Tom Dwan has pushed his winnings for 2010 up to $1.7 million, after a bumper weekend on Full Tilt Poker which saw him rake in a massive $856,489 profit.

Saturday kicked off Dwan’s winning run when he crossed paths with old nemesis Isildur1 across the $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha tables. After 413 hands of heads-up action, Dwan withdrew with a $81,000 profit and it wasn’t until eight hours later that he resumed play, this time against Patrik Antonius and PixKim at $300/$600 PLO.

A lengthy four-and-a-half-hour session saw Dwan add a further $624,000 profit to his winnings, mostly at the expense of Finnish pro Antonius. Dwan then sat down at a six-max $300/$600 PLO game alongside the likes of Isildur1, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Hac “trex313″ Dang, and Patrik Antonius.  Dwan didn’t fare so well this time, dropping $229,000  but Antonius did much worse losing $874,000 during the session. Isildur1 proved the main beneficiary of that particular game, and walked away with a $526,083 profit putting him in the black $915,000 for 2010 so far.

Tom Dwan then decided to round off his weekend, first with a heads-up match against LarsLuzak at $500/$1,000 Cap NLHE, where he lost $76,000 over 222 hands before facing off with Antonius at $300/$600 PLO. 344 hands later Dwan took $306,000 off his beleaguered opponent, who seems to have hit a major downswing after his $9 million upswing in 2009. In total, Antonius lost $960,000 during his weekend of play which now take his losses for 2010 down to a massive $2.8 million.

On the other hand, Tom Dwan who suffered a major downswing during 2009 has bounced back nicely and with his $856,489 winning weekend has extended his profits for the year to $1.7 million.

By end of November 2009, Dwan was stuck $6.8 million for the year but managed to recoup $2.7 million during December and has since been on a $4.5 million upswing. The upswings and downswings which are regularly experienced by poker players is taken as part and parcel of the game but can be hard to endure even for top pros. Dwan has emphatically shown he has the heart and stomach of a true champion in being able to deal with the huge ups and downs the game has thrown at him.

After saying goodbye to the majority of his profits from the last month, some speculated that Isildur1 might quit Patrik Antonius, or at least settle for a break in the action. Instead, the unknown player from Sweden picked right back up where he left off and challenged the Full Tilt Poker pro to some more high-stakes $500-$1,000 pot-limit Omaha.

Those of you who haven’t been following the action can catch up with the links at the bottom of the page.

But first, Isildur1 went back to his bread and butter, which has been beating Tom “durrrr” Dwan at no-limit hold’em. After picking up a $655,000 win there, Isildur1 went on to face another adversary in Phil Ivey.

During the PLO match with Ivey, Isildur1 won his very first million-dollar pot, though it would not make up for the record-setting hand he lost to Antonius earlier in the week. It’s a good thing that the $1.1 million pot went Isildur1’s way, because it ended up determining the entire session, as he finished up $793,000 on Ivey overall.

With those two out of the way, Isildur1 decided to focus on Antonius, who has been by far the biggest thorn in his side throughout these challenges. It ended up being one of the swingiest matches of the year, as each player took turns being up or down seven figures at a time.

Isildur1 was up $1.7 million at one point, only to see Antonius fight back and claim a small lead of his own. When all was said and done, Isildur1 finished with a $696,000 profit over the course of nearly 5,100 hands. Those three matches have him back to about $2.5 million in profit over the last five weeks.

Isildur1 Defeats Durrrr, Others In Big Games
Isildur1 Gives Some of it Back to Ivey, Antonius
Isildur1 Bounces Back Against Ziigmund
Isildur1 Gets Crushed by Antonius, Ivey

It may seem foolish to write an article updating Isildur1’s action, knowing full well that the winners and losers can seemingly swap places in a matter of hours, but Saturday night’s action on Full Tilt Poker was much too epic to ignore.

Yes, the largest online pot in history record was broken … again, but that was hardly the story. In nearly 4,500 hands of high-stakes carnage, both Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius would claim seven-figure scores against the Swedish player Isildur1.

Here’s a quick update for those who haven’t been following the storyline. Isildur1 burst onto the scene as a complete unknown and racked up $6 million in winnings in just over three weeks time, more than half of which was from Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Then he took on Antonius and lost back approximately $2.7 million. The trouble continued as he lost $900,000 to Ivey, but he bounced back to take $1 million from Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

The swings continued, however, and Antonius and Ivey were able to pick up all of that and more, leaving the Swede with about $3 million in profit, overall.

You’d think that Isildur1 would be able to spot his kryptonite by now, but he continued to fight on against the two players who clearly had his number. Sure, he was able to pick up roughly $800,000 from Dwan earlier in the day during a quick session, but he would need every cent of that to cover his astronomical losses later that night.

Agreeing to multi-table against Ivey and Antonius simultaneously at $500-$1,000 stakes, Isildur1 quickly found himself on the losing end of some costly coin-flips, and hours later, his cashier page was missing about $3.3 million.

Normally when you win $1.2 million in a single session, you are easily the biggest winner of the week, let alone the night, but Ivey’s performance on Saturday would have to settle for second place. Antonius quit the game with a $2.1 million win, putting his total from Isildur1 at about $3.7 million overall. According to estimates, Isildur1 is now up just $750,000 on the month, a far cry from the $6 million he held previously.

During the session, Antonius and Isildur1 topped their previous record, set just last week, for largest online pot. The Card Player Omaha Odds Calculator shows that the hand basically amounted to a glorified coin-flip, but it went Antonius’ way and gave him all of the momentum he needed to continue his run.

Here’s a look at the hand details:

Blinds	Full Tilt Poker	$500-$1,000
Player	Isildur1	Patrik Antonius
Cash	$678,474	$1,259,450
Hand	9 8 7 6	A K K 3

Isildur1 raised to $3,000 in the small blind, and Antonius reraised to $9,000. Isildur1 reraised to $27,000 and Antonius five-bet to $81,000. Isildur1 made the call, and the two players saw a flop of 5 4 2.

Antonius continued with a bet of $93,000, and Isildur1 raised to $435,000, committing himself to the pot. Antonius put him all in for his last $162,474. Isildur1 called all in, and the pot surged to $1,356,947.

Antonius showed A K K 3 for the flopped wheel and two backdoor-flush draws, but Isildur1 was drawing very live with his 9 8 7 6. The turn and river fell 5 and 9, and the wheel held to give Antonius the pot.

The action is sure to continue, and you can catch it all on Full Tilt Poker. Card Player readers are eligible for a deposit bonus of up to $600. Click the banner below for more information.

For those of you who haven’t been watching the various Isildur1 matches on Full Tilt Poker, you’ve been missing out on some of the most epic high-stakes cash game action in quite some time.

To recap, Isildur1 burst onto the scene as a complete unknown and racked up $6 million in winnings in just over three weeks time, more than half of which was from Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Then, he took on Patrik Antonius (pictured right) and lost back approximately $2.7 million. The trouble continued as he lost $900,000 to Phil Ivey (pictured below left), but he bounced back to take $1 million from Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

While most of the world watched the Miami Dolphins and Ricky Williams run all over the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, the anonymous player from Sweden sat and waited for action at the $500-$1,000 heads-up pot-limit Omaha tables. He quickly got his wish from both Antonius and Ivey, who were more than willing to multi-table against the up-and-comer.

The end result, however, is not what Isildur1 had in mind. Antonius played over 1,900 hands with him before retiring for the evening, settling on a $437,000 win. That number seems large, but not when you consider that Antonius won the two largest pots of the session of $784,000 and $775,000, respectively.

Minimizing the damage in the Ivey match wasn’t quite so easy. Despite only playing for about 700 hands, Ivey was able to take $705,000 from Isildur1, bringing his profit from the Swede to roughly $1.6 million.

Isildur1 is still up overall this past month in the neighborhood of $3 million.

For the second time in less than five days, Patrik Antonius and “Isildur1″ broke the record for the largest pot in online poker history. At just before 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday night, Antonius and Isildur1 were in the middle of a three-table, $500/1,000 pot-limit Omaha match on Full Tilt Poker. On the “Royal Guard” table, Antonius had built up his stack to nearly $1.26 million from his initial $200,000 buy-in, while Isildur1 was sitting on $678,000.

These two high-stakes rivals had already tangled in an $815,000 pot earlier in the evening (then the second-largest online pot ever), and many railbirds believed it was only a matter of time before they saw seven figures at stake on a single hand.

The pot was five-bet before the flop, Isildur1 opening for $3,000, Antonius three-betting to $9,000, Isildur1 repotting to $27,000, and Antonius coming back over the top for $81,000. Isildur1 called and they saw a {5-Clubs}{4-Spades}{2-Hearts}flop. Antonius bet $91,000 into the $162,000 pot. After a little thought, Isildur1 repotted to $435,000, leaving himself only $162,473 behind. Antonius reraised to $773,000 and Isildur1 called off the rest of his stack, creating a $1,356,946 pot. Antonius turned up {A-Hearts}{K-Hearts}{K-Spades}{3-Spades}, having flopped a wheel, while Isildur1 revealed {9-Spades}{8-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}{6-Diamonds} for a higher straight draw. Although Antonius was a 55 percent favorite on the flop, the {5-Hearts} on the turn made him a more than 3-1 favorite over Isildur1. The river was the {9-Clubs} and Antonius raked in more than $1.35 million.

This hand smashed the record-setting pot that Isildur1 and Antonius played on Nov. 17 by nearly $478,000. That $878,958 pot now stands as the second largest in online poker history. When Isildur1 finally quit for the night, he had lost over $2.1 million to Antonius and another $1.2 million to Phil Ivey, bringing his total losses for the day to a staggering $3.3 million.

Joe Cada, 21 has defeated Darvin Moon to become the youngest World Series of Poker Main Event champion in the tournament’s 40-year history. He takes home $8,547,042 and the World Series of Poker Main Event world championship bracelet.

Joe Cada came into the final table with a decisive advantage over his opponent, however about an hour into the heads-up match, Moon’s aggressive play remedied his chip deficiency, even putting him in a commanding lead at one point with 149 million in chips to Cada’s 49 million.

“Well you got to take the man’s game away from him,” said Moon of his aggressive strategy.  “Use the man’s game and see where he goes.”

However all was not lost for the young poker pro from Shelby Township, MI. A bit of light shone for Cada after a river gave him a straight and a hefty 20 million in chips.

The hand of the match developed a little more than two and a half hours after play began. With the board showing , Joe Cada fired out 3 million in chips.

Moon responded with an all-in re-raise. After some consideration, Cada made the call, tabling while Moon turned over . For the championship bracelet, Moon needed a 6 or Jack on the river, but was denied both when a 3 was turned over.

“That’s the hand I messed up,” reflected Moon. “I should have raised on the flop where he had middle pair.”

Cada, back in the driver’s seat, never looked back. The final hand saw the two remaining players all-in pre-flop with Cada’s pocket nines versus Moon’s Q-J suited. The flop came 8c-2c-7s improving neither players’ hand, while a king on the turn and another 7 on the river ended Moon’s spectacular run and catapulted Joe Cada into poker superstardom.

While a lot has been said about Moon’s humility and indifference to the fame and fortune that comes with poker celebrity, he was adamant about his intentions on winning it all.

“Oh hell yeah, $3 million dollars, what do you mean what’s the difference?” replied Moon when asked if there was a big difference to him between first and second. “Am I sad about it? Am I depressed? Hell no.” For his second place finish, Moon earned $5,182,928.

A tearful Cada gave a nod to his opponent and addressed the crowd after WSOP commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack presented him with poker’s most coveted prize.

“I want to thank my friends and family for taking time away from work and school to be here,” he said as his cheering section erupted in mayhem.

Just over a week before his 22nd birthday, the young poker pro acknowledged the fantastic achievement he had just accomplished.

“I’ve dreamed of winning this tournament, and to do it the first year out of the gate is unbelievable,” said Cada. “This is just amazing.”

A fantastic final table and well played to my boy Joe Cada. After Phil Ivey bombed out in 7th (he didnt start with enough chips to be a threat) I was backing Cada to become the youngest player EVER to win the Main event, and he went on to do it.

If anyone missed it I think ESPN channel 230 will show it again on Sunday at 6pm

-Ed

UK poker pro James Akenhead is on a roll, to be sure. November Niner with WSOP Main Event final table coming up, final table in WSOP Europe recently, and now the final table in televised Poker Million. In the Full Tilt Poker sponsored, televised poker show Poker Million, Akenhead has eliminated fine players like Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Antonio Esfandiari. He’ll sit down at the final table in December with online qualifiers as well as a few well-known pros, such as Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, Dag Martin Mikkelsen and Juha Helppi.

One seat at the final table is still up for grabs! On November 22 Full Tilt hosts a 5000 player point online freeroll tournament, the winner of goes directly to the final table, without having to battle it out in qualifying heats and semi finals.