Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies

Ilari Sahamies, also well known by his online username ‘Ziigmund’ is a Finnish high stakes poker player.

Ilari Sahamies, also well known by his online username ‘Ziigmund’ is a Finnish high stakes poker player. Born 1983 in Helsinki, Sahamies was competitive from an early age competing in football, wrestling, and even diving. It was billiards however that Sahamies truly excelled at, winning the Finnish Junior Championships twice. Sahamies met fellow poker pro Patrik Antonius at a local billiards hall, with the two becoming friends and both became interested in poker, playing home games regularly as teenagers.

After graduating from high school Sahamies regularly played the $5,$5 pot limit Omaha game in Helsinki Casino, learning more about the game and building up his bankroll.

In 2003 Sahamies discovered online poker, and began playing both no limit Hold-em and pot limit Omaha cash games. Sahamies was aggressive with his bankroll management, moving up in stakes after earning just a few buy-ins, leading him to go broke multiple times, though he always managed to run his bankroll back up.

Sahamies joined Full-Tilt in 2006, creating his now famous username ‘Ziigmund’. He quickly became a regular in the highest stakes available on the site, playing against players such as Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey.

In 2009 Sahamies travelled to Las Vegas to participate in the World Series of Poker and high stakes cash games. He only entered one WSOP event however, the $10,000 pot limit Omaha, and was denied entry to the Main Event as it was sold out. During this visit he played at the famous Bobby’s Room, winning a massive pot worth $1,700,000, before losing an even bigger pot worth $2,400,000 to his old friend Patrik Antonius, despite running it twice.

Crazy Fact: Ziigmund once lost $500k playing drunk online in 2010. Taken from his blog post on Cardplayer in February 2010, he wrote "so sick.I lost yesterday totally f drunk 500k....then I woke up and lost in totally hangover 300k more....then we went to watch tennis to Red Label arena or whatever and I lost 130k more to Justine Henin....Im up now 20k on my holidaytrip...whatever...now I start to play TIGHT."

Various other rumours have surfaced of Ziigmund going on huge downswings at the tables whilst playing drunk online poker - He's certainly one of the most entertaining players of the game! Sahamies is infamous for his trash talk while at the poker table, not restricting himself to when playing live poker, he is well known for posting in the chat box when playing online as well. There is a thread on 2+2 dedicated to Ziigmund’s chat box exploits, started in 2008 and still updated today, which can be found here.

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3 years ago10,072PokerTube,

Published 3 years ago

Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge E08 - Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies

Episode 8 of the Durrr Million Dollar Challenge! The rules of the Challenge were that each player paid $250,000 for the privile...

6 years ago8,763BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Do You Have What it Takes to BLUFF Tom Dwan?

Tom Dwan is known for his loose aggressive style at the table, but how easy is it to bluff him off a hand? A number of pros includ...

7 years ago6,929BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Tom Dwan is Just Great at Bluffing

Tom Dwan takes the advantage of the turn and river to bluff Eli Elezra and Ilari Sahamies off better hands in this episode of High...

8 years ago8,658BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Durrrr vs. Ziigmund $454K Pot Full Tilt Poker

Another classic hand of high stakes PLO played online at Full Tilt Poker between Durrrr and Ziigmund. These are two legends of onl...

8 years ago7,827BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Durrrr vs. Ziigmund $270K Pot Full Tilt Poker

Classic hand of high stakes PLO played online at Full Tilt Poker between Durrrr and Ziigmund. These are two legends of online poke...

8 years ago3,442BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Online High Stakes - Ziggy Ships Quarter Million Pot

Ilari Sahamies rakes in a $250k pot against David Benefield and 'cadillac1944'

8 years ago4,294BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Online High Stakes - Ziigmund vs Urindanger

Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies and Urindanger playing a big one on Full Tilt tables

8 years ago32,939BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Teflon Brothers - Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies Poker Rap

Illari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies in a poker rap number

8 years ago4,631BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Online High Stakes - Ziigmund vs Brian Hastings

Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies and Brian Hastings tangling at the Full Tilt Pot Limit Omaha tables

8 years ago3,529BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Online High Stakes - IlariFIN vs Isildur1 PLO

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom and Ilari 'IlariFIN' Sahamies with some high stakes action on PokerStars PLO tables

Drunkest Poker Games Captured on Film

Playing poker while inebriated is never a good idea

Is the Durrrr Challenge Over?

The hotly-disputed challenge between Dwan and Cates is over if a conversation posted on the 2+2 forum is to be believed

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies Exits Survivor Island In Disgrace

Sahamies failed his last immunity challenge and was sent to the island’s rail in fourth place without a medal and having lost about 33 kg.

Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies Takes on Miss Finland in Reality TV Show Survivor

Finnish high-stakes poker legend Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies is a survivor in more ways than one!

Rap Legend Flavor Flav Attacked in Las Vegas Casino

Legendary rapper Flavor Flav met his own ‘public enemy’ when he was filmed being assaulted in the lounge of the South Point Casino in Las Vegas.

PLO Legend Sahamies Takes on ‘Survivor’ Trial

Finnish PLO legend Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies took on a new challenge this year when he was one of 16 contestants who took part in the Finnish version of TV reality show ‘Survivor’.

Online Poker , 6 years ago

Finnish Poker Giants & Online Gaming Boom

When it comes to poker, Finland has produced many of the finest online players in the game’s history.

What happened to Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies

Ilari Sahamies aka ‘Ziigmund’ is under the radar being mentioned only sporadically by the poker community and all we have left are a couple of poker videos to remind us about how the game was played back when Sahamies was still crushing.

Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies All-In on Fatherhood

Finnish poker pro Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies announced that he and his significant other, Elina Alanne, will soon be parents.

Trash Talking at Online High Stakes

Trash Talking at Online High Stakes