Blom put in a vintage “Isildur1” performance last week by spinning up an astounding $1.4 million over the weekend and then promptly dropping $700k on Monday.
After that loss Blom essentially took his leave from the high-stakes games and, as of Friday morning, had not returned.
It was a surprising turn of events as poker fans had speculated Blom was distancing himself from PokerStars over the last few months and was getting ready to leave the site altogether.
Apparently he’s going to stick around for at least a bit longer.
Obviously Blom stole all the headlines this week but Ronnie Kaiser, Phil Galfond, VietRussian and Ville Wahlbeck all played significant roles in the high-stakes games.
As always check our online poker stats section for more information.
Here’s an in-depth look at the top 10 winners and losers over the last week:
Top 10 Winners this Week
Ronnie “1-ronnyr3” Kaiser came within $100k of matching Viktor “Isildur1” Blom this week but had a very different strategy.
Where Blom shot up to $1.5 million and then lost over $700k, Kaiser consistently won throughout the week before finally finishing with $489k.
The victory represented a very significant portion of Kaiser’s winnings this year as he’s currently up $847k in 2011.
The underrated Ville Wahlbeck quietly recorded a massive win this week as he took down over $300k.
The victory was enough to once again push Wahlbeck into profit territory with $304k in 2011.
Meanwhile the flashier Finn, Ilari Sahamies, found the time to wallop his opponents for $240k.
Earlier in the week Sahamies briefly lost his spot as the biggest winner of the year when Israeli pro Rafi Amit hit $2.1 million but Sahamies recovered nicely and now has $2.4 million.
With little more than a couple weeks left in 2011 the battle between Amit and Sahamies has the potential to go right down to the wire.
Finally Benny “toweliestar” Spindler got back to his winning ways this week by taking down $219k.
Any way you slice it Spindler has had an amazing year with a win at EPT London for $1.1 million as well as the $1 million he’s earned on PokerStars.
Here’s a complete look at the top 10 winners on PokerStars this past week:
1. Viktor “Isildur1” Blom: +$586,000 2. 1-ronnyr3: +$489,000 3. Kanu7: +$332,000 4. Terken89: +$331,000 5. V.Wahlbeck: +$319,000 6. 1II|1II|1iI|: +$310,000 7. Ilari FIN: +$240,000 8. toweliestar: +$219,000 9. EireAbu: +$214,000 10. LuckyGump: +$195,000
Top 10 Losers this Week
If it was up to VietRussian and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond it would have been alright if Isildur1 stayed away from the high stakes online games altogether.
VietRussian and Galfond were absolutely thrashed by the young Scandi as he was spinning his way up to $1.5 million.
For some reason VietRussian decided to play a massive heads-up session against Blom and was thwarted at every turn. Galfond spent more time in the 6-Max games but had a similar result.
VietRussian is down $572k in 2011 while Galfond is $221k in the red. Both players will have to put in some fantastic sessions if they want to get even before the year expires.
The rest of the 10 losers weren’t nearly as well known although Rob “Vaga_Lion” Akery did drop $254k.
After an $800k upswing last month Phil “takechip” D’Auteuil finally cooled down in December by losing a total of $227k. Fortunately for D’Auteuil he’s still sitting on a profit of $786k this year.
Here’s a look at the complete top 10 losers this week:
1. VietRussian: -$492,000 2. MrSweets28: -$486,000 3. Axelf82: -$341,000 4. tjbentham: -$272,000 5. rivalzZz: -$264,000 6. Vaga_Lion: -$254,000 7. Phil “takechip” D’Auteuil: -$227,000 8. terryhsu: -$225,000 9. sussie Smith: -$146,000 10. wilhasha: -$142,000
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