Ivey rakes in top pots this week

Phil Ivey once again won the two biggest online poker pots of the week, topping last week's efforts against LarsLuzak with two wins worth nearly a million bucks.

This time it was ziigmund's bankroll that Ivey pillaged, during a $500/$1,000 heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha session on Jan. 19 on Full Tilt Poker. ziigmund is better known in the real world as Finn Ilari Sahamies.

His hyperaggressive style makes him one of the most feared poker pros in the world, and that's an image he plays up whenever he gets the opportunity.

"Playing it safe will never get you to the top," Sahamies has been quoted as saying. "More important is that you have the balls to bet at the right time. If you want to succeed you need to have a gambler's attitude."

Well, for better or worse, ziigmund appears to have that attitude in spades.

In the first pot in question Ivey held 2♣ A♠ J♥ A♥ to ziigmund's Q♥ 7♣ 9♠ T♠. After a flop of 8♠ 5♠ 3♦ ziigmund checked. Ivey seized the initiative with a big $45k bet, only to be check-raised to $189k.

That was enough for Ivey to come back all-in. With both a gut-shot straight and a spade flush draw, ziigmund called with plenty of outs.

The turn revealed 8♥ to pair the board and give Ivey aces-up and just one more card to sweat. When that card came as a 9♣, Ivey had officially dodged all bullets, and walked with $486,989.

Only eight minutes after that monster, which was the biggest online poker pot of the year up until that point, Ivey did it again.

A preflop pissing match pushed the pot up over a $100k early. After a 6♦ Q♦ 9♣ flop, Ivey put in a bet of $162k, which prompted ziigmund to move all-in.

This time when each player's cards were revealed, Ivey once again showed aces (4♦ A♣ A♠ 2♠).  However, he was even further ahead than in the first pot, as ziigmund had just a pair of nines (2♣ K♠ 7♣ 9♠), and neither the straight nor the flush draw he had had in the earlier showdown.

The 6♣ turn did offer ziigmund some outs with a club flush draw, but once again those were washed away with a meaningless T♥ on the river. And just like that Ivey carted away another $491,891 of ziigmund's cash.

The combined total of that eight minutes of work equaled $978,880 for Ivey's already out-of-this-world bankroll.

Ivey's efforts did nothing to improve his position on the yearly Money Makers leaderboard since the hands were in Omaha. Ivey currently sits in fourth place on the leaderboard.

Keep your eye on the PokerListings MarketPulse section to see if ziigmund chases his losses to Ivey as they continue their struggle for Pot-Limit Omaha supremacy.