After a three day battle with 32 of the deepest pocketed professionals in the poker world, the phenomenon known as ‘Isildur1’ – Viktor Blom – emerged as the champion of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure’s $100,000 Super High Roller event Saturday evening.
The eight man final table featured notable names across the board but, with only five places paying in the tournament, three of those players would walk away with nothing to show for their efforts. Two players, Daniel Negreanu and Humberto Brenes, were also at this final table in the 2011 version of the tournament, while others such as former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel, Mike McDonald, Dan Shak, Scott Seiver and Blom were all in pursuit of the chip leader, defending PCA Main Event champion Galen Hall. Within moments of the start of the final table action, the first casualty would be determined.
On the short stack, Brenes would reraise all in an opening bet from Hall and, after the blinds got out of the way, Hall immediately made the call. Brenes’ A-8 was behind the pocket Jacks of Hall and, once the board blanked off, Humberto Brenes and his infamous shark card-capper were ejected from the final table. Only fifteen minutes later, the table would be on the money bubble after Blom’s elimination of McDonald in a dramatic hand.
After an opening bet from ‘Timex,’ the action came to ‘Isildur1’ in the big blind, who three bet the Canadian to 126K. Just as quickly, McDonald pushed his remaining stack to the center, which Blom called after a moment in the tank. It was the right decision; Blom’s A-J was ahead of McDonald’s K-J. The board, however, decided to provide some drama as the flop came down 9-K-6 to give Mike the lead. After a four on the turn, McDonald was poised to get back in the match with a needed double up, but an Ace on the river completely flipped the hand, with Viktor taking it down and eliminating Mike McDonald in seventh place.
Hall would continue to expand his lead, winning three hands in a row including the elimination of the “bubble boy.” After a raise from Seiver and a three bet from Negreanu, Galen would jack the action up to 218K. This was enough to get Scott to commit the remainder of his chips to the center as Daniel decided discretion was the better part of valor and mucked his cards. After Hall made the call, he was in a dominant position with his pocket Kings over Seiver’s pocket Jacks. The five card board brought no saving Jack, eliminating Scott Seiver in sixth place – but with no money.
In slightly under an hour, the five men who would walk away with a minimum payday of slightly more than $250,000 were determined. At this time, Hall still held a nice lead over Shak, while Blom, Duhamel and Negreanu were within 400,000 chips of each other. With that said, the stacks were large enough that one misstep by the leaders would completely flip the leaderboard.
Negreanu could never seem to gather any momentum for play on Saturday, losing more of his chips to Duhamel to drop to the short stack on the table. After struggling through the action on Saturday, Negreanu finally found an opportunity to double up against Blom. After a raise from Viktor, Daniel stuck his remaining chips in the center and was called. Blom turned up pocket eights to Negreanu’s A-K and, in the five card race, Negreanu never caught up, dropping from the tournament in fifth place.
After a break following Negreanu’s elimination, Blom kicked the action up again to seize the chip lead. On a J-7-5 (two heart) flop, Blom and Duhamel would enter into a betting war that eventually found the former World Champion’s entire stack in the center of the felt. With a J-6, Duhamel had hit top pair, but Blom held A-Q of hearts for the flush draw with over cards. A seven of hearts came on the turn, completing Blom’s flush but providing Duhamel with outs to the boat (another Jack or seven). The paint on the river was a King, however, knocking out Duhamel in fourth place and pushing Blom over 3.6 million in chips.
The threesome remaining at the felt – Blom, Hall and Shak – would continue to fight for the championship over the next five hours, including a dinner break and an aborted discussion of a deal. As play continued, Hall’s chips slowly disappeared into the stacks of Shak (who captured the lead following the dinner break) and Blom. After hours where it seemed he didn’t win a pot, Hall finally found a hand to go with to make his stand.
After a fold from Shak on the button, Blom made an initial raise to 150K and Hall moved all in from the big blind. Blom nearly beat Hall’s chips into the center with his call, turning up pocket Aces to Hall’s dominated pocket nines. After a blank board, Blom’s rockets were enough to put Hall out in third place.
Down to heads up action, Blom held a 1.3 million chip lead over Shak and the duo proceeded to determine the champion. Although he would take some small pots in the early going, Blom would take a commanding lead approximately thirty minutes into heads up play when he hit a set of sevens on the flop against Shak. That hand would eventually catapult him to the title.
On the final hand, Shak made an opening raise to 155K, which was called by Blom. After a dangerous 9-7-6 flop brought checks from both players, a Queen put a second heart on the board. Blom put up 180K, but Shak decided to seize the action with an all-in move. After determining the pot, Blom made the call and tabled a K-Q for the turned top pair against Shak’s A-5 of hearts for the flush and straight draws with the over card. None of those outs – an Ace, eight or heart – came with the river four, ending the tournament and crowning Viktor Blom the champion of the Super High Roller.
1. Viktor Blom (Sweden), $1,254,000
2. Dan Shak (United States), $846,700
3. Galen Hall (United States), $470,400
4. Jonathan Duhamel (Canada), $313,600
5. Daniel Negreanu (Canada), $250,900
(Scott Seiver (sixth), Mike McDonald (seventh) and Humberto Brenes (eighth) did not cash)
For all of his accolades online, this is the first major live tournament that Blom has won.
With the Super High Roller concluded, the attention now turns to the PCA Main Event, where Day 1B is currently in action. With a few levels left in late registration, there are slightly more than 1000 players registered for the event, with just over 200 players surviving from the 418 who took part of the action on Day 1A. For a moment, however, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom can bask in the glow of being the PCA Super High Roller champion.
