Martonas Shakes Up High-Stakes Games on Full Tilt

A newcomer joined the high-stakes cash games on Full Tilt Poker in August and has captivated the online poker world like we haven’t seen in quite some time. The player, who hails from Sweden, goes by the moniker “martonas” and has already clashed with Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, David Benyamine, Brian Hastings, and many others at some of the biggest No Limit Hold ’em and Pot Limit Omaha games on the site.

Whenever an unknown makes an appearance in the nosebleed games it is automatically assumed that it’s either a high-stakes pro attempting to hide his or her identity or a wealthy novice taking a shot against poker’s best (much like billionaire Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who has lost millions playing on Full Tilt Poker). Either way, it attracts the sharks, and there has been no exception in the case of “martonas”, who has taken million dollar swings in 19 sessions since August 10th.

Speculation from the online poker community has linked the “martonas” account to several possible high-stakes regulars from Sweden, including Martin de Kniff, Jonas Danielsson, Bengt Sonnert, and a player with the online name Blom90, who came out of nowhere to obliterate the high-stakes No Limit games on the iPoker network early in 2009. Most of the talk has surrounded de Kniff and Danielsson, as Martin is rumored to be staking the young Swede. Danielsson regularly plays the biggest cash games on Ladbrokes as “nebuchad”.

Up until now, there hasn’t been enough information to confirm either of their connection to the “martonas” account.

The mysterious Swedish player went on a spectacular rush when he or she first burst onto the scene this month, taking close to $900,000 in a $500/1000 No Limit Hold ’em session on August 14th. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Cole South each had substantial losses to “martonas”, which would go on to win $1.3 million by August 17th.

The nature of high-stakes cash games revealed its ugly face shortly after and it’s all gone downhill since. According to pokertableratings.com, “martonas” lost more than $2.7 million during a lengthy session on August 18th, most of which went to Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Full Tilt Team Pro member Brian Hastings, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Galfond made more than $800,000 from the Swede at both the NLHE and PLO tables while Hastings’ winnings were over $600,000. But it was “durrrr” who did most of the damage. More than $2.8 million of the “martonas” bankroll went to Dwan, who has now recouped all of his losses on Full Tilt Poker from the year.

“Martonas” lost $314,000 in their most recent session on August 21. Dwan, Benyamine, Galfond, Di “urindanger” Dang, and Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin were all there to pick apart the newcomer and “martonas” hasn’t been seen on the site since. The player has lost close to $2 million on Full Tilt overall. Whether or not “martonas” went bust or is simply taking a break remains to be seen, but the top players in the game certainly look forward to a return.

Poker News Daily will continue to investigate the identity of “martonas” and will follow up with any addition info we can gather about the player. Stay tuned!