High Stakes Poker

If you are a rail bird and watch the high stakes poker games on Full Tilt Poker, then you have undoubtedly seen the name Ziigmund sitting in. Yo will find him often playing long sessions of 200/400 High Stakes Pot Limit Omaha, as well as 200/400 NLHE often 8 hours at a time or more, and spread across five or six tables. Ziigmund is one of the elite group of players that consistently play only the highest stakes on FT. Ziigmund is without a doubt one of the most aggressive and reckless player on Full Tilt, and this style lends itself to taking huge bankroll swings. It is not unusual for Ziigmund to be down $400k in one session and end up $800k in the next. Ziigmund also plays the big live games and was seen participating in the big mixed No Limit Hold’em / Omaha PL mixed games that went down at last year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

So who is Ziigmund? He is a Finnish poker player named Ilari Sahamies. Beyond his aggressive and reckless play at the tables, but also for his humorous chat sessions, where he belittles and berates some of the best-known players in the world, including Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey. It has been noted that Hansen and Sahamies are indeed friends, but that never seems to stop him from delivering the needle at the table.

Sahamies has a bankroll that is reported to be in the millions of dollars range, and has been featured in the only poker magazine in Finland, called the “Pokerilehti.” Ziigmund is extremely well-known in his homeland of Finland, and if he continues his massive swings at Full Tilt Poker, will soon be just as well-known in North America. In 2008, Sahamies has been enjoying success, but playing at these stakes can be brutal. He is down over $450k in his PLO outings, however has recouped more than 400k of that in NLHE games.