Ilari Sahamies (born 1983 in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

), also known as Ziigmund, is a Finnish professional poker player. He specializes in high-stakes

pot-limit Omaha Omaha hold 'em (also known as Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five ...

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a p ...

s. Sahamies is known for his trashtalk at the poker table, usually aimed towards his fellow pros, which has led to an online following. Sahamies played poker live in Finland before transitioning to

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

, where he now makes most of his money. Ilari has appeared on television shows including ''

High Stakes Poker ''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran f ...

'' and ''

Poker After Dark ''Poker After Dark'' is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on NBC, premiering on January 1, 2007.

''. Sahamies first played poker at the age of 15, when he participated in a home game at fellow Finnish poker pro

Patrik Antonius } Patrik Antonius (born 13 December 1980) is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo. Antonius was mentored by poker pro Marcel Lüske as a member of ...

' home. They first met at a local billiard hall, where Sahamies spent a lot of his time. He earned two Finnish junior championships for billiards; Sahamies is also the defending Finnish watersliding champion as of 2009. When he was 18, Sahamies made his first visit to the Grand Casino Helsinki, eventually becoming a professional poker player in two years. Sahamies, who enjoys drinking alcohol, used to occasionally play online poker while intoxicated, a habit which lost him more than US$3 million over four years, and $700,000 in a single day. Ilari co-founded the online poker hub Coinflip.com with fellow Finnish poker pro Sami Kelopuro. He is sponsored by the online poker site PowerPoker.com. Sahamies, known to be a fan of Finnish hip hop music, starred in a rap music video "Pojat on poikii", which was sponsored by PowerPoker. Sahamies earned a total of $1,590,369 in live tournament winnings as of July 2009, ranking him 4th on Finland's all-time money list. As of November 2012, his total tracked online cash game profits on Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars amount to $3,734,605. In 2014, Sahamies paid 50 000 euros to become part of the Finnish hip hop band

Teflon Brothers Teflon Brothers is an Finnish hip hop group originally from Helsinki, Finland. The band consists of Pyhimys, Heikki Kuula and Voli. Commercial success Teflon Brothers released their first single "Matkal kotiin" in 2006. It was also featured ...

when they were looking for a new member through an online bidding. He appears as a featured guest on the group's 2015 song "Pämppää".

References

External links

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies's blog on Coinflip.com

Ziigmund Biography and News

at PokerNews
Player profile: Ilari 'Ilari FIN' Sahamies
at HighstakesDB {{DEFAULTSORT:Sahamies, Ilari 1983 births Living people Finnish poker players Sportspeople from Helsinki