There have been few bigger days in online poker history than the dramatic bankroll-busting $4.2 million loss that Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom suffered back in 2009 at the hands of Brian Hastings.
How did it come about and what was the fallout from the worst day in the Swedish player’s life? Let’s take a closer look…
Isildur1 – the anonymous crusher
Pre-2009, Isildur1 was an unknown element in the high-stakes online cash games. An uber-aggressive beast who had come from nowhere to take the best players in the world for $millions.
Games at stakes as high as $500/$1000 NLHE, and against the likes of golden boy Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, became the norm. The Full Tilt tables became the talk of the poker world as the enigmatic Isildur rampaged through session after session of nosebleed swings.
It seemed that no-one could work out how to stop the sensational Swede as he took close to $6million from a host of stars. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies among them…
That same winter of 2009, however, would go down in poker history as the season that almost broke Isildur’s heart forever…
Enter Brian Hastings…
Hastings was a 21-year old Cornell University student at the time, with an Economics exam waiting on the Monday as he sat down to battle Isildur1 online.
He later admitted he didn’t have all of his action in the $500/$1000 PLO match. A match that would change the history of online poker – and later still he admitted much, much more.
The Fateful $4.2million Session
The duo battled for 5 hours and almost 3000 hands, a beleaguered ‘Isildur’ titlting badly as the losses mounted.
When they topped $4million, Isildur went crazy when Hastings wanted to stop. Telling him in the game chat to “just f off” and imploring Hastings to “take my last $$ – I don’t want it”.
Hastings took it, and more besides…the multi-table heads-up match decimating Blom’s bankroll down to virtually zero…
The truth revealed…
What Isildur didn’t know, but was soon to find out, was that Hastings had received a lot of help preparing for the high-stakes battle.
Fellow pros, CardRunners co-founder Brian ‘sbrugby’ Townsend and Cole South had worked their way through a 50,000 deep hand history of Isildur’s play. The results of the preparation seen in Hastings massive win.
This, however, seemed to break the T&C’s of Full Tilt Poker – and turned the historic victory into a murky and publicly scrutinized mess.
Isildur in the depths of despair
Even as FTP pretty much cleared the trio of doing anything wrong – Townsend the only one censured, for datamining – Isildur was, unusually, talking to the media.
“Everything that could go wrong for me did. Every time I tried to pull off a bluff of some kind, it felt as if it was being picked off,” he explained to PokerNews.
”At the time, I just thought it was crazy luck, but now, knowing they shared a lot of their analysis of hand histories with each other, it makes a lot more sense”.
Making sense or not, it left Isildur crippled financially. And, it would be some time before he regained his lust for the online poker life.
As for the court of public opinion, very few sided with Isildur’s opponents – as can be seen from the nickname in the following YouTube clip…
Isildur unveiled
More than a year after the scandal, Isildur1 was revealed to be Viktor Blom during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2011…
As fate would have it, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom is the only one still playing the highest stakes available. Still, that one day will remain the most memorable of his poker life, and for the worst of reasons.
Get the best Partypoker deal!
Ready to hop into some poker action yourself? Get the best Partypoker deal and claim your free $22 Tickets, up to 50% rakeback and take part in our exclusive promotions, including:
- Exclusive $30,000 VIP Leaderboard
- Exclusive Party Chase
- $10,000 MTT & SNG VIP Leaderboard
- $1,500 VIP Rookie Leaderboard
Terms and conditions apply. New customer offer and 18+ only. Should you require help regarding your gambling pattern, please visit www.begambleaware.org.
