Ziggy Busts French Maverick “Moirhums” for a cool $300k

Aug. 13, 2011, Posted by Pokerfarm

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, who's played as "Ilari FIN" since FTP went they way of the dodo, has been engaged in a week-long high-stakes bloodbath against little-known French player Romain "moirhums" Arnaud.

The two tangled at the $50/$100 heads up PLO tables at PokerStars. Towards the end of last week, French pro Arnaud lost a colossal $177k over the course of a thousand-hand session. Not content to sit back and lick his wounds, this week Moirhums has taken up the fight once more, only to send another $135k in Ziggy's direction.

Arnaud is by no means a regular at the nosebleed games. Tracking sites have him as a small but steady winner at high stakes NLHE before taking a disastrous run at HU PLO at the beginning of the summer. He cites Phil Ivey and Phil Galfond as players he looks up to, but his bankroll management is more reminiscent of Viktor Blom. His tumultuous session against unpredictable Finnish tilt machine Sahamies has catapulted the French player to the forefront of public attention for all of the wrong reasons. Following his huge losses, many sources speculated Arnaud had spewed off the best part of his bankroll, but he evidently laid his hands on more capital before launching into this latest bout.

At first, things seemed to be looking up for the aggressive Frenchman as he won back nearly $100k from Ziigmund on Tuesday. Almost half of that total came from a 3-bet pot in which Moirhums shoved the turn with aces-up only to run into Sahamies' set. The river brought Arnaud a boat, and the suckout secured the Frenchman a solid winning session.

However, the good news ended there as French resistance collapsed to Finnish aggression. Later that same day, Arnaud lost $50k back to the Sahamies, including a questionable stack-off with just an overpair and backdoor flush draw in a 4-bet pot for 200bb. Ziigmund's top set took down the $42k pot, and Arnaud's winning day was cut short.

The following day, Arnaud lost an additional $50k over just 540 hands, and on Thursday he dumped $30k to the Finnish powerhouse.

But the real finishing blow came on Friday, when in the course of just 445 hands Moirhums managed to blow off a stomach-churning $108k. Sahamies seemed strongly in control throughout the session, calmly calling large bets as Arnaud fired with missed draws and air. The largest pot of the matchup came as the French player 3-bet an iffy, loosely connected double suited hand. Sahamies flatted in position with Queens and a higher heart draw. The flop gave Moirhums top pair with the second-nut flush draw, but Ziggy was way out in front with top set. He raised the Frenchman's c-bet, and Arnaud made the call. The turn was a disaster card for Arnaud, giving him top two pair. He check/shoved Sahamies' pot-sized bet and the Finn's set held, shipping Ziigmund the $56k pot.

Overall, Arnaud has lost over $300k to Illari Sahamies, and has yet to show any signs of slowing down. PLO is famously high-variance, so no-one should write off the French player yet, but it wouldn't be the first time that a winning NLHE reg showed a weakness for Omaha action at a level higher than their bankroll could support. Arnaud's bank manager may be begging him to stop, but we can rest assured that the railbirds will be looking forward to seeing Sahamies and Arnaud clash once again in the coming days. That is, unless he's already busto.