Despite starting slow, the new face of swings in online poker Ilari “Ilari_FIN” Sahamies has finally minimized his variance and was on a consistent upswing in the month of November.
Sahamies, who heading into August was down an astonishing $900,000, has completely eradicated his first-half tendencies and throughout the next 3 months accumulated $3 million in earnings. PokerStars has been the source of all of the high-stakes action since the wake of the online poker giant Full Tilt Poker, despite nosebleed play slowing down in the month of November.
Analyzing the past months statistics, Sahamies ended up $945,000 in the games in November. The closest player to him, “Fake Love888″ who is rumored to be Patrik Antonius, received a nice paycheck of $467K. Sahamies had in fact been even closer to approaching the $1 million-dollar mark for winnings in November, if it hadn’t been for a minor setback towards the end of the month that saw him lose over $170K.
Taking the place of Sahamies in terms of swingy months was Peter “GARFIELD25″ Chan, who was smooth sailing for awhile in November until he dropped over $500,000 in the third week of the month. Winning and losing 50 buy-ins was unbelievably a frequent occurance for Chan, who both won and lost that amount several times in the $50/$100 PLO games on ‘Stars.
Nonetheless, it was the reestablishment of the $200/$400 PLO tables that sparked a reasonable comeback for Chan and Sahamies alike.
Ilari_FIN is now the biggest winner in 2011 on PokerStars, with over $2 million in earnings. He replaced the previous front runner, Rafi Amit, who is still holding strong with $1.9 million in collections.
Despite all of the winning sessions for some fortunate nosebleed participants, some players weren’t very thankful for the month of November. Those having a Thanksgiving they might like to forget were unknown online jumpstart mikki696 (-$315K), Benny “toweliestar” Spindler (-$255K), and recent Vancouver native Brian “$tinger88″ Hastings (-$253K).
The trend of high-stakes action declining was in fact unusual, given that the winter months have typically been the biggest draw for world-class online players for several years. But a few players had been absent from the high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha games over on ‘Stars; one of those players being the enigma Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom.
The rumor mill has been scrolling with speculation over whether or not Blom will be returning to action on PokerStars at all. Given that the newly-turned 21-year-old pro has a contract that will be expiring this month, players have been expressing their thoughts through various forums such as Twoplustwo.com on whether he may in fact be changing sites.
Regardless of his decision, the play on PokerStars will continue in December, and we’ll keep you current on the biggest winners and losers by year’s end.
Need more online action of your own? There are sites such as Black Chip Poker and Bodog Poker that are still accepting players from both international locations and U.S. addresses. Jump in today!
