That laughable chatter was cut back down to size over the last seven days, however, as Ivey bounced back with $1.2m in profit.
Hac Dang, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Cort Kibler-Melby also came out on the high side of the online poker tide this week while the doubts have started to creep in about Viktor "Isildur1" Blom again.
Variance Turns Ivey's Way
The patience it takes to wait for an upswing in poker can be nerve-fraying but when that upswing finally hits it can almost blow you away.
Ivey's online high-stakes results so far in 2014 had been better left unsaid until last Tuesday when variance finally turned his way. Ivey didn’t hesitate to exploit it.
He was active in a lot of different games but $1,500/$3,000 8-Game was the most important one. He took his money mostly from Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen and then switched to $2k/$4k FL08 where his victim was Kyle "KPR16" Ray.
At the end of the week Polarizing had a profit of more than $1.2m which made him the biggest winner of the week and dropped him substantially down the list of the year’s biggest losers.
Blom in Downward Spiral
It was a very active week at the nosebleed limits.
Ivey, Hansen, Phil Galfond, Chun "samrostan" Lei Zhou, Hac Dang, Cort Kibler-Melby and Sebastian Ruthenberg all played a ton on the 2-7 Triple Draw and 8-Game tables every day and moved hundreds of thousands of dollars around.
Both Germans won about half a million dollars.
The developments for the most active player over the last couple of weeks – Viktor Blom – have become slightly worrying however. After fairly acceptable results in the first three months this year, Blom is now caught in a downward spiral.
No matter what kind of game he sits down to the 23 year old is paying. Last week alone, he lost $819k which brings his losses for the year up to $1.7 million dollar.
Within 100 days, Blom has given away over $3m!
Biggest Pot of the Week
The biggest hand of the week was won by a player who dominated the high stakes in 2012 and 2013 but hasn’t really left a mark this year.
Alex "IReadYrSoul/Kanu7" Millar is a force in high-stakes poke with over $5m eanred playing online.
In this hand he was sitting at a $400/$800 NLHE table with Phil Ivey (BB). Christoph "Tight-Man1" Vogelsang (UTG), and bbvisbadforme.
It was folded to Millar in the SB and the battle of the blinds began. Millar raised to $2850 and Ivey called.
The flop:
Millar bet half the pot and Ivey raised it up to $7k. Two raises later the full $115k that the Englishman had at the table was in the middle and Ivey made the call.
Hands at showdown:
Alex Millar:
Phil Ivey:
Millar flopped the straight but Ivey’s top pair plus flush draw had a lot of potential. The players agreed to run it twice.
The first board:
---
The second board
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So the $26k pot was split between the two of them.
Biggest Winners of the Week
Phil Polarizing Ivey: $+1,239,808 Hac trex313 Dang: $+773,864 Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $+529,379 Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+441,169 Sebastian LuckBox Ruthenberg (PS): $+237,809
Biggest Losers of the Week
Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-819,202 Gus Hansen: $-543,061 Alexandre Alexonmoon Luneau: $-244,084 SanIker: $-223,302 CrazyElior: $-220,186
Biggest Winners in 2014
Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295 Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,326,479 Niki Jedlicka: $+1,244,033 Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+897,554 Patrik FinddaGrind Antonius: $+851,411
Biggest Losers in 2014
Gus Hansen: $-3,562,314 Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-1,837,660 Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,703,416 Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,530,407 CrazyElior: $-1,193,383
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