Poker News

Ivey Loses $320k to Ziigmund

Ivey has been somewhat of a ghost online in 2010 having played only 974 hands, while players such as Di "Urindanger" Dang have already booked over 34,000.

In his latest session Ivey played just 254 hands before throwing in the towel. He started at $300/$600 PLO against both Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Patrik Antonius.

Ivey only stuck around for 97 hands, earning $36k for his efforts.

About halfway into his session Ivey and Sahamies agreed to play heads-up on Ivey's personal $500/$1,000 table - the Ivey Thunderdome. This match lasted for 157 hands, ending with Sahamies winning $321k.

Ivey's $284k loss leaves him up just $32k on the year.

After losing $275k playing 7-Game, Sahamies finished the day with only $113k. This win continues his hot-streak, pushing his year's results to over $1.7 million.

Antonius continues to struggle at the tables, last night losing over $467k. Nearly half of those losses ($209k) went to Tom "durrrr" Dwan in the latest session of the durrrr Challenge.

Despite winning the largest pot of the night, worth almost $500k, Antonius lost $174k to Sahamies heads-up and an additional $83k in his PLO session with Sahamies and Ivey.

When added to his results for the year, Antonius is now the first player to be stuck over $1 million in 2010.

Below you can find the largest pots of the night, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

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Patrik Antonius Dumps $826k

Antonius' session started at $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha against Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

Dwan, who had been at the table for 30 minutes prior to Antonius taking a seat, left just a few hands after Antonius's arrival.

Just 20 minutes later, Dwan's spot at the table was taken by Cole South, setting the cast for the remainder of the session.

Despite his best efforts, and multiple re-loads, Antonius seemed doomed to end up on the short end of the stick, dumping over $800k in just two and a half hours.

Fellow Finn Sahamies took the largest chunk of profit from Antonius, thanks in part to winning the biggest pot of the session – worth just over $281k. In total, Sahamies won just over $436k.

Including another $252k profit mostly from a heads-up session against South and a $14k loss on another table earlier this morning, Sahamies earned a massive $674k for the day, making him the most profitable player on the year with over $1.5 million.

After making over $257k from Antonius and an additional $118k from $100/$200 PLO, it was looking like a big session for South until he sat down at $300/$600 PLO to play Sahamies heads-up again. The $252 loss left him with just over $165k profit on the day.

Dwan, who has been busy playing live poker at the Aussie Millions, added $164k to his comeback by playing a mix of PLO and No-Limit Hold'em. This latest profit leaves Dwan down only $240k on the year.

Below you can see the three largest pots from the day, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

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Top 5 of 2009: Isildur1 and the Seven-Figure Pots

With an eye on the great poker personalities that have made the scene and the interesting fodder they’ve provided for us over the past 12 months, we’ve come up with our very own Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.

The plan is to present them to you every other day from now until New Year’s Eve and we continue today with No. 2: Isildur1 and the Seven-Figure Pots.

An unknown Swedish player using the name Isildur1 first showed up on Full Tilt’s $25/$50 tables in September to very little fanfare.

Before long he was crushing the regulars, most notably taking close to $500k from Haseeb "INTERNETPOKERS" Qureshi.

Soon after he was taking on all comers at $200/$400, $300/$600 and even $500/$1,000 and the poker world began to take notice.

Those who weren’t paying attention were suddenly forced to when the unknown Swede rocked Tom "durrrr" Dwan for $3 million over four days of action in early November.

Isildur1 continued to pound on Dwan, raking in another $2.2 million, as players like Phil Ivey, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Brian Townsend and Patrik Antonius stepped up.

As he traded pots with the biggest names in online poker's biggest games, rumors of Isildur1's true identity ran rampant and Dwan was left shaking his head and hoping for another shot.

“He’s a big action player and he did very well versus me,” Dwan told PokerListings. “Hopefully we’ll play again in the future and things will swing more in my favor.”

The action really heated up by mid-November, when Antonius and Isildiur1 teamed up to break the one-year-old record for the largest pot in online poker history, tangling over a whopping $878,959.

Less than a week later they did it again, breaking their own record and playing the first ever seven-figure pot online, worth $1,356,947.

Just two days after that, Isildur1 won a $1.1 million pot off Ivey marking the second and only other time in history players have jousted over seven-figures online.

By the time the dust had settled, Isildur1 had helped set a new standard in high-stakes poker online, having found himself in the middle of seven of the ten largest pots in online poker history.

But the action was far from over.

While most of his earnings from Dwan had been dumped to Antonius, Ivey and Sahamies, it appeared Isildur1 had a sizeable enough bankroll to continue to take on poker’s premier high-stakes players.

Until CardRunners’ Brian Hastings came along, picking Isildur1 apart to the tune of $3.2 million on Dec. 9.

It would later be revealed that Hastings used reports and queries on Isildur1’s game put together by fellow CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend to help him destroy the Swede in one massive session, resulting in a suspension for Townsend.

But the damage was done.

Isildur1 posted a few more losses at smaller stakes and by late December was nowhere to be found.

However, by taking part in the seven of the ten biggest pots in online history, including the only two seven-figure hands ever recorded, the unknown Swede had certainly made his mark and earned the No. 2 spot on PokerListings’ Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.     

 

PokerListings' Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009:

• No. 5: The Emergence of Luke Schwartz
• No. 4: Yevgeniy Timoshenko’s Year
• No. 3: The durrrr Challenge

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Isildur1 May File Online Poker Data Mining Complaint

Online poker player "Isildur1" has been careful about keeping his identity a secret since bursting onto the high-stakes scene in October. However, poker publication PokerNews.com was able to track down the unknown Swede for an interview earlier this week to discuss his poker career, nosebleed matches with the game's best, and the recent scandal involving Brian Townsend and fellow Full Tilt Pros sharing hand histories.

Isildur1 has been on a wild ride since taking a shot at the highest games on Full Tilt. After recording massive wins over Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies early on, the Swede took severe hits to his bankroll during sessions with Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Brian Townsend. The million dollar swings caught the attention of the poker world and seemingly restored the Full Tilt nosebleed games that had appeared to be drying up in 2009.

When asked by PokerNews.com who his toughest and weakest opponents were at the $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha tables, the Swede didn't shy away: "Out of all the players I faced, I felt as if I had the biggest edge over durrrr. He tends to make some stupid plays, and I was able to take advantage of them. Phil Ivey was tough for me, as he only likes to play two tables at a time. But for me two tables is not enough action, and I had to play others at the same time."

While his losses to Ivey and others were gargantuan, it was a session against CardRunners instructor Brian Hastings that created a buzz never seen before in online poker. After five hours of ruthless heads-up Pot Limit Omaha action, Hastings walked away with $4.2 million of the Isildur1's money, leaving the Swede scratching his head over what took place during the richest match ever played online.

Shorty after the historic bout in an interview with ESPN, Hastings openly admitted to sharing hand histories with Townsend and Cole South in order to break down Isildur1's strategies. "Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here," Hastings told ESPN. "He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots."

According to Full Tilt's Terms and Conditions, such a practice is not allowed: "The use of shared hand histories provides detailed information on opponents a player has little or no personal experience playing against, and is deemed to be an unfair advantage. Violating this policy is subject to the maximum penalties for prohibited software use." PokerNews.com made sure to ask Isildur1 if he knew of the restrictions that the site had in place involving data-mining and hand histories.

"I was not aware of the exact rule that you just mentioned," he replied, "but since seeing that it is in fact a rule at Full Tilt Poker, I think I am going to put through a formal complaint, as I think this is a case where the sharing of hand histories directly affected the match I played with Brian [Hastings].”

“I played with Brian Townsend and Cole South a lot," Isildur1 continued. "They were always waiting for me. The last session where Hastings won all the money, it just felt like something was wrong. Everything that could go wrong for me did. Every time I tried to pull off a bluff of some kind, it felt as if it was being picked off. At the time, I just thought it was crazy luck, but now, knowing they shared a lot of their analysis of hand histories with each other, it makes a lot more sense.”

This eye-opening information resulted in a month-long suspension for Townsend from Full Tilt as a Red Pro, meaning he won't collect any benefits (such as 100% rakeback), but should be able to continue playing on the site. He confessed to the violation in his blog, saying, "Of the three I was the sole one to break the T&C of Full Tilt. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game."

Meanwhile, Isildur1 has virtually disappeared from Full Tilt Poker since his loss to Hastings, but he explained his reasoning behind his absence. "I still have a bankroll and will be back," he told PokerNews.com. " I am planning on putting in the request to Full Tilt to look into [the Townsend/Hastings situation] further, and until I hear back, I don't plan on playing much poker on the site.” Full Tilt Poker is the second largest online poker site in the industry, trailing only PokerStars.

We'll continue to bring you the latest high-stakes news involving Isildur1 and the Full Tilt Pros here at Poker News Daily.

Brian Hastings Beats Isildur1 for Over $3 Million

Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Brian Townsend had each taken big portions of the mysterious Isildur1's bankroll over the past month and a half. On Tuesday, it was Brian Hastings' turn. The 21-year-old Full Tilt Pro and CardRunners instructor brawled with Isildur1 at the $500/1,000 Pot Limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt and, five hours later, walked away with more than $3 million of the Swede's money, resulting in one of the biggest winning sessions in online poker history.

Isildur1 had a profitable weekend before colliding with the Hastings buzz saw on Tuesday. He played more than 11,500 hands with the likes of Townsend, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, and Tom "durrrr" Dwan, adding close to $3 million to his account and climbing out of the red as a winner on the site, according to PokerTableRatings.com.

As we've seen many times in the short span the Swede has graced Full Tilt's nosebleed games, Isildur1 lost most of it back. Hastings decided to take a shot against him on Tuesday and the action picked up right off the bat. In one of the very first hands of the match, Hastings raised his button to $3,000 and Isildur1 re-raised to $9,000. Hastings put in another raise to $27,000 and Isildur1 called. The flop came 10c-6h-2s. Isildur1 checked, Hastings led out for $40,000, and the Swede check-raised to $174,000, putting Hastings all-in. Brian called off his remaining $89,000 and showed Qh-Js-Th-8c for a pair of tens, but trailed Isildur1's Kc-Ks-Jh-10d, a pair of kings. The Kd fell on the turn, giving Isildur1 top set and Hastings several outs to hit a straight. Hastings would get there on the river, as an ace gave him Broadway and a pot of $311,000.

That hand seemed to presage the rest of the match between the two players. Isildur1 was the victim of a several of unlucky river cards during the session and when Hastings sat out with the intention of quitting ahead, the Swede let his emotions get the best of him in the chat box, saying, "just f off. u know how lucky u are? i can promise this is the worst luck anyone had."

Hastings agreed to play 30 more minutes, but things didn't change much. The biggest hand of the match came with Isildur1 sitting behind a stack of $252,463 and Hastings having more than $471,000. Again, Hastings raised the button to $3,000, Isildur1 re-raised to $9,000, Hastings 4bet to $27,000, and Isildur1 called. On the 10h-3s-3c flop, Isildur1 checked, Hastings fired $18,000, and the Swede called. The 6h came on the turn and again Isildur1 check-called, this time a bet of $72,000. He checked for a third time when the river brought the 4c and Hastings moved all-in. Isildur1 called and mucked his hand when Hastings revealed 8h-7d-5h-4d for a straight. The Full Tilt Pro pulled in a pot worth more than $500,000.

The amount Hastings won from Isildur1 Tuesday ranges between $3.2 million and $4.2 million, depending on which high-stakes database site you look at. Regardless, it was the biggest day of his poker career and he reflected on the massive win in his blog on CardRunners, saying, "Wow. I just had the biggest winning day in online poker history. Did this really happen? For it to happen, one needs a combination of very large amounts of both skill and luck. And here I am, winning a record $4.18 million in one day (well not exactly -- no I didn't have 100% of my own action, and no I am not going into any further detail about this) playing online poker.”

We'll continue to bring you the latest high-stakes action between Isildur1 and the Full Tilt Pros here at Poker News Daily.

Antonius Cleans up at 7-Game

The one rule of thumb in the high-stakes world is simple: The action will always follow the biggest fish.

And until Isildur1 showed up on the scene, it was Hansen at the top of everyone’s hit list.

“There has been a trend in the online high stakes,” Hansen told PokerListings. “People have been following this guy who is called Gus Hansen. So I think, very soon, there is going to be some action in the 7-game mix.”

With Isildur1 either taking a break or busto after his latest loss, Antonius, Chau Giang, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Matt Hawrilenko, David Benyamine, Brian Townsend, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, John Juanda and David Oppenheim all spent the night playing mixed games with Hansen.

Antonius came out on top, up over $510k, well ahead of Giang (AKA "La Key U" online), who finished next in line with almost $248k.

Surprisingly, it was the fish of the game who took third place in profit, with Hansen leaving the session up over $222k.

The largest loser on the night was Hawrilenko, who dropped over $432k. Second place on the bad side went to Sahamies, who ended the night down over $395k.

Townsend, who was one of the first high-stakes players to make the move to 7-Game earlier this year, lost over $312,000, twice as much as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who left the session down $153k.

The rest of the players either won or lost less than $100k.

For more on the latest trends in high-stakes online poker, and what the biggest names in the game have to say about it, check out PokerListings' State of the High Stakes Poker Nation.

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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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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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Townsend takes $1.1 million from Isildur1

Isildur1's morning began playing David Benyamine at $200/$400 PLO where he made $268k against the French pro.

At the same time, Isildur1 sat for some heads-up $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with Phil Ivey. Ivey stuck around for almost 200 hands, losing $85k in the process.

Up next came the main event of the day where Isildur1 and Townsend sat for 1,000 hands of $200/$400 PLO.

Despite the limit being less than half of what Isildur1 has been playing over the last week, Townsend still managed to win over $1.1 million.

Rather than making his profit from record setting pots, Townsend ground out the massive win from a series of pots worth no more than $305k.

When Townsend left the tables with his profit, Isildur1 turned his sights back on his most lucrative high-stakes rival, Tom Dwan.

Over 542 hands of $300/$600 PLO Isildur1 managed to take another $175k from Dwan, who continues to struggle in the midst of a massive multi-million-dollar downswing.

Finishing off the action for the day was high-stakes regular Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies. Sitting at $500/$1,000, Isildur1 lost $267k to the Finnish action player before throwing in the towel.

At the end of the day Isildur1 finished his session down over $976k.

Below you can see some of the largest hands from today's various heads up battles. If you'd like to see more, head to MarketPulse.

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Tom Dwan thrashes Sammy George in London

Tom "durrrr" Dwan's live 500-hand challenge concluded in London last night - after losing a marginal sum (well, $22,500) to "luckexpress" and winning $68,000 from Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, he destroyed Sammy George to earn $750,000 and give himself a near $800,000 profit for the three sessions.

durrrr takes $750k from George to wrap challenge

After losing just $22,500 to Marcello "luckexpress" Marigliano in the first match, and beating Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies by a slim $68,000 in the second, Dwan took a whopping $750,000 off George in the final match of three at London's Les Ambassadeurs club.

The game was No-Limit Hold'em with a $250,000 buy-in and Dwan dominated from the outset, forcing George to rebuy when his aces held against the Londoner's big slick.

He then pushed George off two pair with a massive $400,000 all-in bet into a more than $130k pot holding nothing but seven-deuce.

The board read A♥ J♥ 6♥ 3♣ with George holding A♦ 6♣ to Dwan's 7♠ 2♥.

After George checked, Dwan led out. George called and when the 3♦ fell on the river, Dwan simply pushed all in.

The two had a $10,000 seven-deuce prop-bet going, meaning anyone who won a pot and showed seven-deuce would get paid.

As a result, when George couldn't make the call after five minutes in the tank, durrrr showed the bluff.

To be fair, Dwan admitted he would have folded as well.

"I am bluffing with any hand I get to the river with that isn't a pair or better, but it's so rare that I get to the river without a pair, so his fold is pretty reasonable and I would make the same fold just about every time," he explained after the match.

"Once Sammy checked the turn I had to bet in my mind as I thought I was going to win a lot of the time. On the river I might have given up, but on the board-pairing river I think it was an easy shove, as it's so believable that I have a full-house there and Sammy has a tough call with any hand.

"He rarely has a full house and it's likely he just has aces or something like that, so I really like my shove on the river and fortunately Sammy didn't make the hero call. It would have been an absurd call and luckily for me he didn't make it. I was pretty worried for a while that he was going to make it but thankfully it worked out."

George said he almost made the call, but couldn't pull the trigger.

"He either had the nuts or nothing and I was so close to calling," he said. "But you can't in that situation. If I'd called and he has the nut-flush I'm an idiot, if I call and he has air, I'm a hero."

George called the hand a turning point in the match and Dwan's domination continued after as George was forced to rebuy again, finally tapping the mat when he went broke just before the allotted 500 hands were through.

Gracious in victory, Dwan said the cards simply fell his way all night.

"I don't think I played too well today, I just think I happened to get a bunch of hands, like I don't think Sammy played badly, he just happened to be on the wrong side of some tough spots," he said. "It's easy to look like a genius when you have the best hand every time, and easy to not look like one when you get beat every hand."

Matchroom Sports' Eddie Hearn labeled the challenge a success and said there are plans to do it all over again on the other side of the pond in 2010.

"The last three days has been a rollercoaster of swings and emotions at the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge," said Hearn. "All-in-all, the event was a huge success and we are already in talks to take the challenge to the States early next year."

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Isildur1 beats Ziigmund out of $1,000,000

Isildur1's continuous multi-million dollar swings resumed at Full Tilt Poker last night, as Scandinavia went to war with millions of dollars at stake. Swedish phenomenon Isildur1 took on Patrik Antonius and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies - aka Finland's finest - across six tables of heads-up Hold 'em and Omaha.

Dwan dumps first match in live durrrr challenge

The players bought in for $250,000 each and after 12 hours of play at the Les Ambassadeurs club, Marigliano was up $22,500.

"In the end I won a small amount, but I'm happy though, as I won with bluffs," said Marcello. "He raised a lot pre-flop and you have to play tight, but I made some good moves and I'm happy I proved I can play with Tom."

It was a back and forth affair featuring 11 hours of No-Limit Hold'em followed up by an hour of Pot-Limit Omaha with both players down over $100,000 on more than one occasion.

In the end, durrrr won 55% of the pots, but several key hands and larger pots went the Italian's way.

Marcello first moved ahead in the match bluffing the newly minted Team Full Tilt Pro off of a $100k pot with king-high.

Dwan reloaded and chipped away until he was $100k up, but Marcello struck back hard flopping a full house to get even and taking the lead with a flush over flush hand.

The players switched to PLO in the final hour of play and although durrrr came back, he couldn't get all the way there before 500 hands and 12 hours were through.

"It was a really aggressive match," said Dwan. "It's so crazy that at the end there was just a 25k difference - that's absurd. It's so unlikely that one of us didn't lose 500k.

"I was up 150k at one or two points and down 200k - but it still wasn't as swingy as I thought it would be. We didn't have many big hand versus big hand spots, or even medium hand versus medium hand spots. I expect there to be more action in the matches with ziigmund and Sammy George."

The durrrr versus Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies match is already underway in London and the Full Tilt durrrr Million Dollar Challenge presented by Matchroom Sport will end with Dwan playing George Thursday.

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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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Tom Dwan issues live challenge to Isildur1

 

Dwan recently invited Isildur1 to play the live Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge, which is scheduled to take place Nov. 17-19, 2009, in London.

The event, which is being organized by Matchroom Sport, will play out at the Les Ambassadeurs club in Mayfair.

"We have had some tough games over the last few days and the action just keeps on coming," said Dwan, who recently became a member of Team Full Tilt.

"I hope he can make it to London for the challenge so we can play some high stakes live games as well."

Isildur1 and Dwan have been battling at the highest stakes available online all week long and Isildur1 has proven to be a formidable opponent. As of Friday, Dwan was down over $3 million to the unknown online pro, who is rumored to be Swedish.

"The poker community seems to have stood still over the past few days to watch this epic online match-up between Tom and Isildur1," said Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport. "We are hoping he can come out from behind his avatar to be part of TV history in London."

The rules of the heads-up match are simple: blinds are $500/$1,000 and each player buys in for $500,000. Neither player can leave until they are broke or 500 hands are complete. Dwan's opponents will have the option to choose No-Limit Hold'em or Pot-Limit Hold'em.

There are already three players confirmed for the challenge. Aggressive Finn Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies will buy in, as will UK businessman Sammy "any two" George and online cash game whiz Marcello "Luckexpress" Marigiano.

"This is poker in its most raw form - two players battling it out for $1 million, mano-a-mano," said Hearn. "It doesn't get any bigger than this."

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Isildur1 doomswitches Dwan for $460k

Not only have Dwan and Isildur1 played heads up for the last three days straight, but the still unknown Isildur1 has managed to come out on top in all three sessions.

After this most recent session Isildur1 is up over $2.3 million from the last three nights alone.

Mostly due to the $2.3 million in losses to Isildur1, Dwan has managed to dump a staggering $3 million over the last week.

Last night's losses can be mostly attributed to durrrr losing the three largest pots of the night. The pots were worth a mind-boggling $588k, $611k and $695k, the latter being the biggest pot recorded this year.

The second largest pot of the night was also one of the most interesting. After Isildur1 re-raised Dwan pre-flop with 5♠ 7♠, Dwan made the call with 3♠ 6♠.

The flop (6♣ K♠ 7♥) gave each player a pair, but it was the turn (6♣ K♠ 7♥ 4♠) that sparked the fireworks.

With both players holding a pair, gut-shot straight draw and flush draw, they assumed they had as many as 17 outs to win.

Unfortunately for Dwan, Isildur1's hand killed twelve of his outs, leaving Dwan with only five for the win. The river came as a blank to both players, with Isildur1's pair of sevens good enough to take the $611k pot .

Surprisingly, it seems as if Dwan's losses are specific to his rival Isildur1.

While losing money hand over fist on the NLHE tables to Isildur1, Dwan won $520k from Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies playing $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.

With the $520k from Ziigmund factored in, Dwan actually came out of the night with a marginal profit of $60k.

Below you can see how the three largest pots of the session played out. If you want to watch more, head to our MarketPulse page.

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Ziigmund to face durrrr in the 500K live PLO heads up challenge

The mad world of Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies has taken an exciting spin in light of news he is to face Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan in the $500K live durrrr challenge next week in London.

Dwan loses another $1.3 million

It appears Dwan's biggest leak is table selection, as he chose to spend his entire night sitting across from two of the most feared and respected players in the world: Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Phil Ivey.

Dwan's night started on his two private $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tables with Sahamies and the action was nothing less than furious with a $160k pot played just three hands in, and multiple $300k pots played over the duration of the session.

After almost two hours and 274 hands, Sahamies came out well on top with over $626k of Dwan's money.

Dwan then went on to play the same game heads up against Ivey, quickly losing $200k over a short 35-hand session.

However, Dwan wasn't just getting schooled on the PLO tables. His attempts at making some of his losses back by playing 7-Game went just as poorly.

Across 1,053 hands Dwan lost another $475k on the mixed tables bringing his losses on the night to $1.3 million.

In the end, Ivey came out with the largest profit of $586k, over $100k ahead of Sahamies' final $463k result.

Patrik Antonius failed to keep his year's profit above the $7 million dollar mark, losing a little over $140k, but still remains the year's top earner by more than $3 million.

Below are replays of some of last night's largest pots, head to MarketPulse to see the rest.

Ziigmund hit the **** out of that flop.

the seven of clubs = Dwan's money card.

Aces hold.

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Durrrrswing: Dwan dumps $1 million

The high stakes tables were actually brimming with action last night.

On top of a little No-Limit Hold'em and nose-bleed stakes 7-Game action, Ivey took on both Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Dwan at heads up $500/$1,000 PLO, crushing the game for over $800k.

Considering Sahamies made it out of the PLO bloodbath with a profit of $85k, Ivey's profit seems to have come almost entirely from Dwan. Over 627 painful hands, Dwan lost a grotesque $1.1 million.

Despite his efforts to subsidize his PLO losses through Hold'em, Dwan could only manage to grind back $100k, ending his night down seven figures.

Ivey was unable to repeat his PLO performance on the NLHE tables, but it wasn't for lack of effort. After 515 hands, Ivey lost over $377k, finishing his night with just over $418k in profits.

On the 7-Game tables, David Beyamine finally pulled off a win, playing 3,576 hands to earn $408k. Patrik Antonius sat for 1,000 of those hands to make $248k of his own.

In fact, Antonius pulled one of the biggest overall wins of the night, adding another $452k in PLO profits to his 7-Game figures. Over 1,200+ hands, Antonius finished the night $700k in the black.

Below are some of the largest hits Dwan took on the night, including one disgusting loss with the big full. To see a dozen more $100k+ pots, head to MarketPulse.

To be fair, Dwan was behind from the start.

This makes me throw up a little.

It just wasn't Dwan's night.

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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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Poker News in Brief: Oct. 12-18, 2009

With both the World Series of Poker Europe and the PokerStars European Poker Tour London completed, it was up to smaller events like the Aruba Poker Classic and the PartyPoker World Open V to provide poker headlines.

The relatively unknown Brandon Hall became the champion in Aruba while the very well-known Phil Laak took down the World Open V.

But there were several stories that didn't make it to the front page of PokerListings.com and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we've presented them below.

This week we'll take a look at the Poker Professor holding class, Doyle Brunson getting some recognition and Vladimir Geshkenbein becoming a heads-up champion.

Lederer wins $10k H.O.R.S.E. prelim at Bellagio

Howard Lederer added another poker title to his resume this week and he only had to beat 19 players to do it.

The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. WPT Festa al Lago preliminary event wrapped up on Thursday after drawing a small but skilled field that included Eli Elezra, Michael Binger, Andy Bloch, Scott Clements, David Singer and several other established pros.

Lederer beat Russian pro Ralph Perry in heads-up play to secure a first place prize of $92,150. Despite two final tables at the WSOPE this year, Lederer hadn't won a major tournament since taking down the $100,000 buy-in event at the 2008 Aussie Millions.

Lederer, who is sometimes known as the "Poker Professor", now has over $5 million in career tournament earnings.

Doyle Brunson inducted into Athletics Hall of Fame

Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson is perhaps the most famous player in poker, but this week he was recognized for his athletic achievements.

After years of waiting patiently, Brunson was finally inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Hardin Simmons University.

Before he started playing poker for a living Brunson competed in track and played basketball at HSU.

Brunson was a key member of an HSU basketball team that won its conference championship for a spot in the NCAA Division 1 playoffs. Brunson scored 412 points and was the only HSU athlete in any sport to be named the MVP of the Division 1 Border Conference.

Brunson was initially passed over for Hall of Fame recognition because of his involvement in the poker world.

The Texas Dolly is still one of the most popular poker players in the world and his twitter account "TexDolly" recently hit over 41,000 followers.

PKR Heads-Up Grand Slam for Vladimir Geshkenbein

Vladimir Geshkenbein outlasted some of the biggest names in poker to win the PKR Heads-Up Grand Slam this week.

The Russian beat Juha Helppi in the final heads-up match to take down a first place prize of $120,000.

The field was comprised of 32 players including Tony G, Tom Dwan, Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestad, Peter Eastgate, Sammy George, J.C. Tran and numerous other high profile poker players.

Fans were hoping for a live resurrection of the online rivalry between Dwan and the trash-talking Schwartz, but were disappointed when Dwan busted out in his first match. Schwartz didn't make it much further, busting in his second match.

No one could figure out a way to beat the lesser-known Geshkenbein, who did win the high roller event at APPT Macau earlier this year. Geshkenbein has now earned nearly $400,000 playing poker in the last few months.

Forum tournament winner to play Ziigmund

A series of Online Forum Challenges are set to take place on Power Poker over the next few months with the ultimate winner getting a shot at celebrated high-stakes player Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

Power Poker will be hosting a series of tournaments over the next three months as part of the Online Forum Challenge and any player that takes part in every event will be entered into the Heads Up with Ziigmund freeroll.

The freeroll will offer a prize pool and a bounty in addition to the winner getting a chance to play Sahamies heads-up for $1,000.

All poker forum members are welcome to take part in the challenge and you can learn more by going to the Online Forum Challenge website here.

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Townsend beats Dwan out of $200k

Earlier this year it would have been hard to place Brian "Sbrugby" Townsend amongst the top online players in the world. The Full Tilt pro had been losing consistently and couldn't seem to make a big score.

By spending the whole year grinding his way through the lower limits, Townsend has only recently made his way back to the spotlight and Full Tilt's high-stakes tables.

For all the Sbrugby lovers out there, it appears as if Townsend's losing streak is over and his roll is once again large enough to put him back into the big games.

Last night Townsend sat for 200 hands of heads-up $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Dwan and the session was almost entirely one sided. Even though Dwan won the biggest pot, worth $144k, Townsend won the next eight pots on the list.

The largest pot of the session came as a gift to Dwan, getting it all in after flopping a full house. Townsend stood little chance of catching up with just two outs to a better hand.

The second and third largest pots show Townsend playing extremely well, and grabbing enough luck to hit once, and hold once, both times taking Dwan's full stack.

At the end of the night, Dwan had left having lost just under $200k, while Townsend went on to play 50 hands against high-stakes regular OnTheRize finishing with a $286k profit.

In H.O.R.S.E. action, Phil Ivey lost over $330k, nearly a third of his profit from yesterday's blow out. Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies claimed the top spot of the night collecting most of Ivey's losses for a final figure of $336k.

Patrik Antonius was also in the mix, netting himself $168k, while Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond lost over $100k in the game.

Here are the three largest pots of the night between Dwan and Townsend, to see more hands of Omaha and Hold'em, click over to the PokerListings MarketPulse page.

I say to myself, what a wonderful flop.

Townsend could not have played this better.

It's amazing this hand held.

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High roller Glantz takes EPT London £20k

But he will leave London the 2009 PokerStars London EPT High Roller champion.

Glantz, who hails from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, outlasted a field of 75 elite players to grab the title and £542,000 first-place prize Friday.

"There were tons of great players," Glantz said. "Probably, out of the top 100 tournament players in the world, 50 to 60 were in this tournament."

Among those who put up the £20,000 buy-in were Full Tilt's Phil Ivey, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott and Team PokerStars Pros Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

The final table featured 2007 WPT Five Diamond champ Eugene Katchalov, 2008 November Niner Dennis Phillips, and online nosebleed stakes legend Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

Glantz beat Erik Cajelais heads-up, a little over a week after Cajelais took down his first major tournament, winning the 2008 WSOPE $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha event.

Primarily a cash-game pro, Glantz' previous top tournament finish was a fourth place finish for $568,320 at the 2008 WSOP $50k H.O.R.S.E. event and said he plays tournaments more for the competition than the cash.

"I don't plan on ever making a living from tournaments," he said. "It's like a challenge. It's like a sport to me. Cash games are more of a grind, doing the same thing over and over again, while tournaments are more of a meta-game.

"Cash games are more of a logical way to beat your opponents while in tournaments it's more fun to try to get inside your opponent's head."

In fact, Glantz admitted he has difficulty finding the motivation to play tournaments, considering the cash stakes he regularly plays.

"To tell you the truth, I know it sounds crazy, but this one was harder to get motivated for because you are putting up £20,000 to win £500,000," he said. "You're only getting 25 to 1 on your money and you have to beat 75 great players, so it's hard to motivate you there.

"On the other side it was nice to only have to beat 75 players as opposed to a big tournament where you have to beat like 2,000 players - it seemed a lot more attainable."

Glantz, who regularly blogs about playing high-stakes cash, prop betting, cross booking and playing Chinese Poker for $1,000 a point with some of the biggest names in the game, said he hopes the money doesn't get bled off there.

"That's Roland (de Wolfe's) plan and some other friends I have, but no, we don't play that big in Chinese, we play big enough, you can lose enough, but not those numbers."

For now, Glantz plans on playing the main event at PokerStars EPT London before heading back to the United States.

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The life of Ivey: $950k in 756 hands

The list of players trading pots last night reads like a railbirds dream with Phil Ivey, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Gus Hansen, Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, martonas and POKERBLUFFS all punching in for a session.

Ivey sat for most of the day yesterday playing a mix of six-max $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em and Fixed-Limit HORSE, crushing all opposition for over $950,000.

Surprisingly, Ivey's largest No-Limit pot came in at just over $200k, only the sixth largest pot of the day.

The largest pot, worth $448k, belonged to Antonius with kingsofcards, the most recent addition to the regular high-stakes degenerates, on the losing end.

Mostly thanks to Antonius, Marchese's session could not have gone much worse, booking a loss worth well over half a million dollars.

Despite the beating he gave Marchese, Antonius's losses to Dwan and Ivey still resulted in the Finnish pro losing nearly $50k, including $270 dropped in a 400 hand session of the durrrr Challenge.

Full details and updates on the latest Challenge session can be found here.

Gus Hansen stayed away from all No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha tables, choosing instead to play Limit HORSE. But thanks to Benyamine, Ivey, Richard Ashby and Sahamies, Hansen still booked a whopping loss of over $840k.

Finally, action instigator martonas had another losing session, this time minimizing his losses to just over $100k.

With this recent donation bringing his results to a new career low of over $2.5 million in losses, one has to wonder where the unknown Swede finds the funds to refill his roll.

With multiple players taking swings over $500k over the last few days, all signs point to this weekend being absolutely filled with high-stakes action.

Keep your browser pointed to MarketPulse to stay on top of it all.

Here are the three largest pots of the day (not including any durrrr Challenge action):

You have to love holding an overpair.

Antonius gets flushed.

The two outer turn.

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The hits continue: martonas drops another $500k

The martonas comeback began with a $200k win on Sunday night. But when the Swedish gambler tried for a repeat the next night, he lost over $500k to Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese and Aaron "aejones" Jones.

If martonas is one thing, he's persistent. Last night he returned to the highest-stakes games online, and for the second night in a row, he managed to get beat out of half a million dollars.

Almost every nosebleed-stakes player in the game could smell the blood in the water, causing an absolute frenzy of action.

In fact, the top 25 pots of the night alone amounted to over $6.1 million wagered.

Patrik Antonius, whose appearances on Full Tilt's tables have been sparse in contrast to last year, has returned with a vengeance, proving once again he is one of the most prolific online players ever.

Last night Antonius was involved in four pots worth over $300k, including the largest pot of the night worth a massive $496,023. Antonius won the top pot by snapping off Marchese's bluff, making a $101k call on the river holding nothing but king-high.

Despite losing the half-million dollar pot, Marchese managed to minimize his losses down to just over $100k.

Playing on the same tables as Antonius and Marchese, POKERBLUFFS picked his spots well, playing fewer hands than his opponents but taking down the majority of those he chose to play.

At the end of the night, POKERBLUFFS finished with an impressive profit of $488k.

On top of all the No-Limit Hold'em action, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Phil Ivey took turns pulling down massive pots while playing heads up $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.

Even after winning all five of their largest heads-up pots, Sahamies was unable to leave the table with any more than $150k of Ivey's money. However, by winning some large pots in other games, Sahamies brought his final result on the night to just over $230k.

The night was a complete bust for Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin who cut his month's profit of nearly $1 million in half, losing close to $480k playing NLHE.

Regardless of who won or lost over the last few days, one thing is almost certain: As long as martonas continues to return to the tables, the action will be through the roof.

Here are the three largest pots of the night, head to MarketPulse to see the rest:

Both players knew they both had the draw.

$146k on a draw.

A nice turn for Antonius.

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Sick action: Ziigmund, durrrr, martonas, Ivey

There were no less than 16 pots worth over $200k, 67 pots between $100k and $200k, over $14 million wagered and one very bad night for unknown Swede martonas.

After winning close to $200k a night earlier, it appears martonas booked over a half a million in losses on the session despite winning the second largest pot of the night.

Outside of the one $284k pot it was literally a martonas bloodbath, as he lost a string of pots in the $200k range to Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese, Aaron "aejones" Jones and Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

Despite his strong presence in the top pots of the night, Marchese ended his session down around $60k, but mostly thanks to martonas, Jones walked away from the tables with over $350k in profits.

The surprise of the night would have to be Phil Ivey joining martonas in the red. A quick addition of the nights biggest pots show poker's most feared player down nearly $300k.

But the real story was a common one on Full Tilt's high-stakes tables: Tom Dwan playing Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies heads up on his own $500/$1,000 PLO tables.

Although concrete numbers have yet to surface, it looks as though Dwan managed to come out ahead in the battle.

Out of the 23 pots from the session to make the top 100 list (worth a combined $3.7 million) Dwan came out nearly $150k in the black.

Below are the three largest pots of the night. For a look at pages full of Ferrari-sized pots, head over to MarketPulse and get a real feel for last night's action.

Sahamies = hard to bluff.

A cold deck for the king.

Marchese gets his own hand.

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Finn Vilmunen takes WSOPE PLO title

The 36-year-old PLO cash game pro defeated the legendary Howard Lederer heads-up inside London's Casino at the Empire Friday to win the WSOP Europe's £5,000 PLO event and its £204,048 first-place prize.

"I would think that it would be an even greater feeling, but I just felt I was going to win," he said. "When I was playing I felt the whole time that it was going to happen, so when it came the last card I felt like I would be celebrating a lot, but no."

Vilmunen, who also won the €1,000 PLO event at the Finnish Open Championships in 2008, said his recent success in PLO tournaments is mostly due to patience.

"I always play aggressively, but I had to keep my aggression level quite low," he explained. "That helped my game so much, because I was over-aggressive and that's why I didn't win tournaments before.

"Now I give my opponents the chance to make mistakes and before I didn't. I just tried to run over the table all the time."

Fellow Finns Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies, Patrik Antonius and Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro have dominated the biggest online PLO games in recent years and Vilmunen's recent success would appear to put Finland at the top of the world rankings when it comes to this variant of poker.

Vilmunen, who goes by KObyTAPOUT on Full Tilt Poker, said he really isn't sure what the Finnish secret to PLO success is, but he has a few ideas.

"Maybe we are a little bit crazy," he said. "The new generation is playing Texas Hold'em, of course, because of the Internet. But when I did start to play we played only PLO cash games.

"There are great rally drivers and formula one race car drivers from Finland and maybe the fact that this is a fast game as well excites us, I don't know."

PokerListings' comprehensive coverage of the World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair will continue with Day 1a of the Main Event beginning at 12 p.m. BST Saturday.

You can catch that and all the action from Vilmunen's win on our Live Tournaments page.

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Europeans dominate inaugural Caesars Cup

"We destroyed them," said European captain Annette Obrestad. "They had no chance."

The made-for-TV tournament held at Casino at the Empire began with an odd brand of team poker where partners on either side of the table swapped control on each street.

The first match saw Finns Patrik Antonius and Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies make quick work of Americans Phil Ivey and Huck Seed.

Americas Captain Daniel Negreanu joined with 11-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth to take on Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Betfair Poker qualifier John Harvey in the next match.

Europe grabbed a 2-0 lead when they got it in with ace-three against pocket aces and managed to suck out a straight.

The Americas fought back in the third match when Doyle Brunson and Jennifer Harman made a miraculous comeback to defeat Dario Minieri and Obrestad.

However, the European team took a commanding 3 to 1 lead when Denmark's Gus Hansen and Peter Eastgate beat John Juanda and Barry Greenstein, the latter running king-jack into ace-ten and failing to improve.

The format moved to heads-up next with Obrestad taking on Seed.

The young Norwegian took control after getting it all in with middle-pair-top-kicker against Seed's pair and a flush draw and managed to hold.

The match and the event were over soon after when Seed found himself all in with a dominated ace.

An ecstatic Obrestad said her decision to value youth over experience in choosing teammates for the event proved the right one.

"I would say that we outplayed them for the most part," she said. "We didn't make that many mistakes at all and we didn't get that lucky.

"The thing is in Europe there are not that many professional poker players like they have in the States. We don't have any Doyle Brunsons in Europe. Most of the guys who are experienced are young."

Negreanu saw things a little differently.

"Two things," he said. "First of all, in all the key situations, whether it was an ace versus an ace or whatever, they won every one of those. A lot of the key hands we just got unlucky in.

"Secondly, the specific format really didn't allow players, like Phil Ivey for example, to exhibit his strengths. It was all-in poker."

Coverage of the event will air on ESPN in the new year.

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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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November Niner hits up high stakes on Tilt

Akenhead, who became a Full Tilt pro after making the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, is on the path to proving that booking his spot in the November Nine was no fluke.

He sat for over 400 hands at the highest-stakes game running last night and left the table with $75,000 more than he came with.

His biggest win of the night came from an $80k pot against Gus Hansen, where he completed his flopped open-ended straight draw on the river.

As expected after yesterday's $300k win, Hansen returned to the tables looking for a repeat. But his night didn't go as planned as he lost the majority of that $300k over a session of 1,700 hands.

His $200k in losses was evenly spread out to opponents including: Hac "trex313" Dang, Di "Urindanger" Dang, Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin and Akenhead.

The largest winner on the night was Griffin, who booked a $160k win to bring his yearly profit back up to just under $3 million and putting him just behind Patrik Antonius ($4 million) and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies ($3.1 million).

The high-stakes action typically heats up going in to the weekend. Keep your eyes on our MarketPulse section to stay on top of the action.

Here are some of the largest pots of the night:

theASHMAN103 cometh.

Akenhead FTW.

Quads usually win.

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