They have to be, really; there's no way you can maintain a bankroll at stakes like $200/$400 or $300/$600 without being comfortable shipping $150k to the other side of the table occasionally.
But it's also no surprise if a normally unflappable player gets a bit thrown off his game when a few too many of those huge pots go one way rather than the other early on in a big session.
And when he does, there are plenty of sharks waiting to reap the benefits.
Case-in-point: High-stakes icon Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and his $200/$400 session(s) yesterday (Mar. 13) on Full Tilt Poker with fellow high-stakes pros Brian "$tinger88" Hastings and David Benyamine.
The trash-talking, big-swinging Finn stepped up for an early evening $200/$400 Hold'em session with Hastings and things seemed to go awry from the get-go, with more than a few $100k+ pots going Hastings' way - in particular a $154k pot Ziigmund dropped to a flopped full house.
#img: ilari-sahamies_17188.jpg: left: Easy come, easy go when you're a super baller like Ziigmund.#
And while Hastings did go on to get the better of it in the Hold'em session, taking about $100k of Ziigmund's money, the true beneficiary of the early beats may have actually been David Benyamine.
Multi-tabling a $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha session with Hastings, David Benyamine and a few varying players after the Hold'em session ended, the big pots seemed to take their toll on Ziigmund more so than usual and had him playing less than his best, even in his bread-and-butter game PLO.
And by the time Ziigmund had closed up all his tables for the day - after about 13 hours - he had dropped $210k more at the PLO tables - the bulk of it ending up in the hands of Benyamine.
Total losses on the day for Sahamies, according to highstakesdb: a daunting $320,000.
The hand that may have set the downward spiral in motion:
Full Tilt Poker Game #5622471133 TABLE : Vasari (heads up) $200/$400 - No Limit Hold'em - Thu Mar 13th 2008 - 7:12pm ET
Seat 1 Brian Hastings - $77,199Seat 2: Ziigmund - $86,792.50
Brian Hastings posts the small blind of $200
Ziigmund posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #1
Preflop
Brian Hastings raises to $1,200
Ziigmund has 15 seconds left to act
Ziigmund raises to $3,600
Brian Hastings calls $2,400
Flop #Js-#6c-#Jh
Ziigmund has 15 seconds left to act
Ziigmund bets $7,200
Brian Hastings calls $7,200
Turn #Ts
Ziigmund has 15 seconds left to act
Ziigmund checks
Brian Hastings has 15 seconds left to act
Brian Hastings bets $15,600
Ziigmund has 15 seconds left to act
Ziigmund raises to $75,992.50, and is all in
Brian Hastings calls $50,799, and is all in
Ziigmund shows #8s-#7s
Brian Hastings shows #Jd-#6d
Uncalled bet of $9,593.50 returned to Ziigmund
River #As
Ziigmund shows a flush, Ace high
Brian Hastings shows a full house, Jacks full of Sixes
Brian Hastings wins the pot ($154,397.50) with a full house, Jacks full of Sixes
Summary
Total pot $154,398 | Rake $0.50
Board #Js-#6c-#Jh-#Ts-#As
Seat 1: Brian Hastings (small blind) showed #Jd-#6d and won ($154,397.50) with a full house, Jacks full of Sixes
Seat 2: Ziigmund (big blind) showed #8s-#7s and lost with a flush, Ace high.
To see more big pots from the Hold'em session, and more of the top 100 biggest Hold'em pots won online over the last day, week and month, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.
Visit PokerListings.com
US Congressman DeFazio Calls for Release of WTO GATS Settlement Terms
U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) has written a letter to other members of Congress urging them to join him in demanding that the US Trade Representative office make public the terms of the agreements it reached with other countries...
Tabatabai wins South Africa event
John Tabatabai was thrust into the poker spotlight in late 2007 after he came in second at the World Series of Poker Europe £10,000 Main Event. After that he took on the 888.com U.K. Open, where he won one of the heats and came in third in a semifinal round.
His most recent placing before heading to South Africa was at the PartyPoker European Open IV where he came in third in one of the heats.
According to a press release from the All Africa Poker Tournament, Tabatabai claimed that coming in second in the WSOP Europe was the best and worst experience of his life.
He loved the challenge of facing such great players, but second place was heartbreaking.
At the All African Poker Tour event, Tabatabai left no doubt that he deserved that first-place spot. According to the All Africa Poker Tournament officials, the cards he had early in the tournament would have eliminated a lesser player well before the final table.
But the final table made up for all his hard work by giving him great hands and friendly flops at the right time. He ended up eliminating all nine of the other final-table players single-handedly to win the event.
Tabatabai had high praise for the All Africa Poker Tournament organization, the dealers and the players after his win. He won't be able to defend his title in May at the next All Africa tournament, but he told officials he'll try to be at the next one after that.
His next poker adventure will take him to San Remo, Italy, for the European Poker Tour event taking place April 1-5.
Visit PokerListings.com
Team West triumphs in PartyPoker event
First up was the Team Cup, bringing players from Eastern and Western Europe to face off against each other at the poker felt.
Team West was favored 4-5 over the East before the event began. Along with the online qualifiers, the team was led by Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Roland de Wolfe, Ciaran O'Leary, Marcel Luske, Ian Frazer and Michael Keiner.
Team East featured Tony G, Alexander Kravchenko and last year's European Challenge winner Branimir Brunovic.
None of the stars on Team West made it to the final table, leaving five online qualifiers to battle at the final table against Tony G, Brunovic and the rest of Team East.
It wasn't looking so good for a repeat for Team West when it offered up the first two players to hit the rail. Austrian Stefan Fuchs was out first, followed by Germany's Benjamin Mirsaidi.
Then Team East lost three players in a row: Russian Sergey Pevzner, Estonian Kairit Leibold and Brunovic. With five players left at the table, that put Team West back in the lead.
It became two against two, however, when Jens Litschko, from Germany, busted. That left Tony G and Rylik on Team East against Bjoern Kaersten and Jack Powell for Team West.
#img: antanas-tony-g-guoga_12387.jpg: left: Fourth place was Tony G's time to go.#
It must not have been in the cards for Team East this year. Tony G was the next to go, and Rylik was right behind him, leaving the two Team West players to finish out the game.
In heads-up play, Kaersten had $19,600 in chips left against Powell's $10,400. Powell made a move by going all-in with 10-4 off-suit and got a call from Kaersten who was holding J-8 off-suit. A jack on the river gave Kaersten the victory and the €10,000 first-place prize.
"Roland de Wolfe made a bet with Tony G that the West would win; it was great that he believed in us. It feels great to have won; this is my first live tournament - I usually play low stakes online," said Kaersten, from Germany. "Tony G had position on me on the final table and Ian Frazer and Marcel Luske were on my table in the qualification so I'm really pleased to have achieved this!"
Kaerston also credited Powell for the team's success.
"He was super-aggressive and knocked out the majority of the players on Team East," Kaerston said. "The key for me was doubling up at exactly the right moment; I had the chips to sit back and wait for more hands."
There was a €60,000 prize pool for the PartyPoker East versus West Team Cup, with the final table sharing €37,500.
The final-table payouts were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Bjoern Kaersten | €10,000 |
| 2nd | Jack Powell | €7,000 |
| 3rd | Aga Rylik | €5,000 |
| 4th | Tony G | €4,000 |
| 5th | Jens Litschko | €3,000 |
| 6th | Branimir Brunovic | €2,500 |
| 7th | Kairit Leibold | €2,000 |
| 8th | Sergey Pevzner | €1,500 |
| 9th | Benjamin Mirsaidi | €1,250 |
| 10th | Stefan Fuchs | €1,250 |
As the winning team, Team West received €22,500 to split between its members.
"We congratulate Team West on their victory. We could have sworn that Team East was a banker for victory when it got to the final table," said a PartyPoker spokesman. "Instead it was an apprentice bank clerk who retained the cup for Team West and gets to deposit."
Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott may not have made the final table for Team West, but he did pocket a little cash for his efforts and now he's making up for his Team Cup performance in the PartyPoker European challenge.
The Challenge's €3,000 main event kicked off earlier this week and has whittled its way down to the final nine, one of whom is the Devilfish.
"The Devilfish has been one of the biggest supporters of our events for years, but has never won one despite his outstanding success elsewhere," said a PartyPoker spokesman. "He's been with chips and without chips all week and even serenaded the card room with a version of 'My Way' last night."
Ulliott enters the final table with 293,500 in chips, enough to keep him off the bottom of the pack, but still a way behind the 769,000 in chips held by Alex Leviev.
This is Leviev's second year in a row making the European Championship final table. He finished in third in 2007.
The final-table players are:
| Seat | Name | Chip Count |
| 1. | Stefan Rapp | 292,000 |
| 2. | Josef Klinger | 117,500 |
| 3. | Dave Ulliott | 293,500 |
| 4. | Sigfried Rath | 182,500 |
| 5. | Bernd Stadlbauer | 383,000 |
| 6. | Tamas Gombkoto | 41,000 |
| 7. | Philipp Roch | 140,000 |
| 8. | Alex Leviev | 769,000 |
| 9. | Peter Gelencser | 291,500 |
| 10. | Benjamin Mirsaidi | 83,500 |
They will be battling for a first-place prize of €165,520.
Visit PokerListings.com
Titan Poker sending players to San Remo
Prott, from Austria, and Lemau, from France, were both awarded $10,000 prize packages for the EPT event taking place April 1-5 in San Remo, Italy.
The prize package covers the €5,000 buy-in for the event, plus money for travel and accommodations.
The San Remo event is new to the European Poker Tour this season. If the other events for Season 4 are any indicator, though, it should bring quite a bit of money to the winner.
Starting with the Barcelona Open back in August, Sander Lylloff pocketed €1,170,700, and since then the payouts have ranged from €532,620 for first place in the Dublin event to the $2 million Bertrand Grospellier picked up in the Caribbean Adventure.
"It's amazing that I'll be taking part in a live tournament for the first time," said Prott after winning his seat in the San Remo event where millions of dollars could be potentially on the line. "Many thanks to Titan Poker for this opportunity!"
Lamau is just as excited about heading to Italy for the event.
"Thank you Titan Poker for making my dreams come true by sending me to the EPT San Remo - and for just $40, as I earned my place in a satellite!" Lamau said. "Three months ago I also finished 34th place in Titan Poker's $1 million Guaranteed Prize Tournament, winning $5,000!"
Titan Poker hands out plenty of seats and other prizes to its players. Along with the EPT San Remo seats, the site has dished out Aussie Million, World Series of Poker, World Poker Showdown, Irish Open and other EPT event seats.
The poker site also recently signed on as the main sponsor of the Eurocity Poker Tour, which is hosting its inaugural event, the Madrid Open, in May.
The European Championship of Online Poker II will also take place on Titan Poker this May with $3.5 million in guaranteed cash spread through ten days of events.
Related Articles:
- Titan Takes on Land-Based Tourney
- Titan Poker Players to Make Russian History?
- $2 Million On the Line for Titan Players
- Titan Poker Sending Players to Ireland
Visit PokerListings.com
PokerStars.net EPT Warsaw, Day 2: Juan Maceiras Moves to Front
The official second day of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Polish Open in Warsaw saw 130 players take the felt, with Robert Flink leading the pack as Liz Lieu, Julian Thew and Johnny Lodden returned to their short stacks. The day...
No comments:
Post a Comment