Poker: Martonas takes A Beating

The identity of the enigmatic high stakes online poker player 'Martonas' who has been lighting up the nosebleed tables at Full Tilt Poker this week remains uncertain, but his (or her?) penchant for big money excitement has continued to draw attention over the past two days.

Martonas had Internet railbirds chattering earlier this week when he took on some of the biggest names in online poker, ending one evening with an almost $900 000 profit, and the next taking home $234 000, playing $500/$1000 NLHE and PLO. Play Poker with Martonas.

Then he spent the best part of 24 hours tangling mainly with Tom durrr Dwan and lost an estimated $2.5 million on high stakes NLHE and POL action before Dwan withdrew exhausted despite his opponent's pleas to give him an opportunity to win some of it back. Dwan was up an estimated $1.3 million when he called it a night, which saw four of the 10 biggest pots recorded in the last year on Full Tilt. In one clash a pot of $603 752 went to Dwan, and in another he cleaned out $507 906.

Still looking for action, Martonas then engaged with other top high risk takers, including Patrik Antonius, LarsLuzak and Phil Ivey playing mainly Pot Limit Omaha.

The independent poker statistical site MarketPulse records that Martonas finally ended the marathon session down 'only' $850 000, having recouped some of his extensive losses. Biggest contributor to the Martonas recovery fund was reportedly Phil Ivey, who lost around $500 000 in a heads up PLO clash.

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