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The Story of Viktor “Isildur1” Blom

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom is a Swedish high-stakes poker pro from Gothenburg, Sweden. His meteoric rise to fame drew significant praise and attention back in 2009, where he took part in some of the largest pots in online poker history on Full Tilt Poker. He was essentially an unknown who suddenly began taking on well-known poker pros including Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend, Cole South, and Patrik Antonious as well as impending high-stakes rival, Tom Dwan.

Viktor Blom’s first experience with poker came at the age of 14 where he played heads-up NL Hold’em with his older brother. His brother taught him the basics and he, in turn, taught his classmates. Eventually, Blom and his friends were playing at school during lunch, where he would often win.

When Viktor turned 15, he and his brother made a small deposit to an online poker site and won $300 the first day by finishing 5th in an MTT. A short time later, Viktor created his own account with the screen name “Blom90” and it was at this point where thing began to really take off.

Within a few short months, the 15-year-old Viktor Blom had won over a quarter of a million dollars across various sites. At this point, he consolidated his bankroll onto a single site to make a run at high-stakes. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out and Blom was busto. However, he quickly built up another bankroll of $50,000 on the same site but again went bust after playing high buy-in SNGs.

They say third time’s a charm and for Viktor, it was. After a short break, Blom made a deposit of $10k and decided to specialize in heads-up NL hold’em. It took Blom just two weeks to go from $1/2 to $50/100 – now THAT is some serious shot taking!

When Blom turned 17, he made deposits on both PartyPoker and iPoker and hit another hot streak, winning nearly $2 million in only a few weeks. Eventually, he stopped getting action though which forced him to find a new site under a new alias.

The famed Isildur1 first appeared on Full Tilt Poker in September 2009 and within a month was playing $500/100 with the biggest names in online poker. In November 2009, Blom reached a career peak of nearly $6 million in total winnings. No one knew the man behind the Isildur1 name but the poker world was buzzing. Everyone was talking about the new sensation Isildur1. What followed, however, was probably the biggest downswing in online poker history.

But where others were never to be seen again after such big swings, Isildur1 kept fighting back and through perseverance remained a fixture at the nosebleed stakes for quite some time. He would regularly sit at multiple NL $500/1000 heads-up tables waiting for any and all challengers. After heads-up battles with numerous top pros, it was discovered afterward that Brian Hastings, Brian Townsend, and Cole South had shared information about Isildur1’s play over a 30,000-hand sample.

They engaged in activity in which Full Tilt Poker defined as “accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play” after Townsend admitted to acquiring hands of Isildur1’s play through Hastings, which he spoke of during an interview with ESPN. As a result, Townsend lost some of his privileges as a sponsored Full Tilt Poker player for 30 days. Blom’s play on Full Tilt Poker between September 2009 and October 2010 at stakes of $50/100 and above resulted in a net loss of $2,630,230, including the matches between Hasting, Townsend, and South. Still, Blom showed no signs of backing down.

In December 2010, Blom signed with PokerStars as a sponsored pro where he launched the “Superstar Showdown” in which he challenged anyone in the world to play heads-up at four tables for stakes no lower than $50/100 for 2,500 hands. Some of the players who took him up on the challenge include Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Daniel Negreanu, Isaac Haxton, Tony G and several others. By the time PokerStars signed him, most people had already figured out Isildur1 was Viktor Blom. Still, Blom was taking a quiet approach to the whole thing, but the poker world finally had a face to go with the Isildur1 screen name.

Blom moved on from PokerStars in August 2012 and since that time has been paying more attention to live tournaments, where his earnings total around $2 million. He won his first live tournament in January 2012 – the $100k Super High Roller event for $1.2 million. Blom also plays many of the WCOOP and SCOOP events online, finishing 2015 with a $1.75 million in online tournament winnings.

The identity of Viktor Blom is not a secret on PokerStars, and every player that he plays against already knows a lot about him. His former PokerStars sponsorship has long since finished, however, and now that he is a free agent he can create new accounts on other networks and have the advantage of some level of anonymity.

There have been unconfirmed reports that he was playing on the Microgaming network in December 2016 under the nickname “Hrskar”. If he was able to find action there in games that were softer than he is accustomed to, then it would be no surprise to see him playing there quite often. However, Blom has never backed down from tough competition and still plays against the best players in the world.

Isildur1 has survived so far through his natural abilities and a willingness to learn by fighting against the specialists in each game, but in a world where players are becoming more mathematically perfect and getting closer to optimal game theory play, can Isildur1 really stand the test of time?

 

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