The 24-year-old player, who resides in beautiful Paris, France, now has something else gorgeous to admire — his Full Tilt Poker account.
Rui Cao seems to be the man making the most of his opportunities this year, and garnered almost $300K from his play so far in early May.
Finishing his April stint at the high-stakes tables with over $900,000 in winnings, Cao has begun his May campaign by securing healthy $100,000 and $200,000 wins during the first week in May. Interestingly, while Cao has been one of the frequent visitors to the nosebleed PLO games, his wins during the week were all stationed at the relatively modest $25/$50 limit.
Likely due to two of poker’s biggest names being absent from the felt for most of the week — Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius; the best games available seemed to be relegated to $25/$50. The results seemed to work in Cao’s favor nonetheless, as the decrease in limit and easier competition certainly added to his level of confidence.
Overall, Cao is up substantially in 2011 with nearly $900K in earnings.
The action at the high-stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker continues, and recently players have jumped at the opportunity to play $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha. Prior to the recent scare regarding the legislation of online poker within U.S. borders, the high-stakes tables on FTP were condensed around the mixed game varieties — 8-Game and Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw.
Nowadays, the best players on the site have gravitated towards the variance-heavy Omaha once again, in search of more profitable opportunities and weaker adversaries since many of the best have left.
The departure of some of the best online players in the world such as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond have left immense voids in the hearts of railbirds across the globe. Three players likely to be missed from the nosebleed PLO tables (or quite the opposite depending on who’s asking), have also left million dollar voids in their pocket books due to their inability to participate. In effect, Full Tilt Poker has now seen a new collection of faces step into the limelight as the rising stars of high-stakes’ elite.
Railbirds will likely need to become accustomed to the names of Cao and Jens Kyllonen, both twenty-somethings who have been totally in control of their destinies thus far in 2011. Both players are well on their way to million-dollar profits by mid-year, and if they continue their pace, could be looking to finish as the two top earners by the end of December.
The week’s action was centrally focused on Cao, although he didn’t finish as the week’s biggest earner. Unknown player vmnielsen was the leader, stealing $307K in a total of 2,309 hands from his opponents.
In even brighter news, the recently struggling Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies ended his first week of May with an enlightening $161K booking. Although his success doesn’t erase the near $800,000 deficit he was facing prior to the week, it goes a long way in rebuilding the aplomb of a very talent poker player.
While several of the most high-profiled players in poker were also the most successful this week, the list doesn’t stop there. Regulars KidPoker705 (+$152K) and LuckyGump (+$147K) played their way through sessions they’re likely to be very content with.
The competitors antonionel (-$350K), samrostan (-$155K), le kork (-$133K) and KOMIJENDO (-$117K) all had the worst weeks.
High Stakes Report will continue to post more info in regards to the most exciting high-stakes action found anywhere.
