The Online Railbird Report: Antonius, Cates and Thuritz Pulling Away on 2014 Leaderboard

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Sep 06, 2014 6 min read

After a one-week break, the Online Railbird Report is back. In this edition, we take a look at two weeks of high-stakes cash-game winners and losers from both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

From Aug. 21 through Sept. 4, no one performed better than Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius, who won $745,346 in 6,146 hands over 60 sessions. The Finn is one of three players �C the other two being Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates and Mikael ��punting-peddler�� Thuritz �� separating them from the rest of the pack on the 2014 leaderboard (see charts below). Thuritz also had a good two weeks after winning $429,176 in 6,110 hands spread across 49 sessions, while Cates won a modest $80,412 on PokerStars under his ��w00ki3z.�� screenname.

One other big winner over the last two weeks was Phil Galfond. On Full Tilt Poker, where he plays under ��OMGClayAiken,�� he won $294,704 in 6,930 hands over 84 sessions, and padded that with $178,391 in additional winnings on PokerStars, where he plays under the moniker ��MrSweets28.��

On the flip side, Gus Hansen was the biggest loser from the same time period after dropping $500,623 in 21,358 hands over 253 sessions. The loss put him down $4,628,995 for the year, which is more than twice as much the next biggest loser, Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey. Thanks to losing $391,759 in 3,741 hands over 54 sessions in the last two weeks, Ivey is now down $2,207,576 on the year.

Likewise, Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom, who won $510,793 in the last Online Railbird Report, was a big loser after dropping $295,188 in 4,58 hands over 64 sessions, though that was still less than Niki Jedlicka, who lost $346,928 in 1,405 hands spread across 14 sessions.

August is King to ��Denoking�� and Antonius

In the penultimate weekend of August, ��Denoking�� and Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius both fared well booking $392,600 and $324,800 wins respectively. The latter won playing 8-Game, while the former��s profit came from a heads-up no-limit hold��em match against ��JaeggerJack�� on Saturday the 23rd.

Denoking and JaeggerJack played for 4.5 hours at three tables of $100/$200 NLHE, and everything seemed to go Denoking��s way. Not surprisingly, he won the biggest pot of the day. It began when JaeggerJack ($59,308.75) opened for $500 on the button and then called a Denoking��s three-bet to $2,400, which brought about a flop of K?7?3?. Denoking bet $2,500, JaeggerJack called, and the A? appeared on the turn.

Denoking bet again, this time $9,000, and again JaeggerJack came along. When the K? completed the board on the river, Denoking slowed down with a check and JaeggerJack shoved all in for $45,408.75. Denoking snap-called with the A?A? for a full house, and JaeggerJack showed the J?8? for a missed flush draw. The $118,617.50 pot was shipped over to Denoking.

Kostritsyn, Antonius & Zhou Clean Up at Nosebleeds in Wednesday Action

On Wednesday, Aug. 27, the nosebleeds were in full swing, and a slew of notables took advantage, though none more so than Alexander ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn, who finished as the day��s biggest winner with $230,700 in profit after playing mixed games for 3.5 hours against the likes of Chun Lei ��samrostan�� Zhou, Gus Hansen and Elior ��Crazy Elior�� Sion, just to name a few.

Likewise, Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius had another winning day, banking $222,300 at the 8-Game tables, while the aforementioned Zhou also finished in the black after winning $205,100 �� $119,400 playing 2-7 triple draw and $85,800 at the 8-Game tables. It was in the latter format that Zhou won the day��s biggest pot. Have a look:

In addition to that hand, there were two other six-figure pots that took place on Wednesday. Here��s a look at one that took place in a six-handed game during a round of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha.

Hand #1: Action folded to Antonius ($54,947) in the cutoff and he opened for $1,200, which Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates ($60,000) called from the small blind. Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey ($23,697) came along from the big blind, and three players saw a flop of A?Q?3?. Cates led out for $2,880, Ivey folded, and Antonius popped it to $11,400. Cates called and then fired out $26,400 on the 8? turn. Antonius made the call and then moved all in for his last $15,947 after Cates had checked the 9? river. Cates called to create a pot of $111,094 but mucked when Antonius rolled over the K?J?10?5? for the nuts.

A Good Day for Zhou; Cates Wins Big Pots but Not Big Profit

The Online Railbird Report: Antonius, Cates and Thuritz Pulling Away on 2014 Leaderboard 101 — Dan Cates

On Friday, Aug. 29, Chun Lei ��samrostan�� Zhou put in an 18-hour session playing 3,147 hands consisting of 2-7 triple draw, $500/$1,000 CAP PLO, and mixed games. By the time he logged off, the man from Macau was a $465,300 winner. Another player who was primed to have a big day was Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates, who was up $300,000 at one point after winning the two biggest pots of the day. Unfortunately Cates continued to play and gave all but $10,000 back. Nonetheless, here��s a look at the biggest pot of the day.

Hand #1: In a round of $300/$600 PLO, action was fourhanded when Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius ($26,397.25) opened for 1,200 from the button and Cates ($60,000) called from the small blind. Zhou ($60,000) then three-bet to $4,800 from the big blind, Antonius folded, and Cates called to see a flop of 4?5?3?. Cates led out for $5,400, Zhou called and the J? appeared on the turn. Cates bet again, this time $21,600, and then called when Zhou moved all in for $49,800.

Cates: A?8?2?K?
Zhou: A?5?J?9?

Zhou held two pair with a club flush draw, but he needed to improve as Cates had flopped a wheel and turned a diamond flush draw. The river was run twice, but neither the K? on the first run nor 10? on the second helped Zhou, and he watched the $121,200 pot pushed to Cates.

Thuritz Banks $220K; Cates Wins Another Big Pot

On Monday, Sept. 1, the high-stakes cash games were in full swing on Full Tilt Poker, and Mikael ��punting-peddler�� Thuritz played for nearly five hours at the 8-Game tables. It was a profitable decision as he booked a $220,500 win and finished as the day��s biggest winner.

Meanwhile, Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates ended up winning $136,800 playing 8-Game, though he finished the day up just $5,700 after losing big at the 2-7 triple draw tables. Even so, Cates once again won the biggest pot of the day.

Here are some other highlights from Monday��s action:

Patrik Antonius won $104,300, which put him up more than $6 million lifetime under the ��FinddaGrind�� moniker.
��Trueteller�� won $182,500, of which $125,000 came off Chun Lei ��samrostan�� Zhou playing 54 hands of $500/$1,000 CAP PLO. It took just 26 minutes.
Alex ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn won $97,800 on the day.
Gus Hansen lost $362,500, making him Monday��s biggest loser.

Ivey Cuts Down the Jungle

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey waged war against numerous opponents across a variety of games including 8-Game, fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo, and 2-7 triple draws. After 750 hands, Ivey logged off a $354,100 winner. According to HighStakesDB, most of it came when Ivey took $291,000 off Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates in 138 hands of $2,000/$4,000 2-7 triple draw, a feat that took just 67 minutes to accomplish.

Before that, Ivey had lost $74,000 playing FLO8 against Kyle ��KPR16�� Ray, and then mitigated it by winning $74,400 off Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius and Alex ��PostflopAction�� Kostritsyn at the 8-game tables.

Biggest Winners/Losers from Aug. 21 thru Sept. 4

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius	$745,346	Gus Hansen	$500,623
Mikael ��punting-peddler�� Thuritz	$429,176	Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey	$391,759
Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond	$294,704	Niki Jedlicka	$346,928
Phil ��MrSweets28�� Galfond	$178,391	Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom	$295,188

Year's Biggest Winners/Losers

Winners	Profit	Losers	Loss
Dan ��jungleman12�� Cates	$2,856,499	Gus Hansen	$4,628,995
Mikael ��punting-peddler�� Thuritz	$2,179,400	Phil ��Polarizing�� Ivey	$2,207,576
Patrik ��FinddaGrind�� Antonius	$1,941,941	Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom	$1,672,305
Doug ��WCGRider�� Polk	$754,099	Elior ��Crazy Elior�� Sion	$1,135,429
Christoph ��Tight-Man1�� Vogelsang	$666,807	Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond	$1,003,150
Niki Jedlicka	$624,921	Paul ��MalACEsia�� Phua	$823,325
Isaac ��luvtheWNBA�� Haxton	$582,932	Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky	$730,155