The mystery behind the identity of high-stakes Full Tilt Poker player Isildur1 received a little clarification on Tuesday, as Viktor “blom30” Blom told Bluff Europe that he is not the man of the hour.

Blom bluntly told the European news outlet, “I am not the one you are looking for. Keep searching.” One cryptic sentence later, the online poker industry is back at square one in its hunt to uncover the real Isildur1. A variety of poker players tossed out Blom as possibly being Isildur1, most notably Tony G, who commented in a recent blog entry, “I don’t want to talk too much about Isildur1 but I can reveal to all it is Viktor and he crushed them on the iPoker network for some time. I actually played a few hands with him today and quite many on iPoker where my site TonyG Poker runs. I honestly respect this guy 100%. He has proved that he is the best player in the game right now; this is based on many, many hands on iPoker and Full Tilt Poker.”

Tony G then praised the “self control and money management” skills of Isildur1 and high-stakes opponent Tom “durrrr” Dwan. According to Poker Table Ratings, Isildur1 is down $1.3 million overall, a drop of $800,000 on Tuesday alone. In mid-November, the Swede owned more than $5 million in profits at the tables before a drastic turn of events. Among those he has squared off against are Dwan, Power Poker pro Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and CardRunners instructors Cole South, Brian Townsend, and Brian Hastings.

Also fueling the fire that Blom was the man behind the Isildur1 moniker was the following chat that occurred on Full Tilt Poker and was posted on the online poker forum PocketFives.com on November 30th:

Ziigmund: u r nice guy
Ziigmund: and pretty viktor
Isildur1: lol Ziigmund: :- )
Isildur1: can u atlest reload finnish superstar
Ziigmund: :- )

Isildur1 gave no correction after Sahamies addressed him as “Viktor,” which sparked a major debate online as to whether Blom’s statements to Bluff Europe were accurate or merely meant to throw the online poker community off the trail. Last month, Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo asserted that Isildur1 was Robert “Gulkines” Flink: “Fwiw, I have received intelligence by some very credible sources (who shall be kept completely private) who said pretty confidently who isildur1 is. So I give you the knowledge I have (with like 99% certainy but not quite 100% yet) that it is Robert Flink aka Gulkines.”

However, Flink denied being Isildur1, according to Calo, who posted on PocketFives.com: “Update: I spoke to robert flink last night. He was pretty sketchy about it and without me even asking about isildur immediately said he wasnt him and then said he thought it was stefan mattsson which is a well known swedish mtter.” Mattsson, who plays as “stema2” on PokerStars, allegedly began playing $25/$50 several days after Isildur1 began his climb up the online poker ladder.

Other names that have cropped up as possible Isildur1 front men include Dan Harrington and Todd Brunson. However, both are American and not Swedish. Brunson is a sponsored pro of the Cake Poker Network site DoylesRoom, while Harrington won the 1995 WSOP Main Event. Also tossed out as a possibility is Martonas, Dwan’s nemesis on the high-stakes virtual felts. However, with tax laws in Sweden, Isildur1’s true identity may never be known.

In the meantime, the nosebleed action will likely continue on Full Tilt Poker. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Isildur1 saga.

4 Comments

  1. TheWookieWay says:

    Alright, I’m going to add my 2 cents, just a “possible” opinion.. no facts here!

    Are we certain it is someone in Sweden? Of course not. Hacker 101 says “proxy, anyone?” Could be from anywhere in the world.

    If it’s factual, then it’s got to be someone with a LOT of money. That narrows it down quite a bit. But still, not that much.. quite a few billionaires out there, and a plethora of millionaires.
    Anyone who has that level of money SQUANDER away in a possible loss, has too much money on their hands. Takes “partying like a rockstar” to a whole new level… “partying like a billionaire?” … Wow.

    If it’s “promotional”, that is someone with a good mind in marketing is generating traffic and/or interest in Full Tilt. This would have to be an insider. There’s a whole STABLE full of LIKELY possible players who could be Isildur1. Very Plausible.

    Another very plausible idea, is someone is money laundering. All of the people supposedly involved playing against Isildur could be taking turns playing against each other. Anyone with that level of money to launder must be the type of person you’d like to avoid at the felt, in the alley, on the internet, etc… you won’t get me thinking too much more on that subject, just not safe. This would also be bad for poker in general, and is not something we need for it’s reputation right before a poker law reform.

    It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Doing something famous, and remaining anonymous, takes a certain dedication. It’s harder and harder to do in modern times. Just like bankroll discipline, does this person(s) have secret/communication discipline?

    PS… if anyone is accepting applications for “token tax-shelter poker pro pawn” to help out, you can reach me via email. ;)
    See you at the felts, both virtual and real.

  2. Andrew says:

    Regardless of who Isildur1 may or may not be…he’s definitely increased the traffic on FT. Most of the elite pros that associate their name with the site have left it all but high and dry lately. Very few of the big names we tend to follow there have so few hands in these past few months. It’s welcome that some new life blood has been pumped into a site that has many (at least according to it’s own forum) running for other sites for various reasons.

  3. Reveal_Isil says:

    Isildur is Phil Hellmuth. Obvious, aint it? Just jumps into his batman-costume and plays like hell. Or maybe he is sleep-grinding. :-D

  4. frankthetank says:

    Phil helmuth is way too tight of a player to go on swings like that…and is also way too cocky to hide

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