| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

Hand of the Week: Sahamies Hits Nuts, Blows Up Pot

One of the players in the ostensible "Champions League" of online poker for a long time is Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

Sometimes the eccentric Finn will disappear for a couple of months but eventually he always returns to the high-stakes tables, where it appears he fears no one.

His best game is Pot Limit Omaha - a game where he counts as one of the best players in the world.

This week we dig into a classic Sahamies hand where he finds a straight flush, the second best hand in poker, and gets paid off.

Flop to River

The game is PLO $200/$400/$80 and the effective stacks are $88,000, which corresponds to 220 big blinds.

Ilari Sahamies
The game is PLO.

Sahamies is on the button and raises to $1,640. Ackmajin in the small blind folds but Ravenswood13 in the big calls. There's now $3,720 in the pot and the flop falls: K clubs K Q diamonds Q J diamonds J

Both players check and the turn is the 6 hearts 6

Ravenswood13 now takes the lead with a bet of $3,715, which Sahamies calls. The pot is now $11,150. The river is the 9 diamonds 9

Now Ravenswood13 bets pot - $11,145 – but Sahamies raises to $44,580. Ravenswood13 makes the call. At showdown Sahamies shows K diamonds K K diamonds K 6 clubs 6 5 clubs 5

And wins a $100k pot.

Hand Analysis

Considering the size of the stacks (220 BB), Sahamies starts out remarkably passive but still manages to win a sizeable pot.

Let’s look at the hand a little closer. There are three players at the table and a hand like K♦ T♦ 6♣ 5♣ is an obvious raise.

Although it only consists of two good Hold’em hands (which rarely make good Omaha hands), it’s also double suited and has the potential to make a lot of straights.

The flop looks very nice for Ziigmund. He hits top pair and an open-ended straight flush draw with several clean and some dirty outs.

Ravenswood13 makes a standard check to the raiser, and Sahamies surprisingly checks behind.

There are good reasons for this decision, though. First, the turn could bring a lot of bad cards for Sahamies.

Second, there's the possibility for his opponent to make several second-best hands. Sahamies would also make all the weak hands fold here.

And last, for a player as aggressive as Ilari Sahamies, it’s always a good idea to change his play and sometimes check with good hands.

Folding Is Not An Option

The turn doesn’t change much but Sahamies hits a second pair to improve his hand. Now his opponent bets and Sahamies has to decide whether to call or raise.

Ilari Sahamies
Unusual approach pays off.

Folding is not an option here. The call is very likely the best move here as, again, he keeps the weaker hands in play. A raise would probably only get calls from stronger hands.

The river card is, of course (alongside the A♦) an absolute dream card. Not only is Sahamies now holding the nuts with a straight flush, the board could also have given his opponent several strong, second-best hands

Ravenswood13 bets the pot for a second time now which either means he has a strong hand or he’s bluffing.

As Ravenswood13 calls Sahamies’ raise it's pretty clear that he did have a good hand, most likely a flush.

Conclusion

Holding a very strong hand the hyper-aggressive Sahamies takes an unusual approach here.

He plays passively until the river then hits the nuts and blows up the pot as much as possible -- also polarizing his hand to the max.

Of course he gets lucky to hit a straight flush, but the most important thing is that he won such a big pot because of his clever playing style.

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval