28 Jan 12

High Stakes Round-Up: EPA Winners, Galfond Downswing, Trickett Wins Big (Again)

This week on the High Stakes Round-up, find out which two high stakes players won European Poker Awards. A crazy week for Galfond and Isildur1, and much more.

The High Stakes Round-up is a weekly summary of all the goings-on in the world of high stakes cash games. Find out what the rail birds are talking about, who the top winners and losers are, plus catch the biggest pots of the week.

Trickett & Sahamies win European Poker Awards

This week the cream of European poker congregated at the Aviation Club in Paris to celebrate the 11th annual European Poker Awards, with two of the biggest names in the high stakes poker community taking down top awards.

Ilari Sahamies won the Internet Player of the Year after finishing up the biggest winner on PokerStars in 2011, while Sam Trickett captured the Player of the Year title after a successful year in super high roller events, the Partouche Poker Tour, and the biggest cash games in Macau.

Neither man was available to accept their award; Sahamies' award was accepted by good friend Juha Helppi, while Trickett's award was received by PokerStrategy.com writer BarryCarter.

See all the European Poker Awards Winners.

2011 internet player of the year, Ilari Sahamies

Trickett wins big in Aussie Millions cash game

Taking place alongside the main event, a televised cash game has been unfolding at the Aussie Millions. The 'Million Dollar Cash Game' included some of the biggest names in the game, including Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Daniel Cates, and Gus Hansen.

The big winner overall, somewhat unsurprisingly at this stage, was the aforementioned European Poker Award winner Sam Trickett. He finished the game $558,300 up, with Jason Mercier the second biggest winner, cashing out for $423,100.

Trickett is winning everything this week, just like every other week

Galfond grinding

Just a week after posting one of the most thought-provoking blogs on the discussion of state of cash games, Phil 'MrSweets28' Galfond is on a major downswing. He is down over $678k this week, and is currently the biggest cash game loser of the year.

He has pledged on twitter to not play $100/$200 or higher until his PokerStars roll is at $250,000 (It is currently around $92k) from playing at $10/$20 and $25/$50.

He also posted a picture this week demonstrating that if his idea of must-move tables was introduced, he would get action:

Galfond has dropped down and is struggling to find action

Crazy week for Blom

When we think Isildur1, we think swings, and that is exactly what we got this week.

The Swede has been playing some marathon sessions in an attempt to reverse a $400k downswing from earlier this month. This saw him manage to claw back almost all of his online losses of the year between Sunday and Tuesday, including raking in the biggest pot of 2012, only to lose it all again on Wednesday.

It has been a $26k winning week for Blom, but he is still down $334k in 2012.

A crazy few days for Isildur1, graph courtesy of HighStakesDB.com

Biggest pot of the week

The biggest pot of the week is also the biggest pot of 2012, and it is no surprise to see that Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom is at the centre of it. Here he is in a $355,195 pot at the PLO tables against '1Il|1Il|1il|'.

 

Biggest winners and losers of the week

We mentioned his massive downswing earlier, so it is no surprise that Phil Galfond is the biggest loser of the week, dropping nearly $700k. PokerStrategy.com coach JensKyllonen is leading the way for the nosebleeds this week, posting a winning week of almost $460k.

Top 5 online winners January 20-27
Place	Name	Winnings
1st	Jens 'Jeans89' Kyllonen (PokerStars)	$459,504
2nd	patpatman (PokerStars)	$459,257
3rd	Davin 'mTw-DaviN' Georgi (PokerStars)	$422,608
4th	Rafi 'refaelamit' Amit (PokerStars)	$314,932
5th	Ronny '1-ronnyr3' Kaiser (PokerStars)	$301,844
Tracked by HighStakesDB.com

Top 5 online losers January 20-27
Place	Name	Winnings
1st	Phil 'MrSweets28' Galfond(PokerStars)	-$678,442
2nd	Sander 'Berndsen12' Berndsen (PokerStars)	-$315,120
3rd	Fake Love888 (PokerStars)	-$216,031
4th	Viet Russian (PokerStars)	-$176,298
5th	mikki696 (PokerStars)	-$150,399
Tracked by HighStakesDB.com