Today's hand breakdown comes from a $200/$400 table at Full Tilt featuring bankroll heavyweights Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

(Hand history and stats from PL.com MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)

Players: Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies

Game: Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em, Cash, Full Tilt Poker

Situation: $200/$400 blinds

Stacks: OMGClayAiken (BB) $44,399; Ziigmund (Button) $132,093.50

The Set-Up

The nosebleed games on Full Tilt Poker are always rife with high-limit action. This session Ziigmund has been making large hero calls on the river with second pair and even ace-high, often holding the best hand.

Galfond seems to be playing a lot more aggressively in this session, betting three streets with a wide range of hands. As the match stands when this hand goes down, Galfond is down a few buy-ins and Ziigmund is on a quasi-heater, playing and running well.

Pre-flop:
Ziigmund raises to $1,200, OMGClayAiken raises to $4,800, Ziigmund calls $3,600.

Flop: ($9,600) 8♦ 2♥ A♦

OMGClayAiken bets $6,600, Ziigmund calls $6,600.

Turn: ($22,800) 6♥

OMGClayAiken bets $12,400, Ziigmund calls $12,400.

River: ($47,600) 4♠

OMGClayAiken bets $20,599 all-in, Ziigmund calls $20,599.

Final pot: $88,798
OMGClayAiken shows J♣ A♠ (a pair of aces)

Ziigmund mucks

OMGClayAiken wins $88,797.50

Breakdown

OK; with the stats out of the way we can now get to the meat of this bad boy.

Ziigmund starts the hand out by raising 3x the BB off the button. This alone does not define his range at all as his button-raise range is basically any two cards. Mr. Galfond re-pops it to $4,800 with J♣ A♠. The 4x the original raise has almost become the new standard out-of-position re-raise.

Galfond's three-bet range, while tighter than most, is still fairly wide. It consists of most good aces, pocket pairs, decent suited connectors, etc. Ziigmund flat-calls the three bet, which eliminates the complete trash from his range, and we see a flop.

The flop of 8♦ 2♥ A♦ is great for Galfond, giving him top pair with a very good kicker. This is a monster heads-up.

In a full-ring cash game you have to be wary of being out-kicked. But when you're heads-up this is one of those bet, bet, bet hands. You want to get your money in the pot because you're going to have the best hand a good majority of the time.

So Galfond bets two-thirds the pot, which he would do with most of his range, and Ziigmund calls. At this stage Ziigmund has raised pre-flop off the button, called a re-raise and now called a continuation bet on the flop.

Ziigmund: You'd hear from him on the flop if he held a strong draw.

This hand looks to me like a one-pair hand and not likely to be a draw as Ziigmund is renowned for his aggressive play. You'd usually hear from him on the flop if he held a strong draw.

It's also unlikely he has a hand like TT, JJ or 99 as those would most likely be four-bet pre-flop. Though I don't play these stakes, I'd put his hand strength at an 8-7 or an 8-9 type hand.

The turn brings the 6♥. This card changes nothing. Galfond continues his aggression with a small, almost half-pot-sized bet of $12,400. He can size this bet much smaller because he eliminated the flush draw from Ziigmund's range on the flop.

Galfond could be making this bet to try and induce a bluff out of the wily Finn. Ziigmund however does not bite and flats the turn.

The river brings the 4♠ and Galfond shoves his last $20,599. Ziigmund, who must have felt his hand was good on the turn, is now obligated to call this river. He can't call the turn and then fold the river. If his hand was good on the turn then the river changes nothing.

So he must call, getting better than 3-1. Ziigmund had picked off some three-barrel bluffs Galfond had run up earlier and possibly thinks this is another. Unfortunately for him, Galfond's pair of aces are good for a $88,797 pot.

To see more big pots between the two from that session and more of the top 100 biggest hold'em pots won online over the last day, week and month, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.

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