Fresh off his runner up finish in the Main Event of the Helsinki Freezeout, Ilari Sahamies, known to many in the poker world as Ziigmund, has launched his very own blog, Coinflip.com. The free online poker community will play host to videos and anecdotes from the popular Finnish player.
Current videos on Coinflip.com focus on his tournament in Helsinki. In addition, fans of Sahamies can watch a two part series of the pro battling against Phil Ivey on the felts of Full Tilt Poker. Blogs have been posted every few days, allowing inside information on his travels and adventures through poker’s largest tournaments. In a press release distributed on Friday, Sahamies commented, “After several requests, I wanted to start my blog on a brand new site that is not filled with flashing banners, but is a simple, slick, and cool poker community. My blog and videos will be updated as frequently as possible and I hope that poker players everywhere will often visit with comments and questions.”
Despite being Finnish, Sahamies writes for fans in English. He burst onto the poker scene in 2004 far away from his native country, winning a preliminary event held during the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic for $24,000. He also won a $200 Pot Limit Omaha event during the St. Maarten Open for $31,000. Two years later, he finished 30th in a European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Barcelona for $11,000. In a €5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament held during the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam in 2007, Sahamies finished 25th for $15,000. Last November, he took fifth in the Fennia Grand Slam in Helsinki for $16,000. Winning that tournament was Seppo Parkkinen; World Poker Tour (WPT) event winner Juha Helppi took third.
The Main Event of the Helsinki Freezeout drew 224 entrants from across Finland and around the world. Sahamies made the most of his €2,850 buy-in, finishing in second place for €125,126. He began heads-up play leading in chips, but was ultimately bested by Jani Valkeinen, who was making his major live final table debut. The event was held at the Grand Casino Helsinki and wrapped up during the middle of January.
Sahamies’ latest blog outlines a recent trip to London. There, he attended an Arsenal soccer game with Roland de Wolfe. Next up for him is Copenhagen, Denmark, the site of an EPT tournament. Also in the European country will be the highly-publicized boxing match between Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen and rival Theo Jorgensen. On the spectacle, Sahamies commented, “That will be fun.” If Hansen wins, he will be paid $25,000 by Jorgensen. If Jorgensen wins, he will become $35,000 richer.
Sahamies also noted that he was in the midst of battling against Tom “durrrr” Dwan online. Dwan famously posted the Million Dollar Challenge, which involves the youngster playing against Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and David Benyamine in 50,000 hands of at least $200/$400 stakes. If Dwan finishes up, his opponent will pay him an extra $500,000. If his opponent were to finish ahead, Dwan will cough up a total of $1.5 million. Sahamies hoped that the challenge would rekindle Dwan’s dominance of the game: “durrrr will start his world famous challenge matches in February and hopefully he will get his game back in shape after his massive downswing. The matches will be interesting.”
A wide range of topics exist in the Coinflip.com forums, ranging from gambling addiction to paying taxes on poker earnings to online aliases. A desired username and e-mail address are required in order to open a free account on Coinflip.com. User accounts allow access to videos and the ability to post comments in the forums and articles. No ads currently appear anywhere on the site, which officially opened to the public on January 20th.
The boxing fight was hilarious. Gus Hansen entered in a wheel chair, wearing boxing clothes from centuries back in time and Theo Jorgensen had his socks up above his knees. I was really amazed about Gus’ physical form. He’s a bundle of muscles!