PokerNews.com was the first to report that Viktor Blom, popularly known as Isildur1, is not a member of Team PokerStars Pro anymore.
Blom was a great professional poker player even before the poker gaming community knew he existed. He began his online poker career at Full Tilt Poker under the moniker Isildur1 and caught attention when he began playing high-stakes poker against online poker legends Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius.
Unknown in those days, Isildur1 lost and won in millions, intriguing online poker players worldwide. PokerTableRatings.com reports that Isildur1 was associated with ten of the largest online poker jackpots in the world and won four of them collectively worth $3.5 million.
He played against Brian Hastings, poker instructor at CardRunners, in December that year and lost over $4 million. Hastings is reported to have informed ESPN that Brian Townsend, another CardRunners instructor, “analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain sports.” Reportedly, Townsend passed on the information to Hastings so that he could win against Isildur1, as a result of which Townsend lost his “red pro” status at Full Tilt Poker for one month.
Despite Isildur1’s success at the high stakes tables, he still remained a mystery man. Poker players began gossiping that Isildur1 is actually Viktor Blom, but it was confirmed only in January 2011, when his identify was officially revealed by PokerStars during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
So far, nobody knows why Blom left PokerStars. According to Eric Hollreiser, corporate communications head for PokerStars, the split was mutual. Blom said, “I’ve enjoyed my time as a Team Pro and I wish everyone at PokerStars the best. Now I just want to concentrate on playing poker.”
The air is now thick with rumors that Viktor Blom will become a sponsored player at Full Tilt Poker as soon as PokerStars re-launches it. According to a settlement deal signed on July 31 this year by the US federal government and PokerStars, the latter acquired Full Tilt Poker from the former for a total sum of $731 million. PokerStars will get licenses and appoint a management team for Full Tilt Poker, following which it will re-launch Full Tilt Poker in November. Since Blom was a sponsored player at Full Tilt Poker before Black Friday, players naturally assume that he will go back to Full Tilt Poker when the site is up and running.
