After a drought of a few weeks the High Stakes Rail report is back!
Last week in High Stakes online games the action was a little sparse. This was due to the EPT in Monte Carlo, as most high stakes players were out there playing live. This didn’t stop some though – Antonius managed to book a big week, even with his tournament obligations. The two players to give him the most action this week were Gus Hansen and Tom Dwan, with the former facing a huge upswing in recent weeks and the latter losing almost $2 million this week alone! Although Dwan has made some inroads into the 4 million deficit he found himself in a couple of weeks back, he’s now 2.8 million down for the year.
Hansen continued this week to bring in the bucks, earning over $1.75 million this week at the tables, mainly $500/$1000 PLO. On Sunday afternoon Hansen took $340,000 from ‘MR B 2 U SON’ aka David Benyamine. Then after this win, he played a long night session with Tom Dwan. Starting with 2 tables of $500/1000 PLO, but ending up 4 tabling, Hansen was to finish up over $700,000 up in this session alone.
Hansen’s biggest pot of the week came against Benyamine during their Sunday match. Playing $500/1,000 PLO, Hansen raised to $3,000 from the button and Benyamine called. The flop came down J52 all clubs, Benyamine check raised Hansen’s $5,000 to $21,000. Hansen called and they went to the turn which came Qd. Benyamine led out for $48,000 and Hansen called. The river paired the board, falling the 2h and Benyamine bet $113,000. Gus called, but he had an inkling Benyamine had QQ. Benyamine turned up Ac9c8h3c for the flopped ace-high flush, but Hansen had rivered a boat, jacks full of deuces with JhJd8s6d for the $352,089 pot.
In a week where most of his time was spent inside the Monte Carlo Bay Resort’s Salle des Etoilles playing in the EPT Grand Final, Patrik Antonius also managed to earn over $750,000 in online play. A big portion of this was to come on Tuesday at the $500/1,000 HA tables where he won just under $400,000. Much of that profit was to come from fellow Finn Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro.
Playing heads-up during Hold’em, Antonius min-raised to $2,000 from the button holding KsKd. Kelopuro reraised to $6,000 from the big blind with 7c7h. Antonius repopped him to $18,000 and Kelopuro called. Both players checked a Jc3d2d flop, but fireworks went off when the Jd was to fall on the turn. Kelopuro led out for $24,800, Antonius re-potted to $110,400, leaving himself only $3,398 behind. Kelopuro raised again and Antonius called. Antonius’ pocket kings and king-high flush draw left Kelopuro drawing to only the two remaining sevens. The river was the 5s and Antonius raked in the $236,373 pot.
With his cash game successes this week, Antonius crossed the $5 million for his overall 2009 winnings.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down?
This week’s biggest winners: Gus Hansen (+$1.75 million), Patrik Antonius (+$757,000), Di “Urindanger” Dang (+$610,000)
This week’s biggest losers: Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$2.05 million), David “MR B 2 U SON” Benyamine (-$782,000), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$598,000)
Top earners, April 2009: Patrik Antonius (+$2.16 million), Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies (+$1.57 million), Di “Urindanger” Dang (+$1.1 million)
Looking to get unstuck, April 2009: Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$1.66 million), Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro (-$884,000), David “MR B 2 U SON” Benyamine (-$691,000)
Top earners, 2009 to date: Patrik Antonius (+$5.08 million), Hac “trex313’ Dang (+$3.01 million), Gus Hansen (+$2.81 million)
Looking to get unstuck, 2009 to date: Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$2.79 million), David “MR B 2 U SON” Benyamine (-$1.62 million), Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro ($-1.43 million)