Poker News

Phil Galfond Wins Nearly $800,000

While Ivey was busy taking the better part of $1,000,000 from Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies in a series of six-figure coinflips, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond kept up the good name of Phil by netting $757,944 at $200/$400 PLO in just 1,400 hands.

Oops! Ziigmund Did It Again

Friday night games at Full Tilt Poker. Phil Ivey, Phil Galfond, Ilari Sahamies, Gus Hansen, Cole South and Di Dang. What can you expect apart from fireworks?

Friday night action poker with some of the top pros can get pretty ugly. There are winners and then there are losers. Sometimes the swings can get into an incomprehensible levels. This time Phil Ivey and Phil Galfond made almost a million profit. Then the losers; Ziigmund lost a staggering 1,3 million dollars in few hours.

When you look at the played hands it’s just amazing how these nosebleed pros play. Phil Ivey won over $900k in just 93 hands and Ziigmund lost $1.3 million in 317 hands. That’s some heavy variance there.

According to coinflip.com, Ziigmund’s losses is explained with a total monkey tilt. In his blog Sahamies says that he’s very angry of himself when he couldn’t stop playing when he didn’t even feel like playing at all. There was some chat after Ziigmund’s massive loss:

Ziigmund: no london
Ziigmund: jumping from balkony
Phil Ivey: lol

Some of the hands:

Ziigmund and Ivey flips, $400k

Ziigmund against durrrr in the second biggest pot of the evening, $361k

Sahamies vs Ivey pt II, $200k

Sahamies vs Ivey pt III, $240k

Top 3 winners:
1.Phil Ivey              $936 210
2.OMGClayAiken $928 190
3.Cole South          $371 244

Top 3 losers:
1.Ziigmund               $-1.328 859
2.Gus Hansen          $-362 253
3.Urindanger           $-182 057

Source: highstakesdb, coinflip.com

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Oops! Ziigmund Did It Again

Ivey and Galfond: The Phils win $1.6 million

Galfond was playing $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha, grinding his profit against Gus Hansen, David Benyamine, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Urindanger.

Galfond managed to grind his massive profit almost entirely through $100,000 pots against some of the best competition in the world, the largest of which weighed in at just over $160k.

Ivey took a very different route, however, spending his night sitting heads up at $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Ziigmund and taking advantage of the Finn's hunger for action.

The two players were flipping for $200k pots, moving all-in pre-flop regardless of their hands and letting the cards decide their fate.

Out of the dozen flips recorded, Ivey managed to win eight, profiting half a million dollars simply by being luckier than his opponent.

Even online veteran David "POKERBLUFFS" Eldar got in on the action, flipping one hand worth $280k with Ivey on a $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em table.

In the end, the night was a complete yard sale for Ziigmund, who supplied the majority of the $1.6 million to the two Phils booking a total loss in the $1.3 million range.

Sahamies loves heavy action, and hates to lose, so it would be a surprise if we don't see him return to the tables again tonight, both guns blazing.

Keep your eyes on our MarketPulse section to catch all the action.

Here are some of the most notable pots of the night:

The $400k flip.

Ivey's largest "real" pot.

Galfond's largest pot.

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Kingsofcards rules over Phil Galfond

Marchese, a 22-year-old professional player, started grinding ¢50/$1 Limit on PokerStars, progressing up to $30/$60 before making the switch to No-Limit.

After learning the game and grinding his roll up to $7k in 2007, he went on a three-month heater, turning that $7k into over $200,000.

The kid has continued to grind and grow his roll, only now stepping into the highest-stakes games Full Tilt has to offer.

Last night, Marchese played Galfond heads-up at $200/$400 and $300/$600, beating the online veteran out of over $110k.

His victory over Galfond would have made for a good night's work had he not lost the largest pot of the night to Patrik Antonius on another table, worth a whopping $275k.

The hand went down on a $500/$1,000 6-Max table with Marchese's A K unable to win the flip against Antonius's Q Q.

Unlike the regular names in the online high-stakes world, when the big games dried up, Marchese could be found grinding the $25/$50 NLHE tables.

After busting up through the limits as quickly as he has, only time will tell if Marchese will be another Martonas-like flash in the pan or if his name will become a staple in the world of high-stakes poker.

Below are some of the largest hands of the night, but you can check out all of the biggest pots by heading to our MarketPulse section.

It was almost a good night.

Kings for the King.

Galfond gets one back.

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2009 Poker Hall of Fame Finalists Announced

The final list of nominees for the 2009 Poker Hall of Fame was announced on Tuesday and the ballot is loaded with the game’s biggest names. It is now up to the 15 living Hall of Fame members and the 15-member Media Panel to cast their votes before the inductees are revealed on Saturday, November 7.

The nine selected candidates are Barry Greenstein, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Tom McEvoy, Men Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Mike Sexton. Any of those nine who receive at least 75% of the vote will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, which will be part of a special Hall of Fame dinner ceremony at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table.

The voters must determine which nominees most deserve an induction this year. Each candidate is voted the following criteria:

–A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
–Played for high stakes
–Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
–Stood the test of time
–Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Current Hall of Fame members also have the ability to add a write-in candidate — someone they feel deserves consideration — but were not among the list of finalists this year. This write-in candidate will be added to the 2010 nomination list automatically. The voting members will receive their ballots this week and have until October 2, 2009 to submit their completed forms.

Before starting the 2009 WSOP, the WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack announced that the process for becoming a member into the Poker Hall of Fame would undergo a slight modification. Starting in this year, the Poker Hall of Fame started accepting nominations from the public.

Ten players received the required number of votes to make the nominees list. Tom Dwan, known as “durrrr” online, was the lone preliminary nominee left off the final ballot. The nosebleed cash game specialist only recently burst onto the poker scene but quickly gained worldwide fame after proposing a challenge to anyone in the world (except Phil Galfond) that believed they could beat him in a four-table heads-up format on Full Tilt Poker.

“With all due respect to Mr. Dwan, one of the games most exciting young players, he does not currently meet the criteria for Hall of Fame selection”, said a member of the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council. “We wish him well and expect he will again be considered once he has ‘stood the test of time’.”

The inductees will be invited to a special dinner held and hosted in their honor where they will give their induction speech and be awarded their commemorative trophy. Each of nine of the finalists will be invited to the dinner, and room will be reserved for additional family, friends, the current Hall of Famers and the media voting panel.

Ziigmund vs durrrr on Full Tilt Poker

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies did a fine job yesterday as he took down $600.000 on Full Tilt Poker.

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies

Ilari Sahamies tought few lessons to Tom Dwan in heads up yesterday. Ziigmund showed his skills when he won about $400k during few hundrend hands. Sahamies has been winning nicely lately.

Patrik Antonius made some nice money as well as he was able to make $120k profit. He had the honor to win the biggest pot which was nearly $300.000.

Tom Dwan was the biggest loser again. He has dug a deep, deep hole. He was able to lose -$865k and is down -$1.1 million for the week. Dwan’s downswing seems to hol.

Couple of Ziigmund’s hands:

Set holds against a wrap, $150k

All in on the flop, monster draw hits, $105k

Durrrr has some strouble, $108k

And some Antonius’ hands:

Antonius flops a set and Phil Galfond pays up, $295k

Patrik vs Phil Galfond again, $111k

Top3 winners:
1. Ziigmund     $607,000
2. Urindanger $338,000
3. DIN_FRU     $181,000

Top3 losers:
1. durrrr                       $-865,700
2. David Oppenheim   $-176,000
3. bixiu                         $-165,000

Source: highstakesdb

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Ziigmund vs durrrr on Full Tilt Poker

The Ziigmund heads-up clinic

In what seems to be a bit of a downswing, Galfond (aka OMGClayAiken) took the first shot at the Finnish star on two $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em tables.

Although the 171-hand session only lasted for around half an hour, Ziigmund managed to beat Galfond out of over $136k.

The lion's share of the profit came from just one hand where Galfond was unable to hit an ace after getting it all in with A J against Sahamies' K K .

After Galfond took his leave, it was Dwan (aka durrrr) who took on Sahamies, this time playing Pot-Limit Omaha at the same stakes.

It was another short session against one of the games strongest players, but Sahamies managed to come out of the session at a high point of $420k.

These two wins come as the only positives on the end of a losing streak since Sahamies returned to the high-stakes world.

With the Finnish bringer-of-action back winning pots this weekend, action may just blow up. Keep your eyes on our MarketPulse section to stay on top of all the action as it unfolds.

Here are Ziigmund's three largest wins of his heads up sessions:

Ace! Ace! Ace! ... *&%$.

Set versus wrap.

Wrap versus a pair.

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They’re back! Millions bet as PLO action blows up

Not only did both Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and David Benyamine win pots worth over half a million each, 22 other pots worth more than $200k were played throughout the night.

A staggering 95 out of the top 100 pots over the past 24 hours were worth over $100k, and the other five pots were less than $2k short of six digits.

It was the nine-handed $300/$600 PLO table "This is nuts" which saw most of the action, and every seat was filled allowing for some rarely seen full ring PLO action.

Perhaps even more startling was the absence of poker god Phil Ivey. Even with millions of dollars changing hands during the night, Ivey failed to make an appearance.

Although it's not possible to confirm individual results at this time, it appears Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond lost close to $1 million on the night.

Not only did he come up on the losing end of three pots worth over $300k, he lost the largest pot of the night to Sahamies worth over $555k.

When the nine-handed table broke, Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Sahamies took to playing $500/$1,000 PLO heads-up until the early hours of the morning. Mostly thanks to a $426k pot, it appears as if Ziigmund came out of the heads-up session with a profit.

Although Dwan spent the entire night at the tables, he seemed to have lost just as many pots as he won.

Take a look at the three largest pots below, or you can watch them all by clicking through to our MarketPulse section.

Not what Galfond had in mind.

Flop a set, chunk, hold - Easy game.

Antonius can flop sets too.

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Martonas Loses $1.4 Million on Full Tilt Poker

This weekend, the high-stakes action at the Full Tilt nosebleed tables was relatively calm compared to the Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) frenzy that transpired last weekend.  The slow action of Friday and Saturday brought an anticlimactic end to a week that saw the return of Durrrr Challenge play, a big winning week for Ashton “THEASHMAN103″ Griffin, and a substantial loss for the player known as “martonas.”

The bulk of martonas‘ $1.4 million downswing came at the hands of Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond last Friday at the $300/$600 PLO tables.  Martonas clashed with durrrr in two massive hands, one worth over $280,000 and another that sent $460,000 durrrr’s way.  In the latter hand, the two got it all-in on the flop with martonas holding a massive combination flush and straight draw to durrrr’s nut flush draw.  The river brought the third diamond to complete the flush and give durrrr the best hand.

It was a big night for durrrr, who picked up $1 million in profit.  Galfond also found success in last Friday’s session, bringing his end-of-day winnings to over $800,000.  Like durrrr, he also picked up a chunk of his bankroll off of martonas.  Meanwhile, martonas ended the day down nearly $1 million and that was not the end of his misfortune.  He dropped an additional $600,000 on Monday and, despite winning sessions on Sunday and Tuesday, ended the week as the big loser on Full Tilt with a $1.4 million loss from Friday, August 21st to Saturday, August 29th.

Other players who ended up in the losing column during that time include both Di “Urindanger” Dang and his brother Hac “trex313″ Dang, who each dropped in the vicinity of $300,000.  Several Full Tilt Red Pros didn’t fare too well this week, either.  David Benyamine, Haseeb Qureshi, David Oppenheim, and Gus Hansen all came out of the week in the red with six-figure losses.

While those sponsored pros had a rough week, several other names in red came out in the black, most notably Patrik Antonius.  He picked up much of his $500,000 in profit from two epic Durrrr Challenge sessions in which he was able to completely erase durrrr’s $726,000 overall lead in their infamous bet.  Now, Antonius is sitting with a slight lead of $76,104 and half-million dollars more in his Full Tilt account.  Richard Ashby and Phil Ivey also booked respectable weeks with profits of $190,000 and $163,000, respectively.

The big success story of the week is THEASHMAN103, who found himself up nearly $900,000 at week’s end.  His $1 million winning session on the tables on Tuesday resulted in the majority of that profit.  THEASHMAN103 continues to be one of the big winners of 2009 on Full Tilt Poker along with Antonius, CardRunners instructor Cole “cts” South, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.  Ziigmund had an impressive week himself, with $725,000 in winnings.

If this weekend is any indication, the fast and furious action on Full Tilt Poker may be hitting a lull.  With the live tournament schedule picking up and continuing high-stakes action in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, perhaps the attention of many players is diverted.  In his latest blog post, Doyle Brunson spoke of “insane” action at the Bellagio, so that could explain part of the dip in action at the online nosebleed tables.  Only time will tell if action will pick back up shortly, when Durrrr Challenge play will resume, and if martonas can rebound from his rough week at the tables.

Patrik Antonius Takes the Lead as Durrrr Challenge Resumes

After two months of no action in the Durrrr Challenge, many of the high-stakes railbirds began chirping about the possibility that the million-dollar bet’s hiatus might be permanent.  Despite the recent announcement that the Durrrr Challenge was going live in London, Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s action against Full Tilt pro Patrik Antonius had slowed to a snail’s pace, with no action at the Challenge tables and no talk of play resuming.

Dwan posed his now infamous Challenge at the beginning of the year.  He offered 2:1 odds on a $500,000 bet that he could beat a player heads-up online over the course of 50,000 hands at either $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha.  Antonius was the first player to step up to the plate and the two have been battling on and off since February.  After a fast start, Challenge play has been infrequent, with the duo putting in just a couple of sessions with weeks off in between.

Earlier this month, durrrr’s focus appeared to be squarely on the mysterious “martonas,” who burst onto Full Tilt’s high-stakes scene this summer.  While martonas got off to a profitable start, after several epic sessions with durrrr, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and others, his winnings dissipated.  Meanwhile, durrrr racked up over $2 million in profit last week, the bulk of which came courtesy of martonas.

Perhaps hoping to capitalize on his upswing, durrrr resumed Challenge play on Monday afternoon for nearly two hours before calling it a day.  Unfortunately for durrrr, his recent success did not carry over to his Challenge match, as Antonius cut durrrr’s overall lead of $726,000 in half.  Over the course of 795 hands, Antonius turned a profit of $392,347.50 before durrrr cited fatigue and called it a day.  Their session-ending chat indicated that they planned to continue logging hands in the Challenge:

durrrr: too tired, gonna try to sleep for a few hrs, mayb we can play later if ur free when i wakeup, gn
Patrik Antonius: ok

They didn’t resume play later that day, but returned to the tables on Tuesday evening for a lengthy session.  The two battled for four hours, playing a total of 1,241 hands.  Antonius once again logged a hugely profitable day and, at one point, had almost $1 million spread over the four Challenge tables.  He completely erased durrrr’s overall lead and was starting to put together a sizeable cushion of his own before durrrr retaliated by winning the biggest pot of the night (worth nearly $230,000).

By the end of play on Tuesday, Antonius emerged with the overall lead, but only a relatively small $76,104.  While that may sound like a big number, it is the size of a modest pot at the Challenge tables.  Both of this week’s sessions saw Dwan and Antonius sparring in smaller pots.  There were several hands in which the two got it all-in for six figures, but there were none of the $400,000+ pots that headlined their June session.  In fact, only a couple of pots eclipsed the $200,000 mark.

One such pot causing a lot of discussion on the forums and elsewhere is the aforementioned $229,558 one won by durrrr on Tuesday.  The action in the hand was raised back and forth five times before the flop and Antonius made a pot-sized bet after the board came Qc-9h-2c.  Durrrr moved all-in for slightly more than Antonius’ bet and Antonius called with his A-A-K-2 for an overpair of aces.  Durrrr turned up 9-7-5-3 for a pair of nines and needed quite a bit of help to take down the hand.  Help arrived on the turn with the 3c, giving durrrr two pair.  The two pair held with the 8c on the river and the pot was shipped to durrrr.

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond Running Really Bad

Just recently Phil Galfond wrote his latest blog entry where he reveals how frustrating it is to run bad at nosebleed high-stakes games. The figures aren’t that pretty when you are running $800k below equity.

Galfond ran godly a year ago on Full Tilt Poker as he was the second biggest winner in 2008, but now after frustration after frustration he has to rethink about his whole Poker career all over again; “I think I need to come to terms with the fact that I can’t rely on high stakes poker for my income,” he says. “My EV is still very good, but I need to have other reasons for playing: the challenge, fun, pride. Playing 50k hands a year of 300/600+ for the money is just setting myself up for disappointment. Even with a decent edge, I can’t expect to come out a significant winner more than 60% of the time.”

In his blog, Galfond ponders about the frustration and psychology behind Poker; how people can get into a cycle of bleeding tilt and negative thinking and how mentally draining the whole downswing will get. He surely knows what he’s talking about as he posted a graph showing his actual winnings vs his all-in EV. He’s down almost a million in just a bit over 4000 hands, $800k below EV.

You can check his graph and the whole blog entry at bluefirepoker.com.

Source: bluffeurope

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Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond Running Really Bad

Phil Galfond Running Bad, $800k Below Equity

In his latest blog at BlueFirePoker.com, Phil Galfond has revealed how draining it is being a high-stakes professional at the nosebleed stakes when you’re on the other end of those six-figure wins.

Martonas Shakes Up High-Stakes Games on Full Tilt

A newcomer joined the high-stakes cash games on Full Tilt Poker in August and has captivated the online poker world like we haven’t seen in quite some time. The player, who hails from Sweden, goes by the moniker “martonas” and has already clashed with Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, David Benyamine, Brian Hastings, and many others at some of the biggest No Limit Hold ‘em and Pot Limit Omaha games on the site.

Whenever an unknown makes an appearance in the nosebleed games it is automatically assumed that it’s either a high-stakes pro attempting to hide his or her identity or a wealthy novice taking a shot against poker’s best (much like billionaire Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who has lost millions playing on Full Tilt Poker). Either way, it attracts the sharks, and there has been no exception in the case of “martonas”, who has taken million dollar swings in 19 sessions since August 10th.

Speculation from the online poker community has linked the “martonas” account to several possible high-stakes regulars from Sweden, including Martin de Kniff, Jonas Danielsson, Bengt Sonnert, and a player with the online name Blom90, who came out of nowhere to obliterate the high-stakes No Limit games on the iPoker network early in 2009. Most of the talk has surrounded de Kniff and Danielsson, as Martin is rumored to be staking the young Swede. Danielsson regularly plays the biggest cash games on Ladbrokes as “nebuchad”.

Up until now, there hasn’t been enough information to confirm either of their connection to the “martonas” account.

The mysterious Swedish player went on a spectacular rush when he or she first burst onto the scene this month, taking close to $900,000 in a $500/1000 No Limit Hold ‘em session on August 14th. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Cole South each had substantial losses to “martonas”, which would go on to win $1.3 million by August 17th.

The nature of high-stakes cash games revealed its ugly face shortly after and it’s all gone downhill since. According to pokertableratings.com, “martonas” lost more than $2.7 million during a lengthy session on August 18th, most of which went to Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Full Tilt Team Pro member Brian Hastings, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Galfond made more than $800,000 from the Swede at both the NLHE and PLO tables while Hastings’ winnings were over $600,000. But it was “durrrr” who did most of the damage. More than $2.8 million of the “martonas” bankroll went to Dwan, who has now recouped all of his losses on Full Tilt Poker from the year.

“Martonas” lost $314,000 in their most recent session on August 21. Dwan, Benyamine, Galfond, Di “urindanger” Dang, and Ashton “theASHMAN103″ Griffin were all there to pick apart the newcomer and “martonas” hasn’t been seen on the site since. The player has lost close to $2 million on Full Tilt overall. Whether or not “martonas” went bust or is simply taking a break remains to be seen, but the top players in the game certainly look forward to a return.

Poker News Daily will continue to investigate the identity of “martonas” and will follow up with any addition info we can gather about the player. Stay tuned!

Dwan busts martonas?

The $300/$600 PLO tables were full of familiar names last night, but it was Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond who cut the table to pieces.

Dwan left the session with a profit of $1 million, while Galfond came in just behind at $821k.

Galfond made most of his profit ($581k) from the $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em tables, but his final $240k came mostly from martonas at PLO.

It was martonas who shouldered the majority of the Dwan/Galfond winnings ending the night down just under $1 million.

With this latest win Dwan is showing a profit of close to $2.5 million in just three days, the majority of that profit coming almost exclusively from martonas.

After two weeks of heavy action, it looks as if martonas is back to where he started, without a multi-million dollar roll.

Although it's possible he will take another run at the nose-bleed stakes, it's doubtful he has enough funds in his account to take a seat at the big games without first running up his roll at some smaller stakes.

Other players that were deep in the red after last night include Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin, down $415k, and online heartthrob Patrik Antonius who dumped $373k.

You can watch the three largest pots of the night in the players below, or head to MarketPulse to see all the largest pots of the session.

The $461k pot.

Galfonds big grab.

Martonas took a slice.

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Galfond takes martonas for $250k in PLO

After a week of epic No-Limit Hold'em sessions, martonas took his action to the PLO tables to play heads-up against Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonius and Di Dang.

Even with martonas winning two pots worth $417k and $233k, Galfond came out of the session with a profit of $250k.

The $417k pot came as a result of a set-over-set situation. Galfond had a four-card wheel draw to go with the one remaining three but bricked the turn and the river.

Martonas managed to win around $200k from Dang, mostly thanks to one $223k pot. His session against Antonius lost him only $50k, putting his total net losses at a mere $100k for the session.

Friday night is typically full of action at the Full Tilt tables, so be sure to check back tomorrow morning for a re-cap of the night's winners.

You can watch the three hands mentioned below, or head to the MarketPulse section to watch the top 100 largest pots of the night.

Five outs for Galfond.

Another martonas win.

Urindanger takes a hit.

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2 Months, $2 Million: Team Earns $35,700 in First Week

The new online poker reality show “2 Months, $2 Million” debuted on cable station G4 on Sunday night at 9:00pm ET. The half-hour program featured Dani Stern, Emil Patel, Brian Roberts, and Jay Rosenkrantz earning $35,700 in the first week of the two month challenge.

The thrill of Las Vegas life, the heartache of online poker, and the perks of being a self-made millionaire all took center stage on the show’s inaugural installment. The opening credits noted, “These four former math whizzes are four of the best online poker players in the world.” “2 Months, $2 Million” began with the quartet driving down the Las Vegas Strip to a luxury home in Sin City. When they arrived, the SUV erupted with a chorus of “Bing, bing, bow. Here is the house.” The new digs featured an outdoor pool, a spacious courtyard, and a high-tech war room complete with four desktop computers, leather office chairs, and oversized televisions displaying the action from the virtual felts.

The four youngsters introduced themselves and each gave their poker story. Patel told “2 Months, $2 Million” cameras, “At first, [my conservative Indian parents] were a little skeptical of me playing professionally, but when my mom found out how much money I was making, she said, ‘OK, you need to sit down and teach your dad how to play.’” Rosenkrantz admitted that it took him only a few years to turn a $100 deposit into a seven-figure bankroll.

One of the bedrooms in the house featured a princess-style room, complete with pink paint on the walls and a herd of stuffed animals. An Omaha poker tournament was held to determine who would become its resident for the summer in Las Vegas. In the end, Stern lost the sit and go and proceeded to rid the princess room of any toys before finally barely fitting on the bed. Patel received the master bedroom, which featured remote controlled curtains.

The crew then explained the “penalty stunt” to the viewing audience on G4: “The penalty stunt is the punishment for the lowest earner of the week and the purpose of those stunts is to force us to put in as many hands as possible.” Past penalty stunts have included Patel being pied in the face, Patel dressing up as a chili pepper and ordering food from Chipotle, and one of the cast donning a Smurf outfit for dinner.

“2 Months, $2 Million” then turned to Rosenkrantz’s struggles against fellow online poker player “Blewjob.” By the end of Week 1, Day 3, the team was down $38,000. However, Rosenkrantz alone had dropped $82,000, much of it seemingly ending up in the hands of Blewjob. He explained, “There are two days left in the week. I’m way behind everyone. I’ve stacked tons of money to this guy named Blewjob.” Roberts chimed in, “Jay has been playing a lot less poker this year. When he has played, his results haven’t been quite up to par.” A montage of pots won by Blewjob ensued.

The four poker players headed to AquaKnox at the Venetian for dinner. Roberts issued a pep talk to Rosenkrantz and Patel, the two lowest earners of the week: “No excuses. There’s nothing that should stop us from being the best players in the world from this point forward.” After a toast to “life,” Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond joined the foursome to lend advice. On Dwan, Rosenkrantz claimed, “My results aren’t as good as his, but what Brian said is right. There’s no reason I can’t dominate like they do.”

Rosenkrantz’s poker skills eventually took over, as he deciphered a timing tell on Blewjob. When his adversary took his time making a bet, he had a hand. If he checked the turn instantly, he didn’t have anything. If he stalled before acting on the turn, he was likely to check-call. Rosenkrantz commented on his eureka moment: “I know when I can steal pots from him.” Rosenkrantz, once down $116,000, ended the week up $4,600.

After Patel’s 25th birthday party at the Palms, the team’s tally for the week was revealed: Patel was up $8,600 and Roberts was up $42,000, the biggest winner of the group. Stern was down $19,500, the only player in the red, and he was forced to dress up in a leotard, tutu, and pink wig for his penalty stunt. A group of girls joined the cross-dressed poker player for dinner at a casino buffet, where he commented, “I do this to pick up women.”

Next week, Stern notes, “Sometimes the poker gods don’t smile on you” and he begins to drink when his session goes south. “2 Months, $2 Million” airs on G4 every Sunday at 9:00pm ET.

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond Wins $783,000.

LeggoPoker’s aejones was dominating the high-stakes NLHE tables yesterday, meaning we’re right to have their videos on our front page. He played just under 1,000 hands and walked away with a $618,000 profit including one huge $370,000 pot against Martonas, flopping top two pair with Ah-Th in a 3-bet pot 184BBs deep.

High-stakes pros return to No-Limit Hold’em

The night started off just as any other, with stars like Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Phil Galfond, and David Benyamine swapping $100k PLO pots before they traded in four cards for two and hit the No Limit Hold'em tables.

It was martonas, a player who only recently returned to the nose-bleed stakes, who caused the shift in games after asking Antonius to play him heads up on a six-max $500/$1,000 NLHE table.

After the other players on the site caught wind of the action, the remaining $500/$1,000 NLHE tables began to fill up.

For the first time in months, four tables of the highest stakes No-Limit Hold'em available online filled up with familiar faces.

Action was extremely high with gigantic pots being played regularly. There were three pots worth over $300k and another three just short. There were also 17 pots worth over $200,000 and even more worth over $100,000.

Online pro and respected LeggoPoker high-stakes instructor Aaron "aejones" Jones began dominating from his first hand; booking a $600k profit over 900 hands.

However, online favorite Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond trumped Jones' profit, shipping a massive $780k into his online roll.

With two players making a combined profit of over $1.3 million, there was little room for anyone else to book a win.

In fact, three of the largest names in the game, Dwan, Antonius and Ivey, all posted losses for the session.

However, Ivey managed to cover his $260k loss grinding a $480k profit playing PLO.

You can watch the two pots worth over $300k here, or head to our MarketPulse section to see all the action.

The largest pot of the night.

$300k for Galfond

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Phil Galfond - Poker Player Profile

Phil Galfond, known as “OMGClayAiken” and “Jman” online, is a nose-bleed stakes cash game expert who also occasionally plays the juiciest tournaments, on both the real and cyber felt. Galfond’s biggest live accomplishment to date is his victory in the 2008 WSOP $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha Rebuy event, which earned him $818K. Perhaps more impressive than the near million-dollar score are the players he beat to get it – the final table featured the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Kirill Gerasimov, and David Benyamine. Due to his reputation as a high-limit player, Phil Galfond has also appeared on GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” with friend and fellow player Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

Recognized as an extremely intelligent player, Galfond is said to have taken courses in logic, psychology and Bayesian probability, strictly to enhance his poker game. It’s this kind of dedication and focus that has impressed both poker fans and pros alike, making Phil Galfond one of the most widely respected players in the game today.

Cole South goes north for $800k on FTP

One of the most respected CardRunners instructors, South put in some serious time last night at the $200/$400 PLO tables with the likes of Gus Hansen, Rafi "howitfeelslike" Amit, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, sunra18 and Chau Giang.

South, who came up through the online poker ranks as CTS, seemed to have Hansen's number in the games and took numerous pots worth over $100,000 from the Great Dane.

In the biggest hand of the session, which actually ranked as the 12th biggest pot of the year, South flopped two-pair against Hansen's pair of aces. To rub salt in the wound South rivered the nut-flush to emphatically earn the checkmark and the $446,583 pot.

Over the past couple of days South has profited approximately $800,000 from the high stakes PLO games on Full Tilt.

South is perhaps a testament to how popular PLO has become over the last few years. When South joined Cardrunners several years ago his bio suggested he was just learning the game. Now he is winning $500,000 pots.

Meanwhile, if there was any ever doubt as to the level of Hansen's degeneracy, the last few weeks on Full Tilt have erased it. Hansen has played almost every day at the highest stakes available and although he's still sitting on a small profit, the swings have been huge.

Check below for a couple of the biggest South hands in the PokerListings hand-replayer:

Gus Hansen goes south.

Score one for Gus Hansen

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Strategy– Playing In Position with Phil Galfond

Phil "OMGclayaiken" Galfond discusses playing in position a hundred big blinds deep in a six-max No Limit Hold'Em cash game.

durrrr rules mega session on Full Tilt

Starting up late last night and continuing well into this morning, a group of well-known high-stakes online rounders, including Tom "durrrr" Dwan, were found playing $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha.

The session started with a table that featured Gus Hansen, Dwan, Di "Urindanger" Dang, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Brian Townsend, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Rafi "howisitfeellike" Amit and Jani "KObyTAPOUT" Vilmunen, but players like David Benyamine, Richard Ashby, Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro, Chau Giang and John Juanda all made appearances as well.

At one point the action was so heavy there were nine tables of $200/$400 going with about 1,000 fans on the rail.

The session was particularly notable because close friends Dwan, Galfond and Dang showed no reluctance to go after each other. At one point Dwan was even playing Dang three-handed.

With that much high-stakes PLO going on, it was only a matter of time before someone raked a monster pot and that honor went to Hansen, who managed to drag a pot worth nearly half a million dollars at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Hansen had the fortune of hitting the nut-flush on an 8 7 4 5 K board after Dwan shoved all-in on the turn with two-pair and a flush draw. Juanda also made the call with a set and a gut-shot straight draw.

In the end, Hansen raked $459,846, one of the top 10 biggest online hands of the year so far.

Somewhat surprisingly, Hansen is rumored to have finished the game as only a small winner, while Dwan was said to be up nearly $800,000, thanks in large part to a couple of $300,000 pots.

First Dwan flopped a set of kings and then proceeded to backdoor a king-high flush for the win. A little later he cracked Galfond's set of kings with a rivered king-high flush.

Dwan, Amit and Ashby were said to be the big winners while KObyTAPOUT, Benyamine and Kostritsyn sustained the biggest losses.

It's anybody's guess how long these epic high-stakes games will continue, but in the meantime you can check out how the action went down for yourself in the PokerListings hand replayer below:

Replay this hand at www.pokerlistings.com

 

Gus Hansen goes wild.

Can you say durrrr!

 

More from durrrr.

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Troy Weber Holds Commanding Chip Lead after Day 1D of WSOP Main Event

While Day 1D of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event might best be remembered for disarray, it was an industrial salesman from Indiana who swayed the attention of the poker world for at least a moment. Troy Weber, 38, finished the day as the commanding chip leader with 353,000 and was the only player to break the 200,000 chip mark through all four starting days.

Weber held the chip lead late in the evening and managed to add significantly to his advantage by winning a massive pot with just minutes remaining on the clock. The player seated directly to his left had built a stack of 150,000 and the two went to battle for the largest pot of the tournament to date. On a flop of J-8-3 with two hearts, the other player bet 7,000 and Weber check-called. Weber checked again when another eight hit the turn and his opponent bet 11,000. Weber raised to 30,000 and his opponent quickly moved all-in. Weber thought for several minutes before deciding to call. A large crowd gathered as the players revealed their hands:

Weber:
Opponent:

Weber’s trip eights were out in front and he earned the pot when the nine of diamonds landed on the river. Weber now holds one of the largest end of Day One stacks in WSOP history.

Reigning World Champion Peter Eastgate played on Day 1D and took center stage at the ESPN secondary table, where he stayed until the conclusion of play. Eastgate will take 44,725 chips into Day 2. Other former Main Event Champions to take to the felts on Day 1D were Bobby Baldwin and Robert Varkonyi, both of whom survived the day.

The man who took second to Eastgate in last year’s WSOP Main Event, Ivan Demidov, was eliminated. Joining him on the rail were his girlfriend and established poker pro Lika Gerasimova along with Dario Minieri, Huck Seed, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Mark Seif, Jeff Madsen, Steve Sung, and Daniel Alaei.

Notable celebrities who played on Day 1D included Ray Romano (actor), Jordan Farmar (Los Angeles Lakers basketball player), Marlon Wayans (actor and comedian), John Salley (former NBA basketball star), Lou Diamond Phillips (winner of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”), Joseph Kahn, and Sully Erna (musician). Farmar, Wayans, and Phillips survived the day.

The highest-ranked former WSOP gold bracelet winner from Day 1D is Josh Arieh, who hails from Atlanta, Georgia. Arieh, who took third in the 2004 WSOP Main Event for $2.5 million, bagged up 135,700 when play concluded. He doubled his 30,000 starting stack early in the day when he made the nut flush against an opponent’s second nut flush. From there, Arieh coasted to land among the chip leaders.

Here’s a look at how some other notable pros finished on Day 1D:

J.C. Tran – 139,975
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – 127,475
Kirk Morrison – 96,000
Phil Ivey – 84,025
David Benyamine 81,700
Kenny Tran – 65,600
Jen Harman – 61,125
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 59,000
Lee Markholt – 57,350
Tom “durrrr” Dwan – 24,100
Erick Lindgren – 20,450

Players who survived Day 1D will return on July 8th at Noon and merge with the survivors of Day 1C. Tuesday’s Day 2A will combine those that advanced from Days 1A and 1B. Players will take their seats at Noon on Tuesday and play five two-hour levels. Those that make it through will return on July 10 for Day 3, which will combine all of the players in the Main Event for the first time.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for continuing coverage of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

High Stakes Results of 2009 So Far.

Last year was a huge year for online poker that 2009 will have a hard time topping. In 2008, Guy LaLiberte donated eight figures to the nosebleed economy which resulted in several players making over $4m for the year, Phil Galfond enjoying nearly double that.

Phil Galfond: OMG The Series

High stakes cash game pro and 2008 bracelet winner Phil Galfond catches up with Card Player TV about this summer, his apartment's unique upgrades and more.

Run It Twice — Phil Galfond

Phil Galfond has become one of the most respected cash game players in the world during his short career. …

Online Railbird Report, Vol. 15: Benyamine, Galfond Book Strong PLO Wins

The World Series of Poker got underway this week and the online action predictably slowed, with even the most active players (Tom Dwan, 'DIN_FRU' and 'Zugwat')...

The PokerNews Interview: Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond

Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond is fast becoming one of the most successful poker players in the world. Last year the high-stakes cash player...

__FullFlush1__ calls Ivey table “fishy”

One might think this was just another vitriolic online outburst from the trash-talking high-stakes stud, but think again.

Schwartz made this bold pronouncement at the PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo High Roller event in front of the assembled talents of tablemates Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey.

Ivey seemed particularly interested in giving him a chance to prove it, offering a durrrr-style challenge to Schwartz over 50,000 hands at $200/$400 NLHE.

But only with some kind of handicap in place.

"I think I'd have no problem winning," Schwartz told PokerListings, casually dismissing the threat posed by Ivey. "But with a handicap, I may as well play Durrrr and get 3-1 on my money."

Although Ivey's proposition fell on deaf ears this time, the pair did cut a deal to swap percentages in this tournament, albeit in a somewhat unusual way.

"Instead of playing heads-up, we've got a little challenge riding on the tournament," Schwartz said. "It's called a crossbow or something. He has to give me 20% of what I cash and I have to give him 20% of what he cashes."

Seeing as the buy-in for the tournament is a chunky €25,000, this could prove expensive, but Schwartz certainly doesn't lack confidence.

A table loaded with Negreanu, Ivey and Hansen would be a source of nightmares for most players.

__FullFlush1__ is not most players.

"I didn't find the table tough at all," he said. "It was fishy, that's why I doubled up. Then I got moved to an even fishier table."

Although Schwartz was generally dismissive of the other talent, he had a few words to say in favor of tablemate Gus Hansen's play.

"Gus played alright actually," Schwartz said. "He played pretty tight and did well to bust Negreanu."

As for Negreanu, that's a bit of a different story.

"Hansen busted Negreanu with an overpair," he said. "I knew he had an overpair, Gus knew he had an overpair, the whole table knew he had an overpair. Gus' hand was face-up, but Daniel still called. I thought that was a bit fishy."

Schwartz certainly knows how to stir up controversy, but he claims his trash-talking antics are not there just to give him an edge.

"I don't need to do that," Schwartz said. "I'm better than those fish. I just say what I really think of them.

"Even I can make a mistake though. Today, I five-bet ace-nine for a third of my stack and this guy shoved. He obviously had aces!"

The PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo High Roller event is scheduled to wrap up Sunday.

For all the action from the EPT Grand Final check out PokerListings' Live Tournaments page.

To see what Schwartz had to say about his big-name high-stakes online opponents, like Phil Galfond and the Dang brothers, check out our exclusive interview with him from earlier this month.

Visit PokerListings.com

The Answer is Just Inches Ahead

As you progress through your poker life, certain paths will be trodden more than others. More people lose than win money at poker; more people experience untold frustration and anguish than those who experience nothing but success. Going through your poker life is basically no different than life itself. There are far more unsuccessful people in life than truly successful ones.

But does it really have to be that way? I say no! I have always maintained that literally anyone in the world, irrespective of background or their financial situation, can make a living playing poker. It isn’t about doing complicated things – it’s about doing really simple things and doing them well. I base my entire poker philosophy on simply not making mistakes and trying to get my opponents to make them first; there is nothing fancy in this whatsoever.

I actually stopped trying to be fancy years ago when I realised that to win money online required something more. So what obstacles do the millions of people out there who fail to make money at poker have to overcome? The following list highlights the basic problems faced by novice poker players.

1. They can be incredibly risk averse
2. They lack a clear methodology to enable them to win
3. They tend to lack enough funds to play with

There we have it then, millions of players around the world lack either money, a proven way to win or they are fearful of losing and getting hurt. Some players have only one or maybe two of these factors to contend with – and that is bad enough – but millions of players have all three to deal with.

Point number two can be worked around simply by education, and joining a coaching site can be a great positive step to take. Having no money is another serious obstacle, as you need money to play the game. But being risk averse is a very serious problem if you have hopes of playing the game for a living or as a serious revenue stream. This personality trait can be difficult to correct as it can lay deep within the subconscious part of your brain.

Over the past six months or so I have been working on a low-variance deep-stacked system of play at NL50 full-ring games (for players interested in my progress, check out my blog at www.pokersharkpool.com). I basically want to prove that literally anyone in the world can make between $2,000-$3,000 a month from playing poker with little starting capital and little variance.

It is perhaps my greatest ever project but one that should it succeed could change the face of online small-stakes cash games forever.

It is sad that millions of players simply perceive the act of winning money at poker to either be more difficult than – or not as difficult as – it actually is. The truth lays somewhere in the middle; a combination of doing a collection of very simple things well and in the right environment can convert anyone into a winner very quickly and there is certainly no mystique about the process.

Over the past few months I have started using the latest Poker Office 5 software while playing my usual $25-$50 no-limit ring games. This piece of software has totally transformed my game this year and I simply cannot recommend it highly enough. But yet for years I shunned software of this type and felt that I could make better decisions than any piece of electronic software.

While I consider my metagame to be strong, software like Poker Office really does open the doors for you with regards analysing your opponents’ weaknesses and thus helping you with game selection which is critical now at the higher limits. But this is just another indication that the way forward is right in front of your face and what we perceive as complex situations requiring complex answers are really very simple situations when broken down properly.

Poker is complicated but it is a mistake to elevate that complexity in your own mind. It is a bit like driving a car; you don’t need to have the skill of a professional racing driver to be able to drive around town. Poker is no different, and you certainly don’t need the ability of a Tom Dwan or a Phil Galfond to be able to make money at poker. There are way too many recreational players swimming around at the bottom for someone not to be able to make money if he or she is a little bit more dedicated than the players down there... also, a little push in the right direction helps as well.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean and on his blog at www.pokersharkpool.com