21 Jan 12

High Stakes Round-up: Galfond Blogs, Hansen Up $3m, Trickett Interview

Find out who the big winners and losers are, and much more, from the world of high stakes online cash games, in the High Stakes Round-up.

The High Stakes Round-up is a new 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 biggest winners and losers are, plus catch the biggest pots of the week.

This week we will be looking at what has been happening since the start of 2012, but from next week we will be covering the high stakes news on a week-by-week basis.

Galfond calls for change

High stakes star Phil Galfond has really got the community talking with his new blog, which has started with very thought-provoking post.

Better known as 'MrSweets28' online, he discusses the practices he believes have started to kill cash games. He covers a range of topics, and suggests improvements that could potentially benefit pros, recreational players, and poker rooms alike.

This includes suggestions for changes to tracking sites, 'must-move' tables, anonymous heads-up tables, and much more.

Galfond hits out at the "bum hunters"

Who is RaiseOnce?

Mystery will always follow a nosebleed player whose identity is not yet confirmed, and that is exactly what is happening with RaiseOnce on PokerStars, who is heavily rumoured to be Phil Ivey. The main reason for these rumours is the player is mixing it up in the biggest games of every discipline. He is currently down over $500k at the draw tables, but conversely is the biggest winner at the HORSE tables for nearly $485,808.

He is down about $78k overall at the time of writing, but if it really is Ivey, we don't expect that to be forever. Here he is in three handed action at the $100/$200 tables.

Live rail corner

As we mentioned in the Daily Rewind, Gus Hansen is back. In the last week he has been playing in the biggest cash games in Macau, ahead of his trip to the Aussie Millions.

According to his blog, the Great Dane is up over $3.8 million in the cash games there. This comes after he ended last year as the biggest online cash game winner of 2011.

Gus will today be playing in the Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions event, and no doubt we can expect to see him in the Super High Roller events which start tomorrow.

Gus enjoying his time in Macau

Biggest pot of 2012 so far

One of the real players to watch in 2012, because he has been involved in all the major action, is Sander 'Bernsden12' Berndsen. To prove the point, here he is taking down the biggest pot of 2012 so far - a $232k pot against none other than Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom.

Sam Trickett interview

One of the biggest names on the high stakes live circuit is UK pro Sam Trickett, who has been crushing both high roller tournaments and the big cash games in Macau. He sat down with WPT magazine this week to talk about the lifestyle of a high stakes poker player, including how he is treated by banks:

Most searched for players in 2011

Last week PokerTableRatings revealed the online screen names that got the most searches in 2011. The top five read like a who's who of online poker:

1. Isildur1 (Viktor Blom)
2. nanonoko (Randy Lew)
3. Ilari FIN (Ilari Sahamies)
4. mrsweets28 (Phil Galfond)
5. durrrr (Tom Dwan)

You searched for Isildur1 more than anyone else in 2011

Biggest winners and losers of 2012 so far

Both top fives have some familiar names in them, in particular the Sander Bernsden and Viktor Blom, who have been the most prolific players on the High Stakes tables in 2012.

Top 10 online winners January 2012
Place	Name	Winnings
1st	Sander 'Berndsen12' Bernsden (PokerStars)	$554,946
2nd	patpatman (PokerStars)	$527,339
3rd	bernard-bb (PokerStars)	$461,812
4th	ragen70 (PokerStars)	$419,133
5th	BiatchPeople (PokerStars)	$310,520
Tracked by HighStakesDB.com

Top 10 online losers January 2012
Place	Name	Winnings
1st	GVOZDIKA55 (PokerStars)	-$476,008
2nd	Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom (PokerStars)	-$360,902
3rd	long90110 (PokerStars)	-$234,687
4th	diggidave (PokerStars)	-$218,429
5th	Try_An_Hit (PokerStars)	-$212,628
Tracked by HighStakesDB.com