None could top the following hand, however, which took place just after midnight EST.

Sauce123 entered the hand with $107,742 to Amit’s $42,898.

Amit, who plays on PokerStars as refaelamit, opened for $580, Sauce123 three-bet to $1,920 and Amit four-bet to $4,120.

Finally Sulsky decided to end the betting by just calling.

The flop came 7♥ 6♣ 5♠ and then the real fireworks started.

Sauce123 checked but Amit immediately fired for $5,800. Sulsky check-raised to $13,400 and Amit re-raised to $17,400.

At this point Sauce123 decided to just jam, easily covering Amit. Amit eventually made the call and the cards were on their backs.

Amit: 8♦ 6♥ 5♥ 4♠ (eight-high straight)

Sulsky: T♣ 9♦ 8♣ 6♠ (nine-high straight)

It’s always hard to get far ahead in PLO but in this case Sulsky had Amit crushed. According to our pot odds calculator Sulsky had a stranglehold on the hand and was a 79.52% favorite to win with his better straight.

Amit did have some outs as they headed to the turn, however, with full house possibilities and a backdoor flush draw.

The turn was the K♦, which quickly put to rest any weird flush draws, but the river was a thundering 6♦ giving Amit a boat and the pot. He ended up raking in $85,794 thanks to the lucky river card.

It wasn’t all bad for Sauce123, however, as he would eventually finish the session as the ultimate winner with $80,429 in profit.

Sauce123 is off to an exceptional start in 2012 and has already picked up $671k in the first month of online poker.

Be sure to check our online poker stats section for more information but in the meantime you can see exactly how the hand played out in our hand-replayer below:

This year, the festivities will be held in the new tournament area of the Casino Barriere at The Deauville International Centre. The venue is situated right on the shore of the English Channel and is attached to the famous Hotel Royal Barriere, which celebrates its 99th birthday this year. Deauville itself is a prestigious resort city, part of an area sometimes called the “Parisian rivieria,” as it is the nearest seaside resort to the French capital.

The EPT Deauville Main Event will begin with two starting days on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Days 2 and 3 on the remaining weekdays. Saturday’s Day 4 will end when 24 players remain (though plans can always change depending on how quickly or slowly players are eliminated), while Day 5 will conclude when the eight-handed final table is determined. Monday, February 6th is when the final table will be contested and the champion will be crowned.

Last year saw the largest turnout ever for the EPT Deauville Main Event, with 891 entrants creating a €4,276,800 prize pool. Lucien Cohen won the big tournament in his home country, banking €880,000.

Deauville has been a stop on the European Poker Tour since the Tour’s inception in 2004, though it was simply called the French Open in Seasons 1 and 2. Because of legal problems surrounding gambling in France, Deauville had to be removed from the schedule in early 2007, but it returned in January 2009 during Season 5 with its new name, EPT Deauville.

In addition to the €5,300 Main Event, there are close to 20 other side events, including a €10,000 + €300 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, a 32-player maximum, 2-day Heads-up event, and a 2-day Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. One unique tournament at EPT Deauville will be held Friday: a €300 + €30 men’s only event. The women will get their own tourney the following day, and to make things even more interesting, the winner from each will square off in a heads-up match on Sunday. In addition, the €1,000 + €100 2-day No-Limit Hold’em event starting Saturday, February 4th will be part of the France Poker Series.

While it is a bit late to qualify online at PokerStars, there is still a live super satellite into Day 1B of the Main Event on Tuesday at the casino. The tournament will cost €500 + €50, will allow one re-buy, and will start at 4:00pm local time. For those who miss that, there will be a few other super satellites during the week for players interested in trying to win seats into some of the other festival’s events, including the €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.

That session brings Berdsen’s 2012 net profit to just over $550,000 on PokerStars, while Galfond’s winnings on his MrSweets28 account so far this year were knocked down to just under $80k.

In total three pots made it into six-figure territory yesterday.

Galfond Redraws for $127,186

Game: $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha on PokerStars

Players and Stacks:

The biggest pot of the day was an absolute rollercoaster, with $127k going in on the flop with Galfond as a moderate favorite.

It started with Berdsen opening from the button to $800 with K♣ J♠ 7♥ 5♥ and Galfond three-betting A♦ 8♦ J♥ 7♣ to $2,760 from the big blind, call.

Preflop Winning Percentages: Galfond 58% - Berndsen 38% - Tie 4%

The flop rolled out J♣ 6♦ 4♥, giving Galfond top pair top kicker and a gutshot while Berndsen found top pair and an open-ender with a backdoor heart draw. That’s when the fireworks began.

Galfond check-raised from $4,848 to $21,052 before Berndsen moved all-in. Galfond called off and was looking to make the best hand hold up.

Flop Winning Percentages: Galfond 55% - Berndsen 38% - Tie 7%

The 8♦ on the turn changed that in a big way. Hitting his straight, Berndsen was now 85 percent to win while Galfond’s hopes had shrunk to just 7.5 percent.

Turn Winning Percentages: Galfond 7.5% - Bernsden 85% - Tie 7.5%

But the river turned the tables again, coming the 8♠ and making Galfond’s full house.

Check out the hand in action:

Replay this hand at pokerlistings

Berndsen Hits Wrap for $102,438

The second biggest pot of the day once again saw all the money go in on the flop.

The hand began with Berndsen opening to $800 from the button with Q♥ 9♣ 8♠ 3♠ and Galfond three-betting A♣ A♠ K♠ K♥ to $2,760, call.

Preflop Percentages: Galfond 69% - Berndsen 31%

The flop fell J♦ T♣ 5♣, giving Berndsen the wrap but leaving Galfond’s aces, now with a gutshot, well ahead.

Galfond led out for $4,800 and was raised to $20,878. Galfond shoved and Berndsen quickly called.

Flop Percentages: Galfond 56% - Berndsen 44%

The A♦ gave Galfond a set but didn't change a whole lot. The 9♦ on ther river, however, definitely did. Berndsen's straight was good for the $102,438 behemoth.

Check out the replay:

Replay this hand at pokerlistings

This time around Blom mixed it up and switched between 6-handed games against Ben86, Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond, mTw-DaviN, patpatman and Bernard-bb and heads-up games against the aforementioned Ben86 and Galfond.

It didn’t really matter if it was heads-up or 6-max as Blom was crushing in both.

After more than 12 hours of action Blom left the tables with $210k in profit. The win was easily enough to erase the $150k in losses he accrued against Berndsen12 the previous night.

Since winning the 2012 PCA Super High Roller for $1.3 million it appears that Blom is looking to put in some serious volume on PokerStars. Blom has recorded over 10,000 hands since winning his PCA title.

The only player with more hands in the last few days is Galfond, who has been on a sick run in the last while that has seen him play over 11k hands.

As usual Isildur1’s sessions have been swingy but he has managed to hold on to $202k in profit this year.

Isildur1 may have been the biggest story in high stakes online poker last night but he actually wasn’t the biggest winner. That honor went to Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky who re-emerged to win $267k in 3,818 hands.

Ben86 (+$104k), The Liar (+$52k) and masoren (+$51k) were also amongst the big winners in online poker last night.

Meanwhile diggidave was absolutely blasted by Isildur1 heads-up and ended up losing $288k to top the loser charts.

Diggidave wasn’t the only one to feel some pain as tiltjezz (-$106k), 1-ronnyr3 (-$99k), yhoda aboav (-$69k) all lost the equivalent of a pretty hefty house down payment.

For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section.

In the meantime here are a few choice hands from the massive Isildur1 session last night.

The pair hooked up in $50/$100 Pot-Limit Omaha and played heads-up for over 12 hours.

As expected there were numerous massive pots throughout the session. Berndsen won the biggest one, worth a total of $134k, when he rivered a straight against Isildur1’s two-pair.

At a certain point Isildur1 even told Berndsen that he would leave if the Dutch pro didn’t put in 3X when placing a bet.

“I don’t play the minibet game,” said Blom in the chatbox. “Sorry.”

In typical Isildur1 fashion, Blom started the session well and by the mid-point was up over $270k but ended up giving all that back and another $150k to Berndsen by the time the final card was played.

Berndsen has been on a serious heater to start 2012. The Dutch pro recorded a miserable 2011 with nearly $400k in losses but he’s already up more than $286k in the first 10 days of 2012. 

The Berndsen12/Isildur1 match stole the spotlight last night but there were also a number of notable sessions by big name online poker players.

Bernard-bb continued his strong play of late by adding another $79k to his bankroll and even online pioneer Johnny Lodden made a rare appearance in the top 20 winners by taking down $22k.

RaiseOnce, the rumored Phil Ivey account, played an Ivey-like amount of hands, recording just 425, but lost an un-Ivey-like $100k. If it is Ivey maybe he’s still getting used to the PokerStars software.

For more information on the high stakes action from last night be sure to check our online poker stats section.

Below is a collection of the biggest hands from the epic Berndsen12/Isildur1 match.

Approximately one-hour into the session Berndsen12 would rake the biggest pot of the evening.

The hand began with Berndsen12 opening for $500, Galfond 3-betting to $1,680 and Berndsen 4-betting to $5,120.

At this point Galfond decided to slow things down and just call to see a flop of K♦ 8♣ 4♦.

Galfond checked it down but Berndsen fired into him for $7,600. Galfond called to see the Q♣ turn.

This time Galfond started the betting and put $26k in the middle. Berndsend called and the board finished with the 8♥ on the river.

Galfond checked, Berndsen bet another $26k and Galfond called. Showdown?

Berndsen: 8♦ 7♦ 6♠ 5♣ (Trip Eights)

Galfond: K♣ Q♥ J♦ 9♦ (Two-Pair)

A very unfortunate river for Galfond gave Berndsen the scale-tipping $133k pot.

You can see exactly how the action went in our hand-replayer below.

Galfond made somewhat of a comeback in the later stages of the session but still finished the night with $121k in losses while Berndsen left with $149k.

Interestingly Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, just one day removed from his giant $1.2 million win in the PCA Super High Roller, was active in online poker last night. Unfortunately for Blom he lost $96k. 

Be sure to check our online poker stats section for more information. Here’s a brief rundown of the biggest winners and losers last night:

Top 5 Winners:

1. patpatman: +$215,000 2. Berndsen12: +$150,000 3. diggidave: +$133,000 4. Ragen70: +$92,000 5. VietRussian: +$62,000

Top 5 Losers

1. LiangYu: -$128,000 2. MrSweets28: -$121,000 3. Gavz101: -$103,000 4. Isildur1: -$96,000 5. RaiseOnce: -$90,000

In 2010 Phil Ivey and RaiseOnce were both active on Full Tilt and PokerStars respectively and they both disconnected and reconnected at the same time.

The RaiseOnce account also seems to follow Ivey’s general style of play – i.e. playing a minimal amount of tables and quitting as soon as he starts losing.

Furthermore the account is located in Mexico and Ivey is known to own a house in Cabo.

You can read more about the many reasons why railbirds believe RaiseOnce is Phil Ivey in this thread on TwoPlusTwo poker forum.

On Friday RaiseOnce first sat at $400/$800 8-game and $1,000/$2,000 H.O.R.S.E. with no takers before Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond finally took him on at $200/$400 PLO.

Galfond stacked RaiseOnce for over $200k in a short session but would go on to play another 3,000 hands this weekend and ended up finishing with $160k in profit.

Although all the buzz was on RaiseOnce this weekend there were some big winners on PokerStars as mTw-DaviN took down $219k. AltiFC (+$92k), tiltjezz (+$73k) and 1II|1II|1iI| (+$63k).

1II|1II|1iI| has been on one heck of a heater lately and has won over $1 million in the last three weeks alone.

RaiseOnce was indeed the biggest loser on PokerStars over the weekend but EireAbu (-$209k), Lrslzk (-$84k), Long90110 (-$84k) and PimpyLimpy (-$55k) all lost big.

Keep in mind that Long90110 was heavily rumored to be Tom Dwan so that means its possible that two former Full Tilt superstars were active on PokerStars over the weekend.

For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section. In the meantime you can check out the biggest hand from the massive RaiseOnce and MrSweets28 session below.