Apr 14 2010
The Isildur1 Saga – Online Poker’s Mystery Man
written by: John under Poker Pros Comments: 2
JRR Tolkein’s character Isildur was a king of Middle Earth. In a battle with the Dark Lord he cuts off the finger of his opponent and claims the Ring as his prize. Isildur was later described as being over 7 feet tall.
Anyone who follows online poker probably knows the name “Isildur1.” Like the Tolkein character, this online poker super player’s true identity remains a mystery. He has lorded over his competition at the highest stakes available anywhere, and there has been story after story published about him in the online poker community since he first came on the scene in October of 2009. All we really know for sure, though there are many theories about this guy, is that the Isildur1 account is registered to a Swedish player.
Isildur1 made a big splash when he dropped a staggering $989,484.75 in online poker bets, right off the bat, with $686,983 of that coming from just 4,509 hands of No Limit Hold ‘em. In November of 2009, he squared off heads-up against players like World Series of Poker November Nine member Phil Ivey, Tom ‘durrrr” Dwan, and Durrr Challenge participant Patrik Antonius, to become the next big name in online high-stakes poker. Isildur1 has challenged the very best that the Full Tilt Poker stable has to offer.
On November 21st, Antonius took down a record setting $1.3 million pot against Isildur1, but just two days later, Ivey lost $1.1 million to the anonymous Swede. By December 1st, Isildur1 was $1.7 million in the hole, making for a real money swing of nearly $7 million at the tables on Full Tilt Poker. Isildur1′s arrival sparked a renewal of interest in high-stakes poker on Full Tilt—it wasn’t just fun, it was off the charts. The record for largest pot played online was broken again, along with the record for largest winning single online poker session in history.
Who Is Isildur1?
There has been quite a lot of educated guessing (Todd Brunson, Jonas Danielsson and even football player Henrik Larsson). Many people, including poker figures like Antanas “Tony G” Gouga, have been convinced that the most likely candidate is Viktor “blom30” Blom. Viktor is probably one of the best, if not the best, No Limit Hold ‘em heads up player in the world. Perhaps his biggest weakness is his tendency to have huge swings. Fans have seen him win millions in a day and go broke on the next. According to Tony G, he hasn’t taken his driving test yet, which suggests he’s pretty young. He’s young enough to play for 48 hours straight against the best players in the world.
Viktor Blom has so far dominated the European iPoker network using the screen name blom90, and it is no wonder that he would move on up to the big leagues and go up against the big dogs at Full Tilt. Another indication that Isildur1 might be Blom is that Luke “fullflush” Schwarz actually warned the poker world about Blom in an interview with Jesse May some time ago. He claims Blom was one of the best heads-up, No Limit Hold ‘em players he has ever played with. Isildur1. Still, Schwartz thinks that Blom has a big heart for the game, likes to gamble, and is very, very good at it. When Blom was 18, he was nominated in the Scandinavian Poker Awards for rookie of the year (2008).
Why Deny?
Time and time again though, Blom denies being Islidur1. But the notion that Isildur1 is Blom has not dwindled down. After all, how many online poker pros with multi-million dollar bankrolls can Sweden lay claim to? Why lie? Well, one good reason could be to avoid paying taxes in Sweden. Poker winnings from non-EU based poker sites, like FullTilt and Pokerstars, are taxable income in Sweden—by 30%… by estimating his poker activity based on poker tracking sites, he could owe his government like $177 million in taxes. How do you say “ouch” in Swedish?
April Fool’s
In celebration of April Fool’s Day, rumors of the true identity of the mystery Swede Isildur1 ran rampant on poker websites. On the Cake Poker Blog the wheels were set in motion on March 31st when they published a story revealing that Isildur1 was actually Swedish hockey star Mats Sundin. But everyone caught on pretty quickly when they realized Sundin is a sponsored pro of PokerStars. The Cake Poker Blog said that several Swedish news stations had reported the story and that an announcement was expected to follow. Of course, that never happened.
Isildur1 approached Tony G, poker pro and representative for PartyPoker about appearing in PartyPoker’s BIG GAME IV that was scheduled to go down in Mayfair, London at Les Ambassadeurs from April 11th to the 13th. Tony G was even going to put up 50% of the stake Isildur1, and they had worked out a deal for Isildur1 to play beneath a mask, kind of like Zorro or Batman, so that his true identity wouldn’t be disclosed.
But unfortunately, a day before the Big Game IV, Isildur1 announced that he wouldn’t be participating in the event. Immediately, TwoPlusTwo went haywire with accusations of a publicity stunt and suggestions that Isildur1 was never even scheduled to attend the game. The text message that reportedly was sent to Tony G from Isildur1 read, “Sry for not coming, take care bud.”
Gary LQ, TwoPlusTwo member, says, “This text message sounds totally fake to me. ‘Take care bud’ is a slang British phrase, most commonly used in the Southwest of England. I find it hard to believe it’s the sort of language a Swede would use.”
And so the plot thickens, and the saga ensues. Will the world ever get to see aggressive play style of Isildur1 live? Will we ever get to witness the exciting action, big bluffs, and agonizing river decisions of the real Isildur1? Will the true identity of Isildur1 ever be revealed? Dun dun dun…
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