Ilari Sahamies Bio | Poker Blog

Ilari Sahamies AKA Ziigmund Biography

Known to the high stakes online poker world as “Ziigmund”, Ilari Sahamies is one of the most dominant high stakes players in the poker world today. Born in 1983 in Helsinki Finland, Sahamies developed his competitive nature at an early age. As a youth, he played soccer and basketball, wrestled, and was even a member of his school’s diving team. Also, like many poker players, Sahamies also was an exceptional pool play. In fact, he holds two Finnish Junior Championships in billiards.

Sahamies started playing poker around the age of 15. He started in small games with some friends and soon became hooked. A player that Sahamies became friends with in these games was Patrik Antonius. He met Antonius as a local pool hall and the two became friends. Upon graduating high school, he started playing at the Grand Casino in Helsinki. Early on, Sahamies was a losing player and had to work various jobs in order to fund his poker habit. By the end of his second year, he was up around $100,000 and he never looked back.

Sahamies first started playing online poker around 2003 at several sites, including PokerStars. He moved up the limit quickly, but eventually would bust out due to his hastiness to get to the top. He stated, “I have always wanted to play as high as possible, even if it wasn’t the wisest thing to do. I wanted the kicks and the excitement, but I was always smart enough to go down in levels after a downswing.”

It wasn’t until 2006 that “Zigmund” made his debut on Full Tilt Poker. After just a few months, he was able to make it up to the highest limits, where he has remained a fixture until today. Sahamies is known for a wildly aggressive style that will allow him to drag huge pots. However, the same style has also caused him to take some heavy losses at the site.

Sahamies does not just play high stakes online. He is known to still play a bit at the Grand Casino in Helsinki when the games are big enough to lure him out. Also, he has taken his shot at the big game in Las Vegas and walked away a winner from that game as well. Barry Greenstein has stated that in his opinion, Sahamies is one of the top PLO players on the planet.
Ziigmund sitting with over 1 million

Sahamies has had some mild success in live tournaments as well. To date, he has won over $327,000 in tournaments and has four victories. His biggest cash to date came in January of this year when he finished 2nd in the Main Event of the Helsinki Freezeout. His runner-up finish netted him $170,434, or one modest sized pot on Full Tilt.

Sahamies is not a big name to the casual poker fan as of yet, but that is about to change soon. He will be featured on both the fifth season of High Stakes Poker and on NBC’s Poker After Dark in their cash game episodes. It shouldn’t be long before the public will get a glimpse of one of the most feared high stakes poker players on the planet.