the

Now Thuritz took the lead and moved $18k over the virtual line. Blom wasn’t going anywhere and called. The river was the

With a paired board there were a couple of possible traps and, indeed, Thuritz had set up one of these for Blom.

Thuritz played a tricky check from first position only to check-raise all-in $121k after Blom’s big bet of $75k on the river.

Blom must have been worried, but he probably felt pot-committed. Thuritz showed queens for a full house and Blom mucked without showing.

A tidy $306,472 went over to Thuritz just like that.

Leaderboard and Loserboard of the Week

Biggest Winners

Biggest Losers

Biggest Winners in 2014

Biggest Losers in 2014

One of the biggest updates to the software in the history of the company, PokerStars 7 is set to introduce a number of new features including a QuickSeat tab, an advanced favorites tab and an app bar that replaces the Options and Requests drop down menu.

PokerStars is also adding the ability to see a preview of each table in the lobby, a region-based mini-map of live tournament satellites and a real-time chip graph for players to analyze their progress in a tournament.

While the system requirements for PokerStars 7 will go up slightly, the software will still be accessible to the vast majority of poker players.

“We want virtually everybody to be able to play on our software so you won’t need a gaming computer or anything like that,” said Lee Jones, Head of Poker Communications for PokerStars.

QuickSeat, Favorites Simplify Software for New Players 

The headlining feature of PokerStars 7 is perhaps the new stripped-down quick seat tab that’s targeted towards new players who might be overwhelmed by the entire lobby.

Of course the main lobby is still just one click away for advanced users. The lobby itself has actually been slimmed down in PokerStars 7 as well.

The new favorites tab will likely make finding games easier for everyone as you can favorite any game in the client and it will instantly add a number of similar games to your favorites.

PokerStars expects the PokerStars 7 beta to be available in all jurisdictions by the end of August. Mac users will have to wait a bit longer as the beta won’t hit OSX until sometime in the fall.

PokerStars 7 should be out of beta and the default client of the site by the end of the year, depending on how the beta goes and if there are any issues.

To sign up for the beta just head to the PokerStars 7 page.

Coming back from the WSOP, the Great Dane took on his Swedish counterpart Viktor Blom in the second biggest hand of the week.

Let’s look at the hand from Gus Hansen’s perspective.

From the Flop to the River

We are looking at a Mixed Game table, and the current game is $300/$600 PLO. Both players have effective stacks of more than $143,000, corresponding to over 240 big blinds.

Blom is sitting on the button, and he raises it up to $1,800. Hansen is the big blind, and his hand is the

Hansen calls and the pot is now $3600. The flop is

Hansen hits two pair with a flush draw. He checks. Blom bets $3000, Hansen raises to $12,600, Bloom re-raises to $41,400, Hansen pops it up to $127.800, and Blom moves all-in.

Hansen calls and sees Blom’s hand

The players have agreed to deal it twice, and this is how the boards run down.

First board     second board    

Analysis and Evaluation

Nice pot for Isildur1

 

It was a spectacular clash between one of the most iconic tournament players ever and one of the most feared cash games players in the world. Gus Hansen meets Viktor Blom, and it turns into a disaster for the Dane.

Blom raises with connectors headed by a pair. Two cards are suited, and there are a couple of flops that can turn his hand into a monster.

Hansen’s hand is a littler weaker. It isn’t as well connected, but it is still single suited. Even without position it is a hand definitely worth calling with against such a hyper-aggressive player like Blom.

The flop sets the situation up for a collision. Hansen flops two pair plus a flush draw, while Blom finds top set and an open-ended straight draw.

For Hansen, this board is a real cooler, because there are only a few hands that really dominate him.

- a set of nines (one possible hand)

- a set of sevens (one possible hand)

- a set of threes (three possible hands)

All in all, there are only five possible hands against which Hansen is a 2:1 underdog. Against strong hands like A♠ A♣ K♥ J♠, which are definitely in Blom’s range, Hansen would even be a slight favourite on this flop.

The advantage becomes even bigger if we look at hands in Blom’s range that didn’t catch a draw or a set. Overpairs and combo draws would be way behind Hansen’s hand.

A typical, strong hand in Blom’s range would be 9♣ 8♥ 6♥ 5♣ with several straight draws. This would still be a 2:1 dog against Hansen’s double hit plus redraw.

So, no matter how we look at it, there is no escape for Gus Hansen in this hand. Versus an aggressive player like Viktor Blom, Hansen must try to get all his money in on a flop like this. The fact that Blom hits the upper rim of his range is simply tough luck for the Dane.

Even if the opponent had been someone else, Hansen would still have pushed his money in. His hand is just way too strong, particularly in a heads-up situation.

Conclusion

Two monster hands and two big stacks clash on an action flop.

Hansen’s monster is a little weaker, and he doesn’t get lucky on any of the two draws. Thus, he can’t even get half his money back.

Even so Blom often makes money on his hyper-aggressive image, this not the case here. Even a tight player would have paid off his top set. It is difficult to imagine that anyone could have found a fold there.