On Saturday, the saga over the identity of mystery Swedish online poker pro Isildur1 came to an end when PokerStars announced that it was indeed Viktor Blom. The pro, who recently updated his Facebook account to show that he was employed by PokerStars since December, promptly faced off against fellow site pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier in a live 100-hand $25/$50 heads-up match.
Around 2:30pm ET on Saturday afternoon, PokerStars officials distributed a press release claiming that Isildur1’s identity would be unveiled at 7:00pm ET live from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas. Isildur1, who is now known to be Blom, would then play Grospellier in the 100-hand heads-up battle, with each player bringing $10,000 in cash to the table. The festivities were set to play out near the Main Event tournament area inside the Atlantis Hotel and Casino.
Following his match with Grospellier, Blom was scheduled to play against German PokerStars qualifier “OU THE NICK” in a separate 100-hand match. “OU THE NICK” won a 424-man qualifier to get a crack at Isildur1 and, according to PokerStars, “is already freerolling his way to the Bahamas after winning a satellite run for the year’s top 150 PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard finishers.”
Blom arrived at Full Tilt Poker in force in 2009 under the Isildur1 handle and battled several of the game’s top cash game players including Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius. In November of that year, Isildur1 dropped the largest pot in online poker history, worth $1.3 million, to Antonius. According to PokerTableRatings.com, the Swede has been involved in the top 10 largest pots in online poker history, winning four of them for a combined $3.5 million.
In December 2009, Blom faced off against CardRunners instructor Brian Hastings and was taken for more than $4 million. However, Hastings later told ESPN in an interview that fellow CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend should be given much of the credit for the record-breaking swing: “Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots.” Townsend later had his Full Tilt Red Pro status suspended for one month due to the incident and promptly left CardRunners.
Blom, who signed with PokerStars in December, had been the leading candidate to be the man behind the Isildur1 mask for the last 14 months. He’s been called by “Viktor” on the virtual felts of Full Tilt by players like Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and did not correct others. However, in December 2009, Blom allegedly told Bluff Europe, “I am not the one you are looking for. Keep searching.” Then, questions emerged as to whether Bluff officials had tracked down the correct Viktor Blom.
Blom played in the $100,000 Super High Roller Event at the 2011 PCA, but bowed out on the first day after running into the trip nines of Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar. Blom was visibly weary from traveling, having flown from London to New York City to Miami to Nassau five hours behind schedule and sans baggage. He was not among those in the field for Day 1A of the PCA Main Event, which was ongoing on Saturday, presumably to get ready for his big reveal.
Other players rumored to be Isildur1 were former UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, DoylesRoom pro Todd Brunson, and high-stakes cash game regular David “Viffer” Peat. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more details.
