The Online Railbird Report: Galfond & Blom Experience Million-Dollar Swings

Copy link Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Jan 18, 2013 6 min read

In last week��s Online Railbird Report, we told you how Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom made $4,073,070 during the first week of 2013. Blom��s heater continued for a bit on Full Tilt Poker as he climbed over $5 million in profit, but then Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond, who had lost $379,179 the week before, got in his way.

Blom ended up losing $1,173,536 this week in 17,209 hands across 143 sessions, enough to make him the week��s biggest loser. Even so, he is still 2013��s biggest winner with $2,899,534. Meanwhile, Galfond finished as the week��s biggest winner with $1,737,524 from 5,415 hands across 36 sessions. Not too far behind was ��SallyWoo��, who banked $1,534,898 in 24 sessions/4,728 hands.

Needless to say, those two were far and away the biggest winners with the next biggest winners being Sebastien ��Seb86�� Sabic (+$446,760 in 15 sessions/1,185 hands), Ben ��Bttech86�� Tollerene (+$376,585 in 26 sessions/2,314 hands) and Alex ��Alexonmoon�� Luneau (+$321,636 in 19 sessions/3,917 hands).

On the other end of the spectrum, Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky (-$1,051,168 in 88 sessions/7,382 hands) was the second-biggest loser of the week followed by Alex ��IReadYrSoul�� Millar (-$703,978 6 sessions/822 hands), Erik ��Erik1223�� Sagstr?m (-$451,699 in 38 sessions/8,906 hands) and ��kagome kagome�� (-$431,336 in 12 sessions/939 hands).

Big Day for Both Galfond and Blom

On Saturday, Jan. 12, Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond won $507,800 playing a combination of 2-7 Triple Draw and Fixed-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo (FLO8). It was at the latter game that Galfond beat ��patpatpanda�� out of $282,000 in a three-hour session while also taking some from Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom at the 2-7 tables.

Blom made waves of his own by taking on Alex ��IReadYrSoul�� Millar and Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky in $300/$600 no-limit hold��em and $250/$500 pot-limit Omaha respectively. It was against the former that Blom won a healthy $704,000 in 90 minutes.

In their biggest pot, Blom ($155,244.25) opened for $1,800 and called when Millar ($102,953) three-bet to $6,300. The 5?10?2? flop saw Millar check, Blom bet $6,600, and Millar check-raise to $18,600. Blom not only called the raise, but he also called a bet of $26,100 on the K? turn, which brought about the J? on the river. Millar reverted to checking, but called off his remaining $51,953 when Blom moved all in. The Swede then tabled K?2?, which was good enough to win the $205,906 pot as Millar simply mucked his hand.

Blom also had some luck against Sulsky, winning $273,000 in nearly three hours of play. Luck is the right word, too, because most of Blom��s winnings in that match came from one big hand. It began when Sulsky ($205,649) raised to $1,700 on the button and Blom ($200,808) three-bet to $5,300. Sulsky opted for a four-bet to $16,100, Blom called and flop fell A?4?6?. Blom checked, Sulsky fired out $20,500, and Blom woke up with a check-raise to $93,900. Sulsky then three-bet to $169,000, Blom moved all in for $184,608, and Sulsky called the additional $15,708, which created a monster $401,616 pot.

Blom: 9?3?10?5?
Sulsky: A?K?Q?6?

Sulsky got it in great with two pair and the better flush draw but nonetheless agreed to run it twice. Amazingly, he lost both as the 2?9? on the first run and the J?2? on the second each gave Blom a straight.

The two wins put Blom up $1.1 million on the day, but he went on to lose $250,800 to ��SallyWoo�� and $146,000 to Alexander ��PostFlopAction�� Kostritsyn before calling it quits.

Galfond Takes Blom for $1 Million at the PLO Tables; Hansen Experiences Up-and-Down Week

On Sunday, Jan. 13, Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond took Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom for $1.077 million in 1,973 hands of pot-limit Omaha. Their match started with three tables of $200/$400 PLO, and the Swede immediately jumped out to a $400,000 lead in 200 hands. Unfortunately for him, the cards turned against him, and by Hand #517 Blom was down $76,000. From there, it was all downhill.

The two agreed to up the stakes to $300/$600 PLO with the run-it-twice option enabled, and Galfond proceeded to relieve Blom of another $415,000 in 197 hands. Blom took a brief break after that, but later in the day, Galfond won another $370,000 from his nemesis. As if that wasn��t enough, Blom took yet another break to win $187,000 playing limit games and then took another shot at Galfond only to lose $250,000 in 20 minutes at the $300/$600 PLO tables.

During all those matches, the two obviously played some big pots.

Hand #1: Blom ($137,790) opened for $1,800 and was met by a three-bet to $5,400 by Galfond ($131,821) in the big blind. Blom pushed back to the tune of $16,200, Galfond called, and the flop came out 3?3?3?. Galfond check-called a bet of $11,400, and then checked the K? turn. Blom took the opportunity to bet $25,200, but this time Galfond check-raised to $63,900. Blom called and then called Galfond��s $40,321 shove on the 5? river. Unfortunately for him, Galfond flipped over K?K?J?7? for kings full to win the $263,,600 pot.

Hand #2: Blom ($150,854) opened for $1,800 on the button and then called when Galfond ($153,081) three-bet to $5,100, bringing about a flop of K?4?2?. Both players checked, the Q? turned, and Galfond led out for $7,500. Not to be outdone, Blom raised to $32,700, Galfond three-bet to $115,800, Blom called, and the 7? completed the board on the river. Galfond moved all in for $32,181, and Blom, who only had 29,954 behind, opted to give up on the $226,800 pot.

Hand #3: Blom ($167,087) opened for $1,200 and then called when Galfond ($110,247.50) three-bet to $3,600. The latter then led out for $4,248, and called when Blom raised to $12,400. Galfond slowed down with a check on the 4?, but then shifted gears with an all-in check-raise to $94,247.50 after Blom had bet $23,600. Blom called, creating a pot worth $220,495, and the K? completed the board on the river. Blom rolled over 10?6?3?2? for a six-high straight, but it was no good against Galfond��s 6?7?8?4? eight-high straight.

It��s also worth noting that 2012��s biggest online loser, Gus Hansen, won $538,000 at the 2-7 Triple Draw tables. It was there he took $205,000 from Alexander ��PostFlopAction�� Kostritsyn and $197,000 from ��kagome kagome.�� Combined that with his $352,000 win from the day before, and it was a good weekend for the ��Great Dane.�� Unfortunately for him it didn't last. All the momentum Hansen had built up over the weekend came to a screeching halt on Wednesday, Jan. 16 when he lost $953,600 playing 2-7 Triple Draw and FLO8.

Hansen��s bad day started by his losing $164,000 to Sebastien ��Seb86�� Sabic in a 90-minute session of 2-7, and then followed that up by losing $364,000 to Alex ��Alexonmoon�� Luneau, who won $452,600 on the day over the course of the next 13 hours. It was also during this time that Hansen fired up some $2,000/$4,000 FlO8 and squared off against ��SallyWoo�� in an eight-hour match. When the dust settled after 847 hands, ��SallyWoo�� was in the black $520,000��though he eventually lost some of that profit back and ended the day a $434,600 winner.

Full Tilt Poker's MiniFTOPS XXI Main Event Freeroll

The Full Tilt Poker's MiniFTOPS XXI series ends on Sunday, Jan. 20 with the $75 Multi-Entry Main Event. In case you missed our announcement this week, PokerNews will be giving away 100 Main Event tickets to our valued PokerNews readers! Unfortunately this offer is not open to our readers residing in the United States. An exclusive freeroll will take place on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 13:00 ET.

Gaining entry to the MiniFTOPS PokerNews Freeroll is very easy. Just follow these steps:

• Log into your Full Tilt Poker account.
• Find the MiniFTOPS PokerNews Freeroll (ID: 247387976) in the Tournament > Private tab.
• Enter the password: minihouse123
• Finish in the top 100 places to win a seat to the MiniFTOPS XXI Main Event, worth $75.

Biggest Winners/Losers (Full Tilt Poker)

Week��s biggest winners (1/9-1/16): Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond (+$1,737,524), ��SallyWoo�� (+$1,534,898), Sebastien ��Seb86�� Sabic (+$446,760), Ben ��Bttech86�� Tollerene (+$376,585), Alex ��Alexonmoon�� Luneau (+$321,636)

Week��s biggest losers: Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom (-$1,173,536), Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky (-$1,051,168), Alex ��IReadYrSoul�� Millar (-$703,978), Erik ��Erik1223�� Sagstr?m (-$451,699), ��kagome kagome�� (-$431,336)

Year��s biggest winners: Viktor ��Isildur1�� Blom (+$2,899,534), Phil ��OMGClayAiken�� Galfond (+$1,358,345), Ben ��Bttech86�� Tollerene (+$1,045,472), ��SallyWoo�� (+$1,007,142), ��noobmare��* (+$283,334)

Year��s biggest losers: Ben ��Sauce1234�� Sulsky (-$1,683,370), Alex ��IReadYrSoul�� Millar (-$699,378), Kyle ��cottonseed1�� Hendon (-$586,346), Kyle ��KPR16�� Ray (-$582,878), Tom ��durrrr�� Dwan (-$531,348), ��Schoitl�� (-$510,318), ��kagome kagome�� (-$495,880)

*DenotesPokerStars

_{Data, hands and replayer obtained from HighStakesDB.com}

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us both Facebook and Google+!

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

Follow on

• Tags Full Tilt Poker Gus Hansen Online Poker Phil Galfond Isildur1 Viktor Blom Railbird Report PokerStars
• Related Players Phil GalfondGus HansenViktor Blom