Poker News

“Isildur1? continues his new rise

“Isildur1″ had a short vacation and now he is back - and seems like he is feeling very fresh. This time Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies lost 1,448,068 dollars to “Isildur1″ on Full Tilt Poker high stakes tables.

We doubt Sahamies was smiling after the latest session with “Isildur1″

At first they started playing at the $300/$600 PLO tables, but it didn’t take long after the stakes got higher: $500/$1000. It seemed liek Sahamies couldn’t hit anything, so his losses were massive 1,48,068 dollars in the end.

The games are going to continue a bit later on and “Isildur1″ is going to challenge Brian Townsend

Isildur1: hey
Isildur1: can we play in a few hours instead ?
Brian Townsend: hey
Brian Townsend: sure I will be around
Isildur1: i need to sleep 1-2 h didnt get any sleep yesterday
Brian Townsend: ah k, I will be here
Brian Townsend: see you soon
Isildur1: ok cool cya
Isildur1:

Two big pots from the latest session

“Isildur1″ has a straight, all-in on turn, $677k pot:

All-in on flop, $788k pot:

Source: Highstakesdb

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“Isildur1″ continues his new rise

Isildur1 makes a huge comeback!

If the rumors are true, “Isildur1″ made $60k into $1,6 million in less than 24 hours on Full Tilt Poker. “Isildur1″ played against Brian Townsend and Tom Dwan mostly.

“Isildur1″ bought the minimum to $50/$100 PLO tables and made a quick rise to $500/$1000 PLO tables.

In the end Brian Townsend lost $911k and Tom Dwan $562k. Townsend made his losses in Pot Limit Omaha and Dwan in PLO and No Limit Hold’em.

Big Pots

Townsend’s set holds, $413,583

All in on flop, “Isildur1″ wins almost $400k:

All in on river, Dwan loses $253,389 pot:

Now when “Isildur1″ has his roll back up, everything is possible. Le’s keep our eyes open - create an Fulll Tilt account through HighStakesNews.

Source: Highstakesdb, 2+2

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Isildur1 makes a huge comeback!

ESPN Ranks Top Poker Players; Phil Ivey Number One

Who is the top all-around poker player in the world? Online or live, cash games or tournaments, whose game reigns supreme over the rest of the industry? According to a panel of experts organized by ESPN.com, the answer is Phil Ivey.

The voting block consisted of ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, along with Bluff’s Lance Bradley and Michael Friedman, Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra, and PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington. Each of us was asked to name our top ten players in the poker world irrespective of whether we were talking about online or live play, tournaments, cash games, or game type. In the end, the first ever list of “The Nuts” was compiled.

Topping the chart was Ivey, the seventh place finisher in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Ivey won two bracelets in preliminary tournaments leading up to the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, one in Deuce to Seven Lowball and one in Omaha/Seven Card Stud High-Low. He owns seven bracelets and over $5 million in career WSOP earnings. Coupled with nearly $3 million in high-stakes cash game winnings off Swedish poker pro Isildur1 alone, Ivey makes a strong case as the top name in the business. Out of the seven pollsters, six chose Ivey as their top dog. The lone exception was yours truly.

My pick for best poker player today was Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. While players like Ivey have been successful, Timoshenko has dominated high-profile events. In April, Timoshenko took down the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship for $2.1 million, one year after winning the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau Main Event. He finished 25th in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event and proved his online prowess by winning the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event for $1.7 million in September. He followed that performance up with a victory in the Full Tilt $1K Monday. His stakes aren’t as high in cash games as Ivey’s, but he’s also not a member of Team Full Tilt.

Second overall on “The Nuts” was Patrik Antonius. Another participant in the high-stakes games against Isildur1, Antonius lays claim to winning the largest pot in online poker history, $1.3 million, set last month. Friedman noted, “I know this may be controversial, but I think Antonius may be the best online cash game player out there at the moment.” Going against Antonius is his lackluster performance in tournaments; he has not turned in a live score of over $20,000 since May of 2008, according to HendonMob.com.

Rounding out the top three was Daniel Negreanu, who was not ranked by Poker News Daily. Negreanu has final tabled the Main Event of WSOP Europe in back-to-back years and recorded eight in the money finishes in the Las Vegas series in 2009. Negreanu has been actively involved on televised poker programs like “High Stakes Poker” and the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge,” serving as one of the game’s top ambassadors. His cash game accolades seem less obvious than Ivey’s and Antonius’, who Poker News Daily ranked as #3 and #6, respectively.

So who did the seven pollsters rank in the first ever edition of ESPN’s “The Nuts”? Here is the illustrious list of today’s top poker players:

1. Phil Ivey
2. Patrik Antonius
3. Daniel Negreanu
4. Tom “durrrr” Dwan
5. Barry Greenstein
6. Jason Mercier
7. Jeffrey Lisandro
8. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
9. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
10. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko

Others who received votes included Tommy Vedes, Isildur1, J.C. Tran, Allen Cunningham, Steve “gboro780” Gross, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Michael Binger, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, David “The Dragon” Pham, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Dan “djk123” Kelly, Antoine Saout, Brian Townsend, Brock “t soprano” Parker, and Matt Hawrilenko. Check out the full ESPN list for more details on each player selected.

What do you think? Should Ivey have been number one? Leave a comment here and let us know!

Isildur1’s Slide Continues

What he hoped would be a triumphant return has began as anything but, however, as the unknown Swede's huge bankroll slide has continued.

His session began at 2 a.m. PT this morning, playing a mix of tables from six-max $50/$100 Pot-Limit Omaha to heads up $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em.

It was a disjointed beginning to the day as Isildur1 hopped around between tables and limits before settling into a lengthy heads-up $200/$400 PLO session with Brian Hastings.

Isildur1 went into the match stuck over $90k, and at the time of publication, was down an additional $343k against Hastings.

While the session is still going, it appears Isildur1's losses on the year are currently up over $2.1 million.

In the meantime, Tom “durrrr” Dwan continued his comeback last night, making $300k. The majority came from a six-max $200/$400 PLO session against players including Cole South, Brian Townsend, and Patrik Antonius.

As of midnight last night, Dwan was also up nearly $100k from Full Tilt’s 7-Game tables as well, putting his night’s profit at somewhere around $400k.

But possibly the most consistent high-stakes player online right now is Townsend.

Townsend, who managed to book another $191,000 win last night, has ground up a profit of over $4.4 million on the year without making many headlines or being involved in many massive pots.

Almost half of his profits have come within the last month, almost all at the expense of Isildur1.

You can see how Townsend’s performance against Isildur1 stacks up against Isildur1’s other top opponents by heading to this blog: The Isildur1 Swing Graph.

Below are replays of the three largest pots played over the last 24 hours. For more hand replays and online stats, head to MarketPulse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Top 10 Poker Players Right Now

When it comes to listing top 10 of poker players, I’m sure that if 100 person would make the list, there would be 100 different lists of players. Still, there are some players that almost everybody would put in their list.

So this list is not the top 10 of all time, but the top 10 of players who have achieved great success recently. From bottom to top, espn top 10 list looks like this:

10. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. Timoshenko has been on a tear recently, winning both live and online tournaments, WPT Championship tournament, WCOOP main event and $1K Monday win among them.

9. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. One of the best online cash game players in the world, who consistently wins in nosebleed games at Full Tilt Poker. Has been having a rough year in 2009 though and there for he shouldn’t be listed here.

8. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. Former Starcraft professional, who won Two World Championship of Online Poker titles in September 2009. Has won over 2 millions in tournaments this year live and online.

7. Jeffrey Lisandro. Won three WSOP bracelets this year and the POY rankings of WSOP 2009. Master of seven card games of poker.

6. Jason Mercier. A tournament poker powerhouse who had another great year in 2009. Nine final tables in 2009, which resulted in four wins and two runner-up finishes.

5. Barry Greenstein. “The Bear” is a familiar figure playing the biggest cash games in the world at Bobby’s Room, but he can also put together good results in tournaments. Greenstein managed to cash 13 in 2009 including seven at the 2009 WSOP.

4. Tom “durrrr” Dwan. One of the most creative poker players in the world. Dwan is an online poker legend, but after losing over six million dollars in November, he shouldn’t really be on this list.

3. Daniel Negreanu. The all-time tournament winnings leader and the master of small ball poker. Managed to make it to the final table of the WSOP Europe Main event second year in a row, finishing in second place after couple tough bad beats.

2. Patrik Antonius. Antonius is a no-brainer on this list. Antonius is a player who Andrew Feldman thinks is “maybe the best online cash game player out there at the moment”. I agree.

1. Phil Ivey. If Antonius was an obvious pick, Phil Ivey is even more. Ivey is the player who everybody who knew anything about poker would pick in their top 10 list. Didn’t win the WSOP Main Event, but managed take few millions out of Isildur1 in last weeks. The best poker player in the world overall.

Ivey is the number one.

As I said in the beginning, it is hard to list poker players, but I thinks this list has couple obvious flaws. It is not fair to have Galfond and Dwan listed in a “who’s hot” list when they obviously are not hot. Why Joe Cada is not listed, he just won the most coveted title in the poker world?

In my opinion, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies should be on this list instead of Galfond and Brian Townsend instead of Dwan, but not necessarily on same places on the list. Both made huge profit in November and arguably are the players who are hot right now in online poker world.

Source

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Top 10 Poker Players Right Now

Isildur1 is not Viktor Blom (blom30)

The mystery behind the identity of high-stakes Full Tilt Poker player Isildur1 received a little clarification on Tuesday, as Viktor “blom30” Blom told Bluff Europe that he is not the man of the hour.

Blom bluntly told the European news outlet, “I am not the one you are looking for. Keep searching.” One cryptic sentence later, the online poker industry is back at square one in its hunt to uncover the real Isildur1. A variety of poker players tossed out Blom as possibly being Isildur1, most notably Tony G, who commented in a recent blog entry, “I don’t want to talk too much about Isildur1 but I can reveal to all it is Viktor and he crushed them on the iPoker network for some time. I actually played a few hands with him today and quite many on iPoker where my site TonyG Poker runs. I honestly respect this guy 100%. He has proved that he is the best player in the game right now; this is based on many, many hands on iPoker and Full Tilt Poker.”

Tony G then praised the “self control and money management” skills of Isildur1 and high-stakes opponent Tom “durrrr” Dwan. According to Poker Table Ratings, Isildur1 is down $1.3 million overall, a drop of $800,000 on Tuesday alone. In mid-November, the Swede owned more than $5 million in profits at the tables before a drastic turn of events. Among those he has squared off against are Dwan, Power Poker pro Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and CardRunners instructors Cole South, Brian Townsend, and Brian Hastings.

Also fueling the fire that Blom was the man behind the Isildur1 moniker was the following chat that occurred on Full Tilt Poker and was posted on the online poker forum PocketFives.com on November 30th:

Ziigmund: u r nice guy
Ziigmund: and pretty viktor
Isildur1: lol Ziigmund: :- )
Isildur1: can u atlest reload finnish superstar
Ziigmund: :- )

Isildur1 gave no correction after Sahamies addressed him as “Viktor,” which sparked a major debate online as to whether Blom’s statements to Bluff Europe were accurate or merely meant to throw the online poker community off the trail. Last month, Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo asserted that Isildur1 was Robert “Gulkines” Flink: “Fwiw, I have received intelligence by some very credible sources (who shall be kept completely private) who said pretty confidently who isildur1 is. So I give you the knowledge I have (with like 99% certainy but not quite 100% yet) that it is Robert Flink aka Gulkines.”

However, Flink denied being Isildur1, according to Calo, who posted on PocketFives.com: “Update: I spoke to robert flink last night. He was pretty sketchy about it and without me even asking about isildur immediately said he wasnt him and then said he thought it was stefan mattsson which is a well known swedish mtter.” Mattsson, who plays as “stema2” on PokerStars, allegedly began playing $25/$50 several days after Isildur1 began his climb up the online poker ladder.

Other names that have cropped up as possible Isildur1 front men include Dan Harrington and Todd Brunson. However, both are American and not Swedish. Brunson is a sponsored pro of the Cake Poker Network site DoylesRoom, while Harrington won the 1995 WSOP Main Event. Also tossed out as a possibility is Martonas, Dwan’s nemesis on the high-stakes virtual felts. However, with tax laws in Sweden, Isildur1’s true identity may never be known.

In the meantime, the nosebleed action will likely continue on Full Tilt Poker. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Isildur1 saga.

Isildur1 Drops $2.9 Million, Now Down Overall

The wild ride for Swedish online poker pro Isildur1 continued in recent days, as the newcomer dropped a colossal $2.9 million on the felts of Full Tilt Poker. According to Poker Table Ratings, Isildur1 is now a losing player overall.

After being up as much as $5 million, the tide has begun to turn for Isildur1, who now sits at -$892,000 since Poker Table Ratings began tracking the Swede in September. Recently, Power Poker front man Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies took Isildur1 for $2.3 million in 3,000 hands of $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha.

In one hand, the Swede raised to $3,000 pre-flop with 3h-6d-2s-Ac and Sahamies made it $9,000 with Qs-Js-9d-Jh. Isildur1 made the call and the flop came 10c-Qh-3c, giving Sahamies top pair and a straight draw and giving Isildur1 a pair of threes. Sahamies bet pot, $18,000, and Isildur1 popped it to $56,000. Sahamies made the call to see the turn come the Ks. Sahamies, now holding a king-high straight, checked and Isildur1 bet out $96,000. Sahamies continued to play it slow and just called to bring the 4h on the river. Sahamies checked once again, Isildur1 bet $322,000, and Sahamies called all-in for his last $193,000, creating a $708,000 pot. Sahamies scooped it with a straight and Isildur1 was left scratching his head.

In another hand between Sahamies and Isildur1, the latter raised to $3,000 pre-flop holding 8d-7s-9h-3c and Sahamies pushed it to $9,000 with 4d-Kd-As-5s. Isildur1 called and the first three cards fell 3s-8s-4h. Sahamies bet pot with his nut flush draw and pair of fours, while Isildur1 made it $56,000 with top and bottom pair. Sahamies re-raised to $186,000 and Isildur1 bet enough to put Sahamies all-in for his last $131,000. Once again, Sahamies made the call for his stack, this time with a $652,000 pot up for grabs. The turn was the queen of spades, giving Sahamies his flush, and no help came for Isildur1 on the river, which was the six of clubs. Isildur1 had absorbed another devastating hit to his bankroll.

Also taking aim at Isildur1 was CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend, who made it $2,000 pre-flop in one hand holding Ah-10h-8c-5d. Isildur1 raised to $6,200 with Qs-10s-6h-5h and Townsend made the call to see a flop of 3h-As-4h. Isildur1 bet about two-thirds of the pot with a straight flush draw, while Townsend pushed the action to $28,000 with the nut flush draw, a gutshot wheel draw, and top pair. A series of raises ensued resulting in Isildur1 having his stack committed and a pot of $343,000 being up for grabs. The board ran out Ad-Jh, shipping the mammoth pot to Townsend with the nut flush.

According to Poker Table Ratings, Isildur1 boasted over $5 million in earnings on November 15th, which has since evaporated. While he has made $5.2 million from Full Tilt Poker pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan alone, he has dropped seven-figures each to 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey, Townsend, Sahamies, and Durrrr Challenge participant Patrik Antonius. His 41,000 hands against Dwan are the most logged by his top “Best Friends” and “Worst Enemies.” Isildur1 has been involved in the eight largest pots in online poker history, winning three of the top six. He came out on the losing end of a $1.3 million hand against Antonius, the richest pot the industry has ever seen.

As can be seen, Isildur1 is an aggressive player on the Pot Limit Omaha felts. Poker Table Ratings candidly questioned, “One can’t help but wonder if the enticement of PL Omaha’s massive swings and guaranteed action will be sending him to the rail soon.” The Swede’s arrival has created a resurgence of high-stakes online poker action on Full Tilt, which has seen its traffic grow by 25% over the last four weeks thanks in part to its Holiday Hundred promotion.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest Isildur1 headlines.

Isildur1 Loses $2.7 Million and Counting

The fire-sale session began just past noon yesterday when Isildur1 sat with Brian Townsend at $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha. Over a 618 hand session, Townsend took another $566k from Isildur1, pushing his total profits against the unknown Swede up to $2.1 million.

After Townsend had his fill for the day, Isildur1 took a seat across from Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies at $500/$1,000 PLO. Continuing their million dollar battles from Sunday, Ziigmund fleeced the Swede for over $1 million in just 1,123 hands.

This million dollar profit puts Sahamies up over $1.8 million against Isildur1 since they first faced off last month.

Meanwhile, after losing more than $5.2 million exclusively to Isildur1, Tom “durrrr” Dwan has dropped down in limits, playing as low as $25/$50 PLO yesterday.

Isildur1 sat with Dwan for 227 hands of $50/$100 PLO, losing $30k.

However, it was not enough to make up for some other loses as Dwan ended the night down $60k.

After the brief session with Dwan, Antonius stepped into Isildur1's path, turning his day from bad to catastrophic.

Even though the two rivals only played  903 hands at $300/$600 PLO, Antonius continued the public flogging of Isildur1, taking another $1 million from the Swede’s roll. With this cash in hand, Antonius’ profits from Isildur1 are back up to an impressive $1.6 million.

At this point, Isildur1 was down over $2.7 million on the day, putting him down to a career low of -$626k since he showed up on the high-stakes scene.

Smelling the blood in the water, Cole South convinced Isildur1 to sit for a lengthy session of $200/$400 PLO. Isildur1 lost another $591k to South over 2,442 hands before they moved up to $300/$600. As of press time the match was still ongoing.

Below you can watch replays of the largest hands from the earlier sessions, or you can head to MarketPulse to keep on top of the current action.

A little gamble pays off.

Ziigmund needed a lot of luck to win this one.

A huge turn for Ziigmund.

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Sahamies the biggest winner in November

November came to an end and it’s time to check out the biggest winners and losers from last month.

November can be described as awesome as “Isildur1’s” presence brought the high stakes games on a totally new level. Daily swings were huge and we even saw the biggest online pot: $1,356,946.

Sahamies wins big time, Dwan digs the hole of his life

Last month’s biggest winner was Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies with 3,533,498 dollar winnings.

Sahamies thinking where to spend his money

The most discussed player, “Isildur1″, ended up a bit over 2,3 million dollars for the month.

Unluckiest of them all was Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who lost over 6,3 million dollars!

Top 5 winners:

1. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies - $3.533.498
2. Phil Ivey - $3.195.790
3. Brian Townsend - $2.872.767
4. Isildur1 - $2.307.749
5. howisitfeellike – $851.399

Top 5 losers:

1. Tom “durrrr” Dwan – $-6.341.485
2. Gus Hansen – $-3.163.222
3. Cole South – $-1.290.783
4. Patrik Antonius – $-903.456
5. UgotaBanana – $-671.358

Source: Highstakesdb

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Sahamies the biggest winner in November

Ziigmund wins over $2 million from Isildur1

There’s not a boring moment when Ilari Sahamies and “Isildur1″ meet at the tables.

This time around it was “Ziigmund’s” turn to win the money. According to Highstakesnews, Sahamies won over 2 million dollars.

It wasn’t “Isildur1’s” day as he lost $600k to Brian Townsend as well, so his total loss went well over 2,6 million dollars.

Sahamies at Grand Casino Helsinki

Sahamies is up about 3,5 million dollars this month and “Isildur1″ is still up around 2,3 million.

Isildur1’s graph from the last 30 days:

Source: Highstakesdb

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Ziigmund wins over $2 million from Isildur1

Ziigmund wins $2.2m from Isildur1; Martonas’s neighbour?

Viktor Blom has been steadfastly denying that he is the high stakes sensation known only as Isildur1. If we’d just lost over $2.7m to Ziigmund and Brian Townsend, we’d probably keep our mouths shut too.

Ilari Sahamies and Brian Townsend vs “Isildur1? pt. 2

“Isildur1″ lost million dollars to Brian Townsend and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies yesterday. It didn’t take long until they continued the fight.

After the dust had settled down, the results looked like this:

Isildur1 – +$702,390
Brian Townsend – +$460,630
Ziigmund – $-1,166,630

Sahamies had came back online and lost his winnings and about $1,2 millions more!

The biggest hand of the evening - Sahamies wins a $709k pot with a straight.

We’re expecting them to continue today.

Source: Highstakesdb

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Ilari Sahamies and Brian Townsend vs “Isildur1″ pt. 2

Full Tilt Poker Players Rushing to Claim Holiday Hundred Bonus

Only a few days remain in the Full Tilt Poker Holiday Hundred promotion, offering online poker players a $100 bonus on the world’s second largest site. The room has seen its high-stakes action balloon in recent weeks thanks to Isildur1.

Happy Holidays from Full Tilt Poker. One month before poker players awake on Christmas morning or participate in Hanukkah and Kwanzaa festivities, Full Tilt members can claim a special $100 Holiday Hundred bonus. Players have until the end of the day Eastern Time on December 6th to cash in. All they have to do is open the Full Tilt Poker Mac or Windows client, log in, and click “Requests” on the top menu bar. Then, select “Check My Bonus Offer” and click on “Accept Offer.”

Full Tilt Poker members have 30 days to release their bonus money by earning Full Tilt Points (FTPs) in real money ring games and tournaments. Every FTP earned means that players will claim $0.06 of the Holiday Hundred bonus, which will be paid out in increments of $10. Simple math will allow you to calculate that 167 FTPs are needed to clear each $10 increment and 1,667 are required for the full bonus to be unlocked. For each dollar that Full Tilt rakes from a pot, every player who was dealt cards in the hand receives one FTP. Each $1 paid in tournament entry fees means that players will earn seven FTPs.

Now, for the fine print. Players who have never deposited on Full Tilt Poker before should sign up for the site and clear the initial 100% first-time deposit bonus by the end of the day on November 30th. Then, Full Tilt will issue the Holiday Hundred bonus by December 2nd and players must accept it by the 6th. Full Tilt Poker customers who already hold active bonuses have until the end of the day on November 30th to clear their full value. Then, Full Tilt will place the Holiday Hundred bonus in their accounts by December 2nd and it must be accepted by the 6th.

The world’s second largest online poker site has seen its high-limit table action increase since the beginning of the month after the arrival of Swedish online poker mystery man Isildur1. The newcomer has battled a bevy of Full Tilt Poker pros in Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em games. His cast of opponents has included newly-minted site pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan, 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey, Durrrr Challenge participant Patrik Antonius, and CardRunners pros Brian Townsend and Cole South.

According to PokerScout.com, which tracks online poker room traffic, Full Tilt boasts a seven-day running average of 18,800 real money ring game players. During peak hours, the site approaches 30,000 cash game enthusiasts. It’s the second largest site worldwide behind PokerStars and happily accepts customers from the United States. Besides Ivey, Dwan, and Antonius, other members of Team Full Tilt include Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Andy Bloch, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, and bad boy Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Full Tilt Poker is gearing up for the second running of the Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series (MiniFTOPS), which kicks off on December 9th and wraps up 11 days later.

Online high stakes: The Isildur1 factor

Isildur1, the unknown Swedish player named after a character from Lord of the Rings, showed up on the high-stakes scene Sep. 16th. Two weeks later, he began to tear it apart.

His first two weeks on Full Tilt were rather uneventful. In fact, he seemed like just another new fish for the $25/$50 No-Limit Hold'em regulars to destroy.

One of his first real matches came versus Haseeb "INTERNETPOKERS" Qureshi. After playing for a while at $25/$50, the two players eventually moved up to $100/$200 where Isildur1 took Qureshi for close to $500k.

This was the first big win for unknown Swede and it was the fuse that lit the fireworks about to come.

Isildur1 spent the next few days playing some of the most well known players on Full Tilt. He picked apart UgotaBanana for $300k and went on to play some heavy sessions of $200/$400 and $300/$600 Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha.

During that time he took over $700k off of Cole South and lost small amounts to Brian Hastings and Brian Townsend. But after a few days, Tom "durrrr" Dwan finally showed up on the scene. It was the moment high-stakes railbirds were waiting for and all bets were on Dwan breaking the Swedish fish in short order.

Over four days of action - the majority of which was played at $500/$1,000 - Isildur1 won over $3 million, putting Dwan into a bankroll tailspin.

With his newly found riches, Isildur1 has played at the highest stakes available online almost every day since and the action has been ground breaking

While he has taken over $5.2 million from Dwan, Isildur1 has lost $3 million to Phil Ivey, $1.1 million to Townsend, $840k to Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and $578k to Patrik Antonius.

And in his sessions with Antonius and Ivey, Isildur1 has been involved in all ten of the largest online pots ever played.

First Antonius and Isildiur1 teamed up to break the one-year-old record for the largest pot in online poker history when they tangled over a whopping $878,959.

Isildur1 then became the first person to lose a seven-figure pot online when he and Antonius broke their own record for the largest pot ever played less than a week later. This $1,356,947 pot went to Antonius after his flopped straight held up on the river.

Just two days, later Isildur1 beat Ivey in a pot worth $1.1 million, making him the only player online to have both won and lost a million dollar pot.

Seven of the ten largest pots in online poker history have come in the last week, all between Isildur1 and either Antonius or Ivey. However, through all of this action, Isildur1's true identity is still unknown. The high-stakes world has come up with a variety of theories, the leading one being that he is Blom90.

Viktor "Blom90" Blom burst onto the high-stakes Euro-site scene in early 2009 building a massive bankroll before virtually disappearing. Many sources have claimed Isildur1 is Blom90, but to this day, Blom has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.

Others have claimed he is the same person behind the "martonas" account, another player who burst onto the high-stakes scene earlier this year before dissapearing. There have even been rumors he is retired Swedish footbal legend Henrik Larsson.

The only thing that can be confirmed is the action created by Isildur1 has completely re-arranged the look of the year's biggest winners and losers online. Thanks to the $3 million he's won from Isildur1, Ivey now tops the charts with over $6.3 million - $600k ahead of Antonius, who is now at $5.7 million.

In third place on the year is Sahamies with $5.7 million. Fourth place belongs to Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin who has remained at $3.6 million ever since his original heater in early August.

Thanks to the $1.1 million he's won off Isildur1, Brian Townsend sits in fifth place with $3.3 million. And finally, in sixth place is Isildur1 himself, who who has made just over $3 million to date.

The majority of the money made by the top earners has come from Isildur1's profit off of Dwan, who is the year's top loser, down a whopping $6.8 million so far. Gus Hansen takes up second place with $5.8 million, $2 million ahead of third place loser LarsLuzak.

Finally, in fourth sits French professional David Benyamine and his $2.3 million in losses.

To see all of the largest pots played by Isildur1 since his arrival on the scene, head to MarketPulse.

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Poker2Nite Talks Isildur1, Annie Duke Charity Poker Tournament

The second installment of the UB.com-sponsored poker news show “Poker2Nite” hit televisions on Thanksgiving Eve in the United States on cable station Fox Sports Net. Scott Huff and Joe Sebok host the show.

“Poker2Nite’s” second episode began with a discussion of the $1.3 million Pot Limit Omaha hand between Patrik Antonius and Swedish online poker player Isildur1. The hand was replayed on-screen, with Antonius flopping a straight and Isildur1 calling all-in with a series of higher straight draws. However, none of them hit and Antonius raked the largest pot in the history of online poker. On the hand, Sebok commented, “Keep in mind that we’re not talking about No Limit Hold’em, which is what everyone is used to. We’re talking about Pot Limit Omaha. You have four cards, a million possibilities, and it completely changes the complexion of the hand. Truthfully, when Isildur1 got his money in, he was only a 45% dog on the flop.”

On playing poker for extreme high-stakes on Full Tilt, Sebok commented, “Sickness. Madness. I’m wondering if we’re going to fit these guys for straightjackets soon. At the end of the day, they feel like they have an edge over whoever they’re playing.” Other online poker players involved in the high-stakes action besides Antonius and Isildur1 in recent weeks have included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings, Phil Ivey, and Cole South.

So who is Isildur1? That’s the question that has weighed heavily on the minds of the online poker community since the Swede burst onto the high-stakes scene earlier this month. Sebok speculated, “I think this is a kid we’re going to see more and more of. He’s already probably a top five Omaha player in the world. The only problem he’s running into is he’s playing maybe #1 and #2 with Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.” Sebok also commented that Isildur is a character from “Lord of the Rings.”

Attention then turned to the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night benefiting Decision Education Foundation. GreasieWheels’ Lisa Wheeler organized the event, which saw Tournament Director Matt Savage oversee the operation. Full Tilt Poker pro Andy Bloch won and was also the featured speaker as part of a Poker Skills for Life seminar. On why he was selected to speak, Bloch, the in-studio guest for “Poker2Nite,” told Huff and Sebok, “The DEF is all about teaching people to make good decisions and in poker, you have to make a lot of good, quick decisions. You have to do that in life too sometimes. In poker, you’re studying and teaching yourself how to make better decisions when you’re at the table.”

Bloch took down the event and explained what he earned for coming out on top of the pro- and celebrity-laden field: “I didn’t win any cash, but I did win a bracelet, so for everyone who makes fun of me for not winning a bracelet, I won a bracelet.” Bloch also recapped his now-infamous bet with Ivey that the “Tiger Woods of Poker” would win the Main Event: “At the end of Day 2 with about 2,200 players left, Phil Ivey had about four times the average [chip stack] and he offered me 100:1 on him winning the Main Event. I negotiated it down to 99:1 [for $20,000]. Normally, I wouldn’t worry, but $2 million is kind of a lot.” Ivey ultimately took seventh in the $10,000 buy-in tournament, avoiding a $2 million payout by Bloch.

“Poker2Nite” also featured the “Weekly Misdeal” with Dana Workman, which takes a satirical approach to reporting the news. Team UB.com’s Brandon Cantu getting tazed was featured as well, with the footage appearing on national television.

“Poker2Nite” airs at 11:00pm ET on Wednesdays on Fox Sports Net, although its airtime varies by market. It also replays several times throughout the week. Check your local listings for details.

Isildur1 loses $1,000,000 to Brian Townsend

Isildur1 managed to recoup some of the massive losses he’s endured at the hands of Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey, winning back almost $700,000 from the Finn. However, Brian Townsend played over 1,000 hands of heads-up $200/$400 PLO with the Swede and won $1.1m in short order, dominating the match from start to finish.

Brian Townsend beats up “Isildur1?

Brian Townsend has made a great comeback to the Full Tilt high stakes games.

Earlier today “Sbrugby” took a heads up match against “Isildur1″. They played four tables of $200/$400 PLO (deep). Just recently Townsend got his own avatar and it seemed to give him edge over “Isildur1″ as he won 1,107,300 dollars.

Couple of hands:

All in on turn, $198k

All in on flop, $304k

“Isildur1″ wasn’t happy after Brian left the tables after ~1000 hands:

Brian Townsend: gg
Brian Townsend: I will be back in a few days
Isildur1: k n1
Isildur1: f u
Brian Townsend: don’t be bitter because you lost
Isildur1: lol

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Brian Townsend beats up “Isildur1″

Haseeb Qureshi Comments on Isildur1 and High-Stakes Poker

Swedish newcomer Isildur1 has dominated the action on Full Tilt Poker in recent weeks, helping grow the eight largest pots in online poker history. One of his opponents, CardRunners instructor Haseeb “INTERNET POKERS” Qureshi, sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss Isildur1’s recent dominance.

Isildur1 has largely competed in Pot Limit Omaha against high-stakes Full Tilt regulars like 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey, Durrrr Challenge namesake Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and Power Poker front man Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. Qureshi has dropped $452,000 to Isildur1; according to PokerTableRatings.com, Dwan has lost 10 times that amount.

On the newcomer’s No Limit Hold’em game, Qureshi told Poker News Daily, “He doesn’t trip up nearly as often in No Limit Hold’em [as in Pot Limit Omaha]. Of course, one of the biggest differences in No Limit Hold’em is that you can bet larger than pot and it’s in his over-betting strategy, which has become his trademark, that he really differentiates himself.”

Many have questioned when and if Isildur1 would go broke, including a poll that appeared on the popular online poker forum TwoPlusTwo.com revealing that 18% of those who responded stated that the Swede would go bust before 2010. Qureshi weighed in: “He’s a high-stakes poker playing degenerate who is very good and wants action. As long as nobody busts him, he’ll keep playing. I’d say it’s more likely than not that he goes bust relatively soon, but it’s still quite likely that he manages to rage on for a very long time.” PokerTableRatings.com began tracking Isildur1 in mid-September. This month, the eight largest pots in online poker history have played out.

On what types of strategies players could use to overcome opponents like Isildur1, Qureshi revealed, “Every basic strategy you could come up with is all too small and naive to be used. You should wait for hands and yet beat his aggression with more aggression. You should make fearless calls and yet be cautious in big pots. Choosing one pole or the other is basically handing him the match before it starts.”

Antonius laid claim to the largest pot in online poker history, $1.3 million, at the expense of Isildur1. The Full Tilt Poker pro also defeated Isildur1 in a massive $878,000 pot, which took place one week ago. Isildur1’s win over Ivey in a $1.1 million pot, the second largest of all-time, helped right the ship. The Swede has taken down three of the top six richest pots ever, while Antonius has scooped two of the top three.

Qureshi is an instructor for the poker training site CardRunners.com and recently tackled the Isildur1 phenomenon in an informative blog entry. On how he got started in the game of poker, Qureshi recalled, “In the PartyPoker days, there was a free $50 signup bonus deal running. I got on that and somehow donked up my money to $200 and then I started my ‘poker career,’ per se, at $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold’em ring games. I worked my way up the old fashioned way with 20 to 30 buy-in bankroll management. There were no tournament scores or trust funds for me, unfortunately.”

Finally, Qureshi explained that he never would have thought he’d be part of something as historic as Isildur1’s entry onto the poker scene: “My dream was to be playing $1/$2 and by the end of the first year, I had made over $100,000 and was just moving up to play $5/$10 six-max games.” Besides Qureshi, others who have tangled with Isildur1 include David Benyamine, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian Hastings, and Brian Townsend.

Isildur1 has won $4.262.458 in November

There’s a small break in Full Tilt Poker high stakes games, so it’s time to check out some results for this month.

Everyone is talking about the top position player, he is the Swedish Isildur1. He has won 4.262.458 dollars in this month already.

Isildur1’s fearless play has attracted more and more railbirds to Full Tilt. He doesn’t fear to challenge the top pros one by one, or everyone at the same time. We’ve seen millions moving around the tables almost every day, and of course there’s that biggest online pot.

Dwan loses big time

Almost every top pro has been losing to Isildur1, but the biggest loser so far is Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

Tom Dwan, the newest Team Full Tilt member, has been helpless against Isildur1, and he has already lost 4.739.540 dollars this month alone.

November’s top lists:

Winners:

Isildur1    $4.262.458
Phil Ivey    $1.329.818
Patrik Antonius    $1.119.526
DjAdi    $806.555
DIN_FRU    $765.541
Ziigmund    $736.750
Brian Townsend    $534.923

Losers:

durrrr    -$4.739.540
Gus Hansen    -$2.577.181
Cole South    -$1.151.454
UgotaBanana    -$648.396
Richard Ashby    -$646.055
Brian Hastings    -$481.870
David Benyamine    -$412.315

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Isildur1 has won $4.262.458 in November

Isildur1 takes on Team Full Tilt

Isildur1 started the night at $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha where he lost $373k to Cole South in just 884 hands. The two players then upped the limits to $300/$600 where Isildur1 laid the boot to South to the tune of $888k.

South left the tables down $505k, leaving Isildur1 free to find his next opponents.

First, he found Tom Dwan. After an hour and a half of a virtual deadlock, Isildur1 decided to add more players into the mix.

Exclusively at $500/$1,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em, Isildur1 chose to play Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, all at the same time.

Dwan played the most hands against Isildur1 out of the three Team Full Tilt players, but in the end finished down $14k.

Ivey, the second player to be added into the mix, stuck around for almost one thousand hands, more than enough time to take $800k from the unknown Swede.

Antonius, who joined the action almost immediately after Ivey, lasted just 433 hands, losing over $253k.

When the Hold'em action dried up, Dwan and Isildur1 moved to $500/$1,000 PLO for a lengthy 2,338 hand session. Isildur1 got the best of Dwan once again, this time for $230k.

If it wasn't for a $562k win through Brian Townsend earlier in the night, Dwan would have booked yet another losing session at the hands of Isildur1. With the Townsend profit added to his totals, Dwan left the night having won $319k.

With Ivey's beating offsetting the profit he made from the rest of the Full Tilt pros, Isildur1 finished his session $80k up.

Below are replays of yesterday's three largest pots, head to MarketPulse to see more.

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Isildur1 defeated! Antonius wins largest online pot and Townsend hits $1m stack

At the time of writing, Isildur1 is playing six tables against Patrik Antonius and Brian Townsend at $300/$600 PLO and $500/$1k PLO and NLHE on Full Tilt. His invincibility is in question as Townsend, up $85,000, just hit a $1m stack and Antonius is up over $2.5m.

Isildur1 keeps on crushing

And it seems the whole online world wants a piece of the unknown Swedish player as Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend and Phil Galfond all stepped up.

Isildur1's night began with 1,347 hands of $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Townsend and he proved to be the Swede's stiffest competition, beating him out of $339k before calling it quits.

Later on the two sat for another 151 hands where Isildur1 managed to make back $36k from the Full Tilt Pro, but next in line was Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

The two played 478 hands of $300/$600 PLO and when it was all said and done, Galfond booked a $162k loss.

Isildur1 then moved on to his main event of the evening: Antonius. These two sat for 613 hands of $500/$1,000 PLO and Isildur1 was up $435k before they moved on to play No-Limit Hold'em.

Here, Isildur1 won two massive pots worth $384k and $448k each, practically guaranteeing heads-up victory.

He ended the 614 hand $500/$1,000 NLHE session with over $618k of Antonius' money.

Ivey, who had been MIA from the high-stakes action since his seventh place finish in the WSOP Main Event, took his stab next, but couldn't turn a profit.

However, his losses were limited to $22k over a short 105-hand No-Limit session with Isildur1.

At this point, Antonius took another shot at Isildur1 on the PLO tables. Through 80 hands at $500/$1,000 Antonius won back $267k, then agreed to finish off the remainder of the night at $300/$600.

1,735 hands later, Antonius had managed to grind back another $100k, finishing his night having lost over $686k to Isildur1.

In the end, Isildur1 left the tables having booked another win, adding $567k to his roll.

While the unknown Swede was wreaking havoc across the site, Dwan could be found trying to grind his way back to the black playing heads-up Hold'em against DjAdi and heads-up PLO against Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

DjAdi stuck around for 517 hands, long enough to make $200k from the newly minted Team Full Tilt pro and Dwan's luck against Sahamies wasn't much better.

The Finn took him for $178k and when the action all dried up, Dwan left the night posting yet another losing session, this time dropping $380k.

Below are the three largest hands of the night. You can watch more hands by heading to MarketPulse.

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Brian Townsend rocks Isildur1 for $300k

Just like Tuesday night, Isildur1 played thousands of hands of poker, half Hold'em and half Omaha.

And also much like Tuesday, his opponents included Cole South, a lesser known online player known as jungleman12 and a seasoned Full Tilt Pro in Brian Townsend.

Last night's action began with Isildur1 playing $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em heads up against jungleman12. After 3,546 hands and almost four hours, jungleman12 left the game having lost over $174k.

Almost immediately, Isildur1 took a seat across from South. In recent conversations between the two, Isildur1 had been complaining that South only ever plays him on Omaha tables.

South decided to give the unknown Swede a shot as they took seats at $200/$400 NLHE.

The session lasted 2,153 hands, with multiple $100k+ pots being played. In the end it was a small victory for Isildur1, who left with just $27k of South's money.

Attempting to capitalize on his night of run-good, Isildur1 chose to finish it off playing $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha heads-up against the comeback kid, Brian Townsend.

If Isildur1's performance from the previous two nights is any indication, PLO is a serious leak in his game. After having made over $200k across 5,699 hands of Hold'em, Isildur1 got quickly crushed by Townsend, losing over $317k in just 339 hands.

Just like on Tuesday, at the end of the night, Isildur1 had lost just over $115k. And once again his losses were greatly lessened by his profits on the Hold'em tables.

Below are the largest hands from Isildur1's night, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.

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Antonius headlines sick 7-Game action

With this latest $800k score Antonius is just $140,000 short of the $6 million mark. This is substantially more than Ashton Griffin, the second most profitable player of 2009, who is $3.6 million to the good.

This most recent session saw a flurry of action with Daniel Alaei (FakeSky), Gus Hansen and Brian Hastings all making more than $300k.

Online regular, identity still unknown, Nizot Skizared took down $270k, while the Finnish action junky Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies made just under $140k.

Also showing modest profits on the night were Tom Dwan, Matt Hawrilenko, EazyPeazy and Di "Urindanger" Dang.

The most noteable losers of the day include Richard Ashby (-$530k), David Benyamine (-$434k), NEKOTYAN (-$336k), Cole South (-$218k), DIN_FRU (-$204k), Chau Giang (-$127k) and David Oppenheim (-$106k).

Posting smaller losing sessions were online stars Phil "OMGClayAIken" Galfond and Brian Townsend, both losing under $100k.

With this $434k loss, Benyamine continues his struggle to get anything going on the year. His 2009 losses now total almost $1.3 million.

Long after the 7-Game action had run dry, the $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em game kicked off with two full ring tables collecting rake.

The nine-handed table Don Juan became the table of death, starting with all seats filled, including some of the biggest names in the game. Dwan, Ivey, Juanda, South and (Hac) Dang were all in on the high-stakes NL action.

On top of all of this, Tom Dwan took on Patrik Antonius heads up at $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, winning the largest pot of the day worth $85k.

Over on PokerStars WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate managed to net only $193 after winning the second largest pot of the day, but losing the third worth almost exactly as much.

To see replays of all the largest NL and PLO pots of the day, head to MarketPulse, or you can find the three biggest pots of the day replayed below.

A great flop for Dwan.

This hand plays itself.

A setup.

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Brian Townsend Wins Weekends’ Largest Pots

Full Tilt Poker has been notably devoid of $500,000 pots and six-figure coinflips recently, but Brian “sbrugby” Townsend is taking some time out from making instructional videos at CardRunners to try and remedy that.

Brian Townsend Takes durrrr, Ziigmund and Others for $360k

What with Eric Liu’s impressive tournament runs and Cole “CTS” South’s successful re-emergence into the high stakes games, the CardRunners boys are really making their mark. Brian Townsend joined the affray this weekend, with a $362,000 win that left Ziigmund, OnTheRize and – of all people – durrrr licking their wounds.

THENUTHUNTER takes on Ivey and Antonius

His night started playing Antonius heads-up on the well-used Full Tilt six-max table "RailHeaven" and it only took a few hands for THENUTHUNTER to get it all in pre-flop with Pocket Jacks against Antonius' sixes.

Nothing helps a player stay confident while playing against one of the world's most intimidating players than taking an early lead and it's doubtful THENUTHUNTER would have remained on the table once Ivey joined the game wiothout it.

For a player taking a shot at the biggest games online, it would be hard to a more difficult table than three-handed with Ivey and Antonius.

Despite the bright red names of his opponents, THENUTHUNTER remained on the table for another hundred hands, ending his session up over $130,000.

Having taken over $230k from Antonius, it was the Ivey factor that put the dent in THENUTHUNTER's profits.

The $300/$600 PLO tables were also full of action as another $300/$600 regular, 458854, made over $270k from Phil "OMGCLayAIken" Galfond, howisitfeellike, and Brian Townsend.

458854's profit came mostly from both the largest pots of the night worth $322k and $237k respectively.

Perhaps inspired by players like Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese, who has taken the high-stakes games by storm since becoming a regular this past September, these two realtively unknown grinders took their shots, and both came away victors.

Here are the three largest pots of the session, the rest wait for you on PokerListings' MarketPulse page.

All-in three way

Poker's easy for the palandronic 458854.

Antonius was hoping for a flip.

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Antonius Takes On LeggoPoker’s AEJones.

Many people claim that training instructors at video sites can’t cut it in the biggest games, but CardRunners’ Cole South and Brian Townsend have been silencing critics. LeggoPoker’s aejones also had a go, proving he’s unafraid to take on anyone by sitting down for a heads-up session against Patrik Antonius.

Brian Townsend Shooting for the Big Mixed Games

Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, Full Tilt Poker red pro and CardRunners instructor, took the time in his blog on the former site to reflect on the past year – it has been, he noted, almost 12 months since his red pro status at Full Tilt was taken away for multi-accounting.

Full Tilt signs Justin "BoostedJ" Smith

A very well-respected poker player, Smith recently made the final table of WPT Bellagio Cup V and ended up finishing third for a score of $464,870.

In a surprising turn of events, Smith injured his knee while celebrating a hand he won and became the first player in WPT history to sustain a serious injury at the televised final table.

Prior to his Bellagio Cup V performance Smith had a successful WSOP, cashing a total of five times for over $100,000 in tournament winnings. His highest finish was eighth in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo event.

Smith was born in Hartford, Connecticut, but currently resides in Orlando, Florida. Known primarily as an online player, Smith has been known to dominate the high-stakes mixed games on Full Tilt.

In 2007 Smith chopped first place at the FTOPS III Main Event for $232,000. Smith is also an instructor for Daniel Negreanu's PokerVT training site.

Perhaps the only downside of Smith's deal is that he will give up the BoostedJ moniker and instead receive his own name in red. Several pros including Brian Townsend and Patrik Antonius went on huge downswings after becoming Full Tilt pros and getting their names in red.

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