Viktor Blom (born in 1990) is a Swedish high-stakes poker player, known online by the alias Isildur1.
Isildur1 caught the attention of the poker world in 2009, when he participated in some amazingly large pots at online poker tables. Back then, he was still anonymous, even though persistent rumours pointed out similarities in the aggressive playing-style of the poker alias Isildur1 and the poker alias blom90.
In December 2010, Isildur1 joinedTeam PokerStars Pro without publicly disclosing his identity. Instead, the person behind the alias was ceremoniously unveiled at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on 8 January the following year.
In August 2012, Viktor Blom left PokerStars and in October that year he joined Full Tilt Poker.
Short facts about Viktor Blom
Nicknames and poker aliases: Isildur1, blom90
Born: 26 September, 1990, in Göteborg, Sweden
Nationality: Swedish
Current residence: London, England
Background
Viktor Blom learned to play poker from his older brother at the age of 14. After playing No Limited Texas Hold’em with his brother for a few days, Blom went on to teach some of his friends the game so they could play against each other for micro stakes. Gradually, more and more of Blom’s school mates became intersted in playing, and soon they were holding regular cash games during breaks, with buy-ins in the $3-$7 range.
When Blom was 15 years old, he and his older brother decided to play some real-money poker online. The first game they tried out after depositing money into the account was a multi-table tournament in which they finnished 5th and won $300. At the time, this was a big amount of money for the two brothers.
After a few weeks of playing online, the Blom brothers reached a point where they wanted to have separate accounts.
Blom90
Using the poker alias blom90, Viktor Blom quickly climbed higher and higher at the poker tables online, and before long, he had became a regular sight at the $530 Sit ‘n Go tables. After a few more months, Blom – still just 15 years old and thus legally not permitted to play – had made over $275,000 from online poker. At this point, his winnings were spread out over several accounts, and he collected them all into one account to be able to buy into really expensive cash games and sit ‘n go’s. At this new level, he encountered a very different type of resistance, and rapidly lost his bankroll.
After making a new $3,000 deposit, Blom managed to work his account balance up to $50,000 again. Then, he started participating in pricey Sit ‘n Go games and promptly dropped down to zero once more.
Now, Blom took a break from poker, before returning well rested and ready to go at it again. He deposited 10,000 Swedish crowns into his poker account and vowed to focus strictly on heads-up No Limit Hold’em only. This decision turned out to be wise one, and he quickly rose from the 1 / 2 SEK level to the 50 / 100 SEK tables.
PartyPoker success
After turning 17, Blom deposited $2,500 on PartyPoker. Two days later, he had won over $200,000.
Eventually, his success at the heads-up tables became a problem, as other poker players became reluctant to play against him. Something had to be done.
Isildur1
The poker player Isildur1 made their first appearance on Full Tilt Poker on 16 September 2009 (ten days before Blom turned 19).
In November, Isildur1 started playing poker against well-known professional poker players such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Cole South, and Brian Townsend. Challenging these professionals at tables as high as $500/$1000 proved successful, at least short-term, and by 15 November Isildur1 was approaching $6 million in winnings. A moth later, however, he was down to $2 million. A major reason for this was his circa $4 million loss to Brian Hastings at a Pot Limit Omaha table on 8 December. It was later unveiled that Hastings, Townsend and South had broken the poker room rules by sharing information about Isildur1’s play over 30,000 hands.
To get back in shape, Blom largely stayed away from Full Tilt Poker from mid-December 2009 to February the following year.
PokerStars Pro
In December 2010, the still anonymous Isildur1 partnered with PokerStars, became a PokerStars Pro and launched the Superstar Showdown. The Superstar Showdown was an open challenge to anyone willing to play 2,500 hands of four-table heads-up No Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha against Isildur1 at the $50/$100 level or higher.
In January 2011, Isildur1 revealed his true identity as Viktor Blom at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
After signing with PokerStars, Blom became a more active live player, but also kept playing a lot online – both tournaments and cash games.
Examples of notable tournament and challenge wins after signing with PokerStars:
- Isildur1 won the $200/$400 heads-up challenge against Isaac Haxton in March, a victory worth $500,000.
- Isildur1 won the SCOOP #2-Med ($215) No-Limit Hold ’em event in May 2011. The prize money amounted to $247,200. The following day, he won $160,000 by taking first prize in the SCOOP #3-High ($530) No-Limit Hold ’em 6-max Rebuy event.
- Blom’s first major online tournament win took place in January 2012, when he won the $100,000 Super High Roller event at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, capturing the $1,254,400 first prize.
Full Tilt Poker Pro
In August 2012, Viktor Blom left PokerStars pro stable, and in October that year he joined Full Tilt Poker. In May 2013, he won the SCOOP $10,300 Main Event, a victory worth $1,096,200.
2015 was a year when Blom’s cash gaming at Full Tilt Poker cost him circa $1.75 million, but he also made a total profit of $3.5 million from the cash tables at PokerStars, so all in all, it was a profitable cash game year online for him.
After Full Tilt Poker
In 2016, Full Tilt Poker closed down and period of uncertainty followed for the players who used to be sponsored Full Tilt professionals. For several months, Isildur1 could not be seen at any of the high-stakes tables online, which prompted a lot of speculation within the poker community.
Tournament poker after FTP
In 2017, Isildur1 played in a lot of events at the SCOOP festival on PokerStars, and became the second-highest player on the overall leaderboard for the festival, behind the Portuguese player Naza114.
In 2018, he won the PartyPoker Millions Germany Main Event and was awarded the €1 million first prize.