The Online Railbird Report: Hansen Loses a Million; Amundsgard & Cates Finish on Top

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Mar 28, 2014 5 min read

The high-stakes online action tends to slow down a bit whenever a European Poker Tour (EPT) event is being held, but that didn��t seem to be the case today. Despite players like Gus Hansen, Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom, and Daniel ��Jungleman12�� Cates being at the EPT10 Vienna, all managed to find time to play on Full Tilt Poker, though with varying results.

For instance, Cates, who lost a million dollars the week before, managed to win $521,682 in 2,611 hands spread across 35 sessions, which was second only to Ola ��no_Ola�� Amundsgard, who was the week��s biggest winner after banking $544,148 in 1,569 hands across 22 sessions. Other weekly winners included Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn (+$366,552 in 12 sessions/582 hands) and ��Trueteller�� (+$199,000 in 17 sessions/1,686 hands).

Cates�� win actually put him atop the yearly leaderboard, due in part to Blom losing $504,024 (50 sessions/4,903 hands) on the week. Blom was the second-biggest loser, as Hansen, who lost $148,181 last week, dropped a hefty $1,050,621 this week. It was a sting Hansen couldn��t shake, and he subsequently revealed on the PokerNews Podcast that he may very well take a break from the virtual felt.

Hansen��s Bad Week Begins; Tollerene Books a Win

On Thursday, March 20, Cort ��thecortster�� Kibler-Melby emerged as the day��s biggest winner thanks to a $313,200 score at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables. Kibler-Melby got off to a bad start after losing nearly $125,000 in a morning session, but he returned later that evening to take on ��samrostan,�� Blom, and Hansen. Kibler-Melby walked away a $301,000 winner, with his biggest victim being "The Great Dane," who finished $213,000 in the red. That wasn��t the end of Hansen��s misery, either. He had lost $116,8000 earlier in the day to Blom, and then went on to lose an additional $124,000.

In other Thursday news, Ben ��Bttech86�� Tollerene, who recently opted out of having his long-term results tracked, played $200/$400 pot-limit Omaha for five hours and banked $190,100.

Amundsgard Wins $562,000 in Friday Foray

On Friday, March 21, Blom got off to a good start when he took Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey for $143,000 at the $2,000/$4,000 fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo tables, and then switched to $200/$400 PLO and pulled out to a $300,000 lead against the likes of Hac ��trex313�� Dang and Amundsgard, who you may recall is the Norwegian player fighting for online poker reform in his home country.

Blom ended up giving two-thirds of his profit back in that game, which allowed Amundsgard to win $200,000. From there, all three players upped the stakes to $500/$1,000 PLO, which is where the day��s biggest pot took place.

It began when Amundsgard ($99,135.50) called from the button, Blom ($69,238) limped from the small blind, and Dang ($57,941) raised to $4,000 from the big blind. Both his opponents called, and then all three players checked the 2?J?5? flop. When the 6? turned, Blom led out for $10,000 and Dang responded by capping it at $36,000. Amundsgard called, as did Blom, and the cards were turned up.

Blom: 8?8?9?7?
Dang: 2?2?K?K?
Amundsgard: 4?4?3?6?

The turn card gave Blom an open-ended straight draw, while Dang was sitting with bottom set; however, both players were behind the turned nuts of Amundsgard. The K? river was a blank, and Amundsgard was pushed the $120,000 pot.

Amundsgard ended up winning $360,000 at the higher stakes, which brought his daily take to a healthy $562,000.

Saturday Belongs to ��Trueteller��; Ivey Books a Win

On Saturday, March 22, there was quite a bit of action at the high-stakes tables. For instance, Ivey and Cates went head to head at the $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw tables. The match lasted a little over an hour, and during that time Ivey won $99,000.

Another big winner was ��samrostan,�� who won $350,000 playing the same game. Unfortunately, he lost $88,000 of it playing FLO8, meaning he ended up winning $260,700 on the day. Both he and Ivey managed healthy scores, but both were behind the $384,100 pulled in by ��Trueteller�� at the $200/$400 no-limit hold��em and 2-7 triple draw tables.

In the former game, ��Trueteller�� played for three hours and walked away a $102,000 winner, thanks in no small part to the day��s biggest pot:

��Trueteller�� went on to take $282,000 from Hansen at the 2-7 triple draw tables, so all in all it turned out to be a pretty good day.

Speaking of ��Trueteller,�� he was back at the $200/$400 NLHE tables on Wednesday (the game seems to be spreading fairly regularly these days) mixing it up with some regulars. During the match two notable hands took place. Have a look.

Hand #1: Action was six handed when ��Rhje�� ($83,4223.30) opened for $1,200 from the cutoff and Alex ��IReadYrSoul�� Millar ($64,160.10) called from the button. ��MalACEsia�� ($75,596.30) then three-bet to $4,400 from the small blind, and Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky ($81,365.20) popped it to $12,800 out of the big blind. Two folds put action back on ��MalACEsia,�� and he five-bet to $26,000. Sulsky just called, and when the flop came down K?J?9?, ��MalACEsia�� moved all in for $49,596.30. Sulsky made the call and the cards were turned up:

��MalACEsia��: A?A?
Sulsky: A?A?

It looked as if the $153,592.60 pot would be chopped as both players held aces, but ��MalACEsia�� was freerolling to running spades. Wouldn��t you know it, the 7? and 5? appeared on the turn and river, respectively, and ��MalACEsia�� was pushed the entire pot.

Hand #2: Action was once again six handed when ��Trueteller�� ($52,574.50) raised to $1,000 from the cutoff and Millar ($57,832.70) defended from the big blind. When the flop came down 8?J?A?, Millar checked and ��Trueteller�� fired out $1,100. Millar sprung to life with a check-raise to $4,000, ��Trueteller�� called.

The 5? turned, Millar bet $11,600, ��Trueteller�� called, and the 9? completed the board on the river. Millar proceeded to move all in for $41,232.70, and ��Trueteller�� wasted little time in calling off his remaining $35,974.50. Millar tabled the 10?7? for a flush, and it was good as ��Trueteller�� simply mucked.

As for Wednesday��s biggest winner, that turned out to be Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond, who you may recall lost over a million dollars last week. Galfond won $291,900 in four hours at the 2-7 triple draw tables against ��Trueteller,�� Hansen, ��Kagome Kagome,�� and Ivey. Of those, ��Kagome Kagome�� finished as the biggest loser after dropping $134,100.

Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)

Week's Biggest Winners (3/21-3/26): Ola ��no_Ola�� Amundsgard (+$544,148), Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates ($521,682), Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn (+$366,552), ��Trueteller�� (+$199,000)

Week's Biggest Losers (3/21-3/26): Gus Hansen (-$1,050,621), Viktor ��Isildru1�� Blom (-$504,024), ��Rhje�� (-$229,377), Hac ��trex313�� Dang (-$131,705), Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey (-$127,322)

Year's Biggest Winners: Dan "jungleman12" Cates (+$1,624,168), Doug "WCGRider" Polk (+$792,322), Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom (+$624,986), "Tight-Man1" (+$493,283), "mikki696" (+$445,049), Elior ��Crazy Elior�� Sion* (+$412,469), Isaac "luvtheWNBA" Haxton ($284,244)

Year's Biggest Losers: Gus Hansen (-$2,318,940), Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond (-$1,142,824), "samrostan" (-$940,690), Alex "IReadYrSoul" Millar (-$658,905), Patrik "FinddaGrind" Antonius (-$477,447), "tyme2gamb0|111" (-$287,479)

_{*Denotes PokerStars}

_{Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com}

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PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

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• Tags Alexander Kostritsyn Full Tilt Poker Gus Hansen Isildur1 Phil Ivey Railbird Report Viktor Blom PokerStars
• Related Players Phil IveyAlexander KostritsynGus HansenViktor Blom