Fri, 09/09/2011 – 06:58 – PokerPages Staff

Phil ‘MrSweets28′ Galfond ended a barren run of form by booking a substantial $368,000 profit in high stakes cash games on the world’s largest poker site, PokerStars, on Wednesday.

Galfond had been in a rut for several days prior to his huge win which saw him thrash the red hot Andreas ‘skjervoy’ Torbergsen at the Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha tables in mid-week.

The 26 year-old also enjoyed lucrative $200 / $400 PLO sessions against Ilari ‘Ilari FIN’ Sahamies, ‘socutiesf’ and Rafi ‘rafaelamit’ Amit and eventually logged off after 2,236 hands with a notable six figure upswing.

Galfond is now well on the road to recovery after a bleeding a significant chunk of his bankroll during the last ten days. The Vancouver, Canada resident is up $483,000 for the calendar year.

Ilari ‘Ilari FIN’ Sahamies also bounced back after several disappointing sessions. The nosebleed regular crushed the $200 / $400 Six-Max games for an impressive $183,000.

While the Finn continues to live up to his ‘King of ‘Swing’ tag he has now taken down $534,000 on the virtual felt during 2011. ‘socutiesf’ (+$110,000) and ‘VietRussian’ (+$149,000) rounded out the top four winners online.

Torbergsen’s woes against Galfond contributed to one of his worst evenings in months as he donated $470,000 in total. However, ‘skjervoy’ remains the biggest winner on PokerStars this year with profits of $1.49 million.

Rafi ‘rafaelamit’ Amit failed to buck a losing trend on Wednesday as he bled another $219,000. Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom, who only played 105 hands, also dropped $80,000.

September 10 2011, Donnie Peters

The final table of the 2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris was set after the completion of Day 4 on Friday at the Aviation Club de France. Leading the final six players is Byron Kaverman with 2.079 million in chips. He’ll be joined by Huge Lemaire, Mikko Sundell, Frederic Magen, Matt Waxman and Martin Jacobson.

Coming into the day, Waxman led the charge of the final 18 players. The first player to be eliminated on Day 4 was Ahmed Debabeche. According to the WPT Live Update Team, Debabeche moved all-in for his last 51,000 over the top of a raise to 21,000 from Magen with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante. Jean Noel Thorel reraised all-in from the button and that isolated Debabeche, who held pocket eights. Torel held . Debabeche’s eights ended up going down in the battle and he was sent to the rail first on the day.

Next to go was Guillaume Darcourt. First, Darcourt ran his pocket kings into Andras Kovacs’ pocket aces for half of his stack and then he was eliminated by Lameire shortly thereafter. On his final hand, Darcourt got the money in with a flush draw holding on a board of . He was up against a pair plus a better flush draw for Lemaire who was holding . The turn brought the and the river the to finish things off.

Joe Cassidy finished in 13th place and took home “44,445. With the blinds at 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante, he moved all-in for 126,000 over the top of Sundell’s opening raise of 22,000. Action got back to Sundell and he made the call with the . Cassidy, holding , was dominated. The flop, turn and river ran out to leave Cassidy second best.

The last woman standing was Nesrine Kourdourli and she hit the rail in 10th place. Following her out the door was Alain Goldberg in ninth, Dmitry Stelmak in eighth and then Dori Yacoub in seventh to officially set the WPT final table.

With the blinds at 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 ante, Lemaire raised to 40,000 on the button and Yacoub called out of the big blind to see the flop. Yacoub instantly moved all-in for 203,000, holding , and Lemaire made the call with . The hit the turn and the fell on the river leaving Yacoub with just jack high. That was unable to best the Lemaire’s pair of fives and Yacoub was out the door in seventh place for “77,700.

Final Table Seat Draw

The final table will commence on Saturday at 1600 CEST (1500 BST). There will be a live stream of the event on a 30-minute delay beginning at 1030 EDT (1530 BST) on the WPT website if you’d like to watch. Someone will be walking away with “518,750 in first-place prize money, so be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the recap to find out who earned it.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters