Ilari Sahamies Loses $500K on High Stakes Tables

Thursday was a horrible day at the high stakes poker tables at PokerStars for Ilari Sahamies. Sahamies is an extremely active poker player that puts in tons of hours at the high stakes level. Sahamies started off 2012 rough at the high stakes tables and was down the first few weeks of the year. Ilari almost broke even for the year this past week after playing several sessions with minimal profits, but yesterday Sahamies fell back into a pretty big hole for the year.

It only took about six hours for Sahamies to lose $493,000 playing high stakes PLO. Most of the action was played on the $100/$200 tables at PokerStars although Ilari was also playing a couple other stakes during the session. Sahamies is known for his big swings at the high stakes tables, but dropping roughly $500,000 in about 6 hours is a tough pill to swallow. Sahamies didn’t lose all of the money in one pot either. The entire session went terrible and he couldn’t seem to win any significant hands.
In one hand Sahamies lost about $50,000 trying to bluff “PatPatMan” out of a pot. PatPatMan opened the hand with a raise to $600 and Sahamies re-raised from the big blind to $2020. PatPatMan called the re-raise and the flop was Q/J/4 with two spades. Ilari bet $4255 on the flop, which was quickly called by PatPatMan. The turn was the K of spades and Sahamies checked. PatPatMan bet $9800 into the pot and Sahamies raised to $42,165 total, which only left him with just over $20K.

PatPatMan quickly shipped the rest of his chips into the pot and Sahamies folded the hand. Another big pot that Sahamies was lost was a $96K pot where Sahamies set lost to a straight. Two players were all-in with Sahamies after the flop. Sahamies had hit a set on the flop, but one of the other players that was all-in hit a gutshot straight on the turn. That’s the way the entire session went for Sahamies, but I’m sure he’ll be back on the virtual felt this weekend to win some of the $500,000 back.

Sahamies is now down just over $500,000 on the year, but in high stakes poker there are going to be a lot of swings. Sahamies will be able to bounce back and by the end of the year I’m sure he’ll be one of the most profitable players again. Sahamies won the most money last year on PokerStars and I’m sure he wants to try and repeat that feat by dominating the high stakes action again.
The high stakes poker action online is still alive and well, but playing high stakes US poker online isn’t possible. The poker sites with the best nosebleed action don’t accept US poker players anymore. PokerStars still boasts a lot of high stakes action and if you can’t play at PokerStars you can always take a trip to Las Vegas or Macau. If you want to watch the latest online high stakes poker you can sign-up to PokerStars and watch any of the tables that are running.