Sep 12 2011

Sahamies Scores $422k Pot on PokerStars

written by: James under News Comments: Comments Off

To say that Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies, the player better known by his “Ziigmund” handle on Full Tilt Poker, has turned his year around would be an understatement. In the spring, online poker forums were rife with speculation that Samamies’ bankroll was almost depleted given a series of downswings. This past week, Sahamies made history twice when he won the biggest and second-biggest pots ever recorded on PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site.

The first pot came in a game of PLO at the $200 / $400 stake level, against incredibly talented players including Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen, bernard-bb, Rafi Amit, Phil Galfond and socutiesf. Sahamies scored an ace-high flush to dominate bernard-b’s triple aces, winning a stunning $421,826 in the process.

A little while later in that same game, lightning struck a second time for Sahamies when he completed a straight draw on the turn after both Torbergsen and socutiesf pushed all-in. This time, the pot totaled $283k, making it the second-largest pot awarded in a cash game on PokerStars.

Although some of the money obviously continued to change hands throughout the 10-hour game, Sahamies remained largely dominant and ended as the week’s biggest winner, adding an incredible $545k to his bankroll. Fellow Finlander Jens “Jeans89″ Kyllonen had a strong showing as well, earning just over $248k across 7,785 hands to finish in the 3rd-place position. The aforementioned socutiesf did even better, earning over $387k to finish second for the week. Phil Galfond rounded out the top four with $181k in positive earnings.

The week wasn’t so kind to fan favorites Torbergsen and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Torbergsen bore the brunt of it, losing a staggering $491,610 in 78 sessions comprising 5,480 hands. Blom didn’t fare much better, dropping $439k. Blom’s relative lack of volume (only 2,776 hands) may explain some of his misfortune.

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