Carl “The Dean” Sampson.
I suppose many people would class the stakes that I play at as “big league” and the $25-$50 NLHE level can certainly produce some big pots thats for sure. Although my recent results could hardly be classed as big league as the variance monster has seen fit to give yours truly a really good kicking of late.
In fact I don’t always play very high and I have recently been experimenting with a short stacking system at the NL50 level on Cake Poker. This is more serious than what it sounds and if I can make it work then it could really change the face of online poker for good at the lower levels. But I am having problems with it at the outset although I expect to solve them.
Anyway, enough of me waffling on as there will be plenty of you out there who will be interested to hear about the real big league stuff. In fact this week, we have seen the biggest pot ever played in the history of online poker……$507,000! The game was on Full Tilt (where else) and was four handed between “Ziigmund” also known as Ilari Sahamies, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and “LIBERTY 6”.
The game was $500-$1000 NLHE and Ivey who was in the cut-off raised to $3000, Sahamies holding the 7s-5s called from the button. The small blind folded and Antonius called from the big blind holding the 6d-5d.
The flop came 8h-4s-3s giving Antonius an eight way straight draw and Sahamies a flush draw to go with his gutshot straight draw. Antonius leads out with a $7000 bet to which Ivey calls but “Ziigmund” raises to $25,000 on the button. Antonius calls but Ivey wisely folds as whatever he is holding, this flop is likely to have hit a hand that two players have called with at this level although Ivey is good enough to raise with near random hands as well and his range from the cut-off would be quite wide in a game like this.
The turn card is the 2s completing the straight for Antonius but also hitting the flush for Sahamies. Antonius checks and Sahamies bets $55,000 and Antonius moves all in for $235,000 and gets called. The river card is the Qh but that doesn’t help Antonius and Sahamies wins the biggest ever pot online.
Poor old Antonius was put to the sword again in another pot against “Ziigmund”. This time “Ziigmund” undoubtedly outdrew Antonius when he held the Js-8s and called a pre-flop raise and the flop came Kc-9h-8c and the turn and river were the 8h-Ah. But “Ziigmund” made a fantastic river all in value bet. I probably would have bet less with trip eights but then again I haven’t played online with Patrik Antonius.
An all in bet on the river is likely to not get paid off except when you are beat so you have to give “Ziigmund” massive credit here. It also didn’t stop there either between Antonius and Sahamies as they got involved in a heads up confrontation at $200-$400 PLO and Sahamies won yet another monster pot of around $395,000 by hitting a backdoor nut flush.
Many people have asked me over the past year or so why I don’t play at these levels. The answers are not straight forward but the basic reason is that the way that I see it, this is a really exclusive club that is not easy to break into. Take the Dang brothers for instance. They play in the same household on two different accounts which they have a right to do because they are brothers and share the same house although many people would disagree.
But these two players play the nose bleed games on Full Tilt as “trex 313” and “Urindanger”. It would be impossible to know who was who until you had been playing a few hands and you may not even know then. To play at these levels requires more than just ability and bankroll. I have the ability and I can get the money and I have several people who are prepared to finance me for these levels but I have a responsibility to their money as well as my own.
To be playing at these levels would require a great deal of scouting and reconnaissance for several months and I simply do not have the time for this. It is for this reason why it helps to team up with other players who can assist you with the data gathering side of things. I too have my very own network of contacts at the $25-$50 levels and it is the same principle but smaller. This is why I know that it happens higher up. Will I ever play the big games on Full Tilt? Very doubtful, I simply don’t need to play for that much money and I get just as much buzz playing $5000 pots as they do playing $250,000 pots.
Poker gives me a good life and I don’t need to make it “better” by making several million dollars a year.
The Dean is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at cakepoker/thedean
