Top Rated Poker Casinos

Tom Dwan is not having a very good year. With the start of the year came the “durrrr” challenge and Dwan’s desire to take on many in the online poker world. After facing opponents Dwan was down almost $4 million dollars on Full Tilt. He then battled back and almost turned a profit before he was down millions again. Recently, Dwan faced Ilari “Zigmund” Sahamies at the high stakes PLO tables on Full Tilt and it was not a pretty sight for Dwan.

The PLO tables at Full Tilt Poker the pros were playing on had $500/$1000 stakes and after two days Sahamies had gave Dwan a beat down and took around $1.5 to $2 million in that short period of time. Sahamies was playing so well that at one point he had at least $1 million at one table on FullTilt Poker.

The HighStakesDB website has reported that during a twenty four hour period, Dwan and Sahamies played four hands that handed over pots worth over $300,000 each. Dwan did not win any of these pots which padded Sahamies bank roll very well. 

After some time at the $500/$1000 PLO tables Sahamies told Dwan he wanted to move to the $3,000/$9,000 tables. Dwan said it was too much right now most likely because he was down. But once Dwan took down a good size pot he said they can move over to the $3,000/$9,000 tables. When it was all over, Sahamies held a small win over Dwan of just over $160,000. 

With such an impressive showing against Dwan, Sahamies has the potential to be one of the highest earners that plays on Full Tilt Poker. It will be interesting to see when or if Dwan will be playing Sahamies again.

Poker pro, Clonie Gowen, has been battling for many months against Full Tilt for breach of contract and other issues. FullTilt has attempted to have the case against them dismissed but this week Gowen found out that the case will not be dismissed and will continue on an active basis.
The legal suit against Full Tilt is for $40 million and the online poker room tried to have it dismissed on grounds of the case being frivolous. FullTilt Poker now has until April 27th to respond to the suit filed against them.
Reports have surfaced at Mediafire about the court’s ruling and the court commented: “Accordingly, Defendant’s Motion [to dismiss the Gowen action] should be denied in its entirety and Defendants should be ordered to immediately file an answer.” So essentially, the court is waiting for Full Tilt to respond to the filing.
The case began last year when Gowen filed the suit claiming breach of contract. Gowen is seeking the high amount of damages because she claims she was offered one percent of ownership of the company for being a representative in 2004. She accepted the offer and became an online poker pro at the poker room. But it was in 2007 that Gowen was excluded from distribution checks sent to Team Full Tilt Poker members. This caused her to file the suit.

It was a long, tedious, and monumentally lucrative year for some FullTilt Poker players, especially those taking on the incredibly expensive nosebleed cash tables. After 365 days of online poker mayhem, the year has come to a close, and none could be happier than Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey.

The 5-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Bracelet winner has earned more than $9 million in live poker tournaments over the course of his sensational career, but in the last year, Ivey has raked in an astounding $7.54 million on Full Tilt Poker. These incredible profits place Phil Ivey at the very top of the Full Tilt Poker Profits list for 2008.

Coming in a close second is Phil “OMGClayAiken” Glafond, whos online poker exploits have earned him more than $6.97 million at Full Tilt Poker. It would be interesting to discover just how much of those winnings came from the 3rd place finisher, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, with an impressive $5.36 million finish.

Claiming the 4th spot is Di “Urindanger” Dang, cashing in for a little over $3.68 million, followed closely by his brother Hac “trex313” Dang, finishing 5th with $3.45 million. In the 6th position comes ex-Full Tilt Pro David Benyamine at $2.93 million.

Rounding out the top ten finishers of 2008 are “howsitfeellike” in 7th with $2.66 million, the UK’s Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby in 8th with $2.36 million, “La Key U” in 9th at $2.14 million and finally FullTilt.net Pro Patrik Antonius bringing up the rear in 10th place with $1.9 million.

Full Tilt Poker Biggest Winners of 2008

Phil Ivey – $7.54m
OMGClayAiken – $6.97m
durrrr – $5.36m
Urindanger – $3.68m
trex313 – $3.45m
David Benyamine – $2.93m
howisitfeellike – $2.66m
CHUFTY – $2.36m
La Key U – $2.14m
Patrik Antonius – $1.90m

There is a flip side to every coin, and in this case, it is the biggest losers at Full Tilt Poker in 2008. The interesting story here is that 5 of the top 10 losing accounts are rumored to belong to the same person – the not-so-frugal billionaire Guy Laliberte. The 5 suspect accounts are “lady marmelade”, “patatino”, “elmariachimacho”, “Bleachbum” and “noataima”, amounting to a grand total of more than $17 million in losses. These same 5 accounts racked up a $24.8 million loss on Full Tilt Poker in the previous year.

Full Tilt Poker Biggest Losers of 2008

lady marmelade – $6.6m
patatino – $4.32m
elmariachimacho – $4.16m
Bleachbum – $1.09m
SteveSung – $1.01m
PostFlopAction – $999k
noataima – $990k
John Juanda – $988k
MSampoerna – $945k
ahtata – $926k

FullTiltPoker.net is already the second largest online poker room in the world in regards to active player traffic, but the prospect of the 10th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS-X), worth a guaranteed $15,000,000 over 25 events, has brought those numbers to record heights for 2008.

According to reports from independent poker traffic statistic trackers, Full Tilt Poker averaged 9,704 players per 24-hour period last week. The online poker room is nowhere near catching the number-one spot, held for quite some time now by PokerStar.com, but is surely proud to reveal its highest traffic rate of the year. PokerStars is currently averaging near double the traffic of Full Tilt Poker, at almost 18,000.

FTOPS-X kicked off last Wednesday with Event #1, a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool NL Hold’em tournament hosted by Mike “The Mouth” Matusow. A field of 5,124 turned out for the grand opening of the 10th Full Tilt Online Poker Series, eventually won by “davin77” who earned a massive $195,757.30 for the impressive win.

September has been an awesome month across the boards for online poker players and operators alike, but today’s top story comes from FullTiltPoker where five exceptionally talented online poker players have already earned over $1 million in September alone.

Topping the list is professional poker player Phil Ivey, known for his extreme skills, unwavering poker face, 5 WSOP Bracelet wins and nearly $10 million in live tournament cashes over his phenomenal career.

Ivey has experienced a not-so-pleasant string of bad luck this year, including a short-lived run at the 2008 World Series of Poker and some highly expensive proposition bets he would just as soon forget about than further comment on. All of that seems to be turning around for Phil Ivey, now.

Over the last few months, Ivey has been raking in the chips at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes games, and September has been a month to remember for the young poker pro. With his focus primarily on Full tilt Poker “RailHeaven” and $2k/$4k H.O.R.S.E. tables, Ivey has pocketed more than $1.44 million just in the first 19 days of the month.

Next on the list is Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, drawing in $1.342 million thus far at Full Tilt Poker. Known for his unstable temperament and fluctuating bankroll, “Ziigmund” proved his incredible skills by turning his game around over the year. Prior to September, Sahamies was posting one of the largest overall losses at www.FullTiltPoker.com for 2008. His Omaha Hi-Lo play has made a significant difference, earning him $962k alone this month.

Full Tilt Pro Patrik Antonius is also known for his ups and downs when it comes to chip stacks, but he has made out quite well this September, playing well enough at high stakes games to bring in $1.304 million this month.

Hac “trex313″ Dang takes the fourth spot, having claimed $1.21 million at Full Tilt Poker in September. Dang has been spending his time grinding away at Phil Ivey in heads-up play, and a few other high stakes players at the online poker room. His quarterfinal, $96k victory at the Full Tilt Poker $25k Heads-Up Championship didn’t hurt either. September has not been the only kind month to Hac “trex313” Dang, bringing his total Full Tilt Poker earnings for 2008 to $3.059 million.

Last but certainly not least comes David Benyamine, another Full Tilt Pro with plenty of strategic experience under his virtual belt. A $1.14 million profit this month brings David’s total 2008 winnings at Full Tilt Poker to an intensely impressive $4.616 million.

Let’s hope these sensational poker pros can keep up the good work at FullTiltPoker.com. A round of heartwarming applause goes out to these highly skilled online poker players, along with a sincere pat on the back to everyone who sorrowfully contributed losses to these guys’ exceptional profits.

The online poker tournament action at Full Tilt was as energetic as ever last Sunday as the weekly $750,000 Guarantee tournament got underway. Kudos to “acatlover” who outlasted the sizeable field to claim the top prize of $132,788.

To the elation of its tournament participants, Full Tilt Poker experienced yet another overlay in its most lucrative weekly event, collecting the $200 buy-in from a field of 3,643, which translates to $728,600 of the guaranteed $750k prize pool. The online poker room has not seen the required numbers to boost its purse over the guarantee in quite some time now.

Scheduled for 6:00 pm ET as always, the action kicked off at 2 minutes past the hour. The rails filled up quickly as players fell to the way side, one-by-one, until a final table of 9 was reached. Online poker fans looked on expectantly while the numbers further dwindled.

“RonJovi7” was eliminated in 4th, followed soon after by the exit of “absolute6” in 3rd position, earning $41,400 and $52,500 respectively. This left “nounet” of Belgium to go heads-up against “acatlover” in an all-out battle to the finish.

The blinds reached an impressive $80k/$160k after 9 hours of play when the final hand came down. It was anyone’s game at this point, but favor suited “acatlover” this day, ousting “nounet” to pocket the 1st place prize of $132,788. For the 2nd place victory, “nounet” was awarded a well deserved $80,250.

Full Tilt Poker Sunday $750k GTD Final Table Results

1st – acatlover ($132,788)
2nd – nounet ($80,250)
3rd – absolute6 ($52,500)
4th – RonJovi7 ($41,400)
5th – bighorn1973 ($31,050)
6th – gingabreadman ($23,025)
7th – Nicolak ($17,250)
8th – mirasol ($13,500)
9th – gcnmoo ($10,050)

Practice for next week’s event at FullTilt.net!

It was a highly competitive weekend at Full Tilt as the high stakes cash tables drew the most attention. Eight players broke the $100,000 profit mark, while some well known Full Tilt Poker Pros suffered the most losses. The largest victory goes to ‘howisitfeellike’, pocketing $432,272 on the weekend, while John Juanda was outmaneuver for a loss of $299,201.

The biggest winners were ‘howisitfeellike’, mentioned above, and ‘LoLiNa’. High stakes H.O.R.S.E. brought in the most wins for ‘howisitfeellike’, dominating the tables for $224,248. He earned another $116,488 at the FL Omaha Hi/Lo tables, and yet another $91,535 at PL Omaha. ‘LoLiNa’ nearly matched the winnings of ‘howisitfeellike’, taking down $200,293 in FL Omaha Hi/Lo and $200,952 at the H.O.R.S.E. tables, for a grand total of $401,245.

Another eight players were able to pull in more than $100,000 in profits at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables this weekend:

‘charzard’ – $211k
‘SteveSung’ – $204k
‘IamSoSo’ – $157k
‘La Key U’ – $131k
Brian Hastings – $127k
‘luvtheWNBA’ – $101k

On the flip side of the coin, John Juanda suffered the biggest losses this weekend at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes cash table. Junada lost nearly $300k ($299,201), followed by a few more big names in the professional pocker circuit. Gus Hansen dropped $189,858, Eli Elezra was bested for $121,006 and well known online poker player ‘durrrr’ gave up $105,069.

Less known but equally disappointed was ‘slaktarn’, losing $206k, ‘KobyTAPOUT’ lost $191k, ‘vandAAgnog’ fell by $$173k and ‘EazyPeazy’ was beaten for $142k.

Where there are winners, there must be losers. It is, however, less common to see so many of the losers holding pro status. Congratulations to everyone at www.FullTiltPoker.com who bested the best and walked away with considerably impressive chip stacks.