Two regulars are still driving the action, though, as Cort Kibler-Melby rose to the top this week while Viktor Blom – again – lost more money than anyone else.
Isildur vs the Cortster
There are roughly 30 top players with German backgrounds grinding the poker tables in Las Vegas these days.
One of them is not Cort Kibler-Melby, as he's one of the few grinders who specializes entirely in cash games.
One player who appreciates that? Viktor Blom, because without “The Cortster” he wouldn’t have had much action last week.
Over two days they dueled at the 2-7 Triple Draw tables with Kibler-Melby coming out $250k ahead and Blom down about the same amount.
Rise of the Unknowns
With most of the regulars missing, lots of unknown players took their places at the the tables to try and make a name for themselves.
Usually you'd find players like Doorbread, NittySlick, timepkr and JaeggarJack at lower stakes but the shark void at the top is giving them a shot to play higher than usual.
The only one to take advantage this week was Doorbread, who managed to win around $100k and might now become one of the regulars himself.
Biggest Hand of the Week
The largest pot this week was at $100/$200 NLHE and was one of the few hands without Blom or Kibler-Melby that actually topped 100k.
It was a heads-up pot between NLHE expert Denoking and high-stakes novice JaeggerJack. There were several raises before the flop with both players putting in around $k.
On the flop:
Both players checked. On the turn:
As it turned out, at this stage, nobody was going to quit. JaeggerJack took the lead with a careful bet of $7k and Denoking just called. On the river:
There was no holding back anymore. JaeggerJack went all-in with $51k and was quickly called by Denoking. Hands at showdown:
JaeggerJack:
Denoking:
Top set/full house versus second set/full house. In a situation like this there's simply no way out. $120k was moved into the bankroll of the more experienced Denoking. Hopefully, JaeggerJack didn’t put his whole bankroll on the line.
Winners of the Week
Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+243,009 Doorbread: $+102,486 Denoking: $+101,344 ajve_xx: $+67,998 Ben Sauce123 Sulsky: $+50,672
Losers of the Week
Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-242,000 NittySlick: $-79,424 timekpr: $-58,969 Sirens: $-48,771 JaeggerJack: $-44,581
Biggest Winners in 2014
Alexander PostflopAction Kostritsyn: $+1,652,066 Niklas Ragen70 Heinecker: $+1,463,133 Dan jungleman12 Cates: $+1,355,295 Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby: $+1,203,128 Patrik FinddaGrind Antonius: $+1,183,736
Biggest Losers in 2014
Gus Hansen: $-3,545,491 Chun samrostan Lei Zhou: $-2,890,245 Phil Polarizing Ivey: $-1,815,817 Viktor Isildur1 Blom: $-1,372,769 SanIker: $-1,293,520
Visit www.pokerlistings.com