Up to this week 2012 wasn't turning out to be an especially memorable year for Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies as he has struggled all year long, with limited success, to break even after a terrible first few months.
However, these past seven days have seen him erase any losses he has made and then some as he has won over $1.6 million through a mixture of online success and live tournament cashes at EPT Barcelona.
Ilari's rush began a week ago today as he final tabled the €50k Super High Roller event, finishing in 4th place for €291,900 - in fact Sahamies was a little unlucky in the end as he looked in very good shape to double up getting it in with AQ vs eventual winner Dan Smith's A 10 until a 10 hit the flop.
Just a couple of days later the volatile Finn enjoyed back to back days of success at his bread and butter online PLO games, making a particularly big splash in the $200/$400 Isildur1 fuelled ring games on Wednesday as he enjoyed a monster $416.6k win and Ilari's online winnings for the past seven days currently total +$458,934. At this point Ilari was going straight from his live tournament (by now had he entered the €5k Main Event at EPT Barcelona, and was doing very well thank you very much) to the virtual felt and killing both games.
As he got deeper into the Main Event however, his online game took a temporary back seat and by the final day Ilari entered the Gran Casino as final table chip leader. The lead was only modest however and there was a lot of play left in the event.
Eventually Sahamies had to settle for the runner up spot after bluff shoving in a huge pot holding just 9 5 against his opponent (and soon to be victor) Mikalai Pobal's pocket Aces. This wild bluff may have cost the Finn a crack at the title but with nearly 1,100 runners his second place finish was still good for a €629,700 payday.
With the current exchange rate, Ilari's combined live and online winnings for the past seven days now total a little over $1.61 million. Not a bad weeks work in anyones eyes.