Despite the high-stakes games not being as popular as they once were because of a smaller scope of professionals, the games over on PokerStars are still inhabited by a crafty niche of savvy online experts. Phil Galfond, Ilari Sahamies and Brian Hastings lead this collection of intelligent, young veterans, however over the past week, they’ve encountered dangerous competition.
Sahamies who plays under the alias “Ilari FIN”, and Hastings who’s known as “$tinger88″ had their fair share of trouble earning cash at the high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha tables on PokerStars. Sahamies, who has been on a roll in the month of September, managed to rise to nearly $1 million in yearly earnings through his consistent play. Nonetheless, it was he and his fellow comrade Hastings who endured the biggest downfalls over the weekend, with both losing over $200K.
The two players have been involved in separate online battles, with one familiar face and another player who’s been conveniently flying under the radar in 2011.
Hastings, who’s been playing the knowledgeable pro Rafi “refaelamit” Amit consistently over the past few weekends, encountered a big bump in the road as he stumbled to the PLO veteran. Amit finished his night by winning $126,000, with the lion’s share of his earnings coming from Hastings.
Sahamies, however, took battle against German Benny “toweliestar” Spindler, a formidable opponent who hasn’t spent much time in the high-stakes arena this year. Spindler, who has been rather active on the European Poker Tour circuit with four top-10 finishes and a win at an $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em EPT Tallinn event, made his appearance in style and spent some of those yearly earnings as a resource to dismantle the streaking Finnish pro. Spindler spent the night at the top of the leader board for online earnings, with an astounding $306K in winnings.
Make no mistake about it, Spindler is also very talented in the world of online cash games, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. When looking at the results on PokerStars, Spindler has now creeped up into the list of biggest winners with $368K in victories.
Despite the loss, Sahamies is still sitting pretty overall in 2011, with over $650K.
$50/$100 PLO has been overly populated since its introduction on the site, and since Galfond has personally requested it, it’s been one of his games of choice since he’s returned to the high-stakes games just months ago. Despite a great start, Galfond has been on the decline recently, and dropped $273,000 over a seven day span.
Joining the likes of Thomas “kingsofcards” Marchese, Daniel Negreanu, Ben “Sauce123″ Sulsky and the aforementioned Hastings in the trek to Vancouver to play online poker, he’s held his own during the three months he’s been in action, gaining a healthy overall profit of $325K.
There were other names that were involved in the intense high-stakes action, and left with a big piece of the pie. Well known pro Davin “mTw-DaviN” Georgi won $236K, L0ve2playU (+$131k), 0Human0 (+$130K) and the previously mentioned Amit won $126K to round out the biggest victors.
insyder19 (-$102K) and kevinnok (-$83K) joined Hastings and Sahamies on the list of casualties for the weekend.
We’ll continue to bring more up-to-date news in regards to online play right here on High Stakes Report.
Make sure that if you’re not in the action on PokerStars, that you participate on another platform such as 888 Poker or BetOnline Poker.
