However, one thing catching my attention — not because of the results, but simply because they’re playing the game — Isildur1′s high-stakes No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Mix. (Hey, I know that game … we play it at the Palms! “High-stakes action for low-stakes players” is the buzzphrase I like to throw around.) Pretty sure because it’s heads up they don’t have an “ultimate button straddle” the way we do at the Palms … and I’m not sure if they can run-it-twice … as the nature of the match suggests they’re not necessarily interested in reducing variance.

But still, sounds like Isildur1 is playing it pretty close to the right way.

SuperStar Showdown

Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom enjoyed another SuperStar Showdown win on Sunday, when he defeated Norwegian player Terje ‘Terken89’ Augdal.

The match, which was a mix of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, was over in slightly more than 1,500 of the scheduled 2,500 hands, as Blom blew his opponent away to rake in Augdal’s entire $150,000 Showdown bankroll.

Despite losing $10,000 in the opening hand, Blom quickly got on top and showed his dominance throughout, his win taking his total SuperStar Showdown profit to $651,941. It also means he now has an impressive 9-2 winning record (7-2 versus high stakes opponents) in the SuperStar Showdown matches.

For a full report, including replays of some of the key hands, check out the [report of the match at PokerStars Blog].

The guys from The Poker Edge are back this week with Daniel Negreanu in tow. First on topic is Erik Seidel’s recent run to the top of the all time money list and how the super high roller events are altering how he looks at the list. The discussion shortly turns to the SuperStar Showdown where Negreanu discusses his game plan against Isildur1. Negreanu also discusses the recent notNAPT event that was held at the Bike and PokerStars moving into poker regulation. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

Poker Road Radio:

Are you looking for on the road radio with stops at most of the major tournament stops then you should be listening to Poker Road Radio. These guys have been at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament the past week and have had guest such as Dwyte Pilgrim, The Royal Flush Girls, and final table player Mike Sexton. The highlight of the week was the show from March 15th where Joe Sebok discusses the recent Friedman/Haxton issues that have come to the forefront on Cerus network. Check out the show on the Poker Road Radio site or subscribe via iTunes.

Jess And BJ Show:

This show speaks for itself, Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth from the award winning The Poker Beat join forces at all the US World Poker Tour events to record the Jess and BJ show. If you do not watch these shows you definitely should.

Is it wrong to care more about the results of this matchup than Daniel Negreanu vs. Isildur1?

Follow @merchdawg on Twitter for updates throughout the 2,500 hand match.

Two Plus Two Pokercast:

The guys from 2+2 open up their 6th year of their 154th episode. Tony G joins the crew to discuss his recent SuperStar Show down match against isildur1. Other topics on with Tony G were his attempt at purchasing Peter Eastgate’s WSOP Main Event bracelet and the amount of trash talking that he does on the tables. After the Tony G interview the recent UB shakeup became the focus of discussion. The potential sellout of Prahlad Friedman occupied the majority of discussion as they discussed the reason why he would join the site the essentially ruined his career. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.

The Hardcore Poker Show:

The Phil and Annie departure is the only topic on task this week on the show. Joe Seebok comes on to discuss what the recent departures mean for UB and how the new UB team is going to look. Prahlad Friedman is also discussed along with whether someone like Daniel Negreanu should be publically calling Prahlad out for selling out. You can listen weekly on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 98 every Wednesday from 8-9pm ET or you can download it via iTunes.

Final Table Poker Radio Show:

This week’s show gets kicked off with an unplanned interview from Annie Duke where she attempts to clear up some of the speculation surrounding her recent departure from UB and what her plans are for her future. WSOP bracelet winner Linda Johnson follows Annie Duke to the show to discuss changes in tournaments since she first came onto the poker scene and what the TDA can do about the influx of deep stack tournaments. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.

The third and deciding match of the 10,000 + 350 NL Holdem Heads-Up bracelet will take place at 6pm Sunday evening between Gus Hansen and Jim Collopy. There was discussion of holding the final match in Las Vegas November Nine weekend, but eventually it was worked out to finish it out in London.

Elsewhere …

LAPT Grande Finale – Rosario, Argentina :: The final table of 8 has been reached, with Matthias Habernig, winner of LAPT Florianopolis, is looking to win back-to-back titles. Here’s how the final table will be seated:

Seat 1: Roberto Bianchi (Argentina) 1,242,000
Seat 2: William Ross (USA) 352,000
Seat 3: Ivan Saul (Argentina) 179,000
Seat 4: Nico Fierro (Chile) 406,000
Seat 5: Matthias Habernig (Austria) 463,000
Seat 6: Martin Sansour (Peru) 952,000
Seat 7: Bolivar Palacios (Panama) 1,000,000
Seat 8: Daniel Ades (Argentina) 514,000

Action resumes Sunday at noon local time, follow the action at PokerNews and the PokerStars blog.

TJ Cloutier Choctaw Poker Classic – Durant, Oklahoma :: Day 1 of their $1,500 + 100 Main Event drew a field of 191 players, with first place taking down $73,126. Streaming at Roundersradio.com

To bring you breathtaking excitement (and palpable tension) from the Amazon floor last night, I’m gonna skip ahead in the Tao of Pokerati storyline … and catch up with Pauly and Benjo, who were of course right there as Durrrr’s chip-stack had a collection of prop-bet gamblers re-evaluating their futures.

While the final table of Event #11 was being set up, Benjo spotted a group of the Big Game regulars who bet against durrrr having a quick meeting. The T.O.P. crew speculate on a potential bracelet bet buy-out if durrrr continues to dominate the donkament.

Moments after the big donkament ended and durrrr took second, Benjo and Pauly headed over to the rail of the $10k Stud-8 event to watch the reactions of pros who bet against durrrr winning a bracelet and dodged a massive bullet.

Everyone in poker seems to really care about the French these days.

And for all you us pathetically unilingual Americans, here is an easy-to-bookmark tinyurl for Benjo’s “Las Vegas, off the record”, with his personal take on any and all WSOP action robo-translated from French to English: http://tinyurl.com/38r4wdd

Alas … still haven’t gotten the details I’m seeking about Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey’s meeting with Barack Obama in February — what did they say? what did he say? — but perhaps as a consolation prize, my source told me he had one piece of info that he/she could confirm with “100 percent” certainty.

OK, I’m listening …

“Viktor Blom is Isildur.”

Oh, that’s it? I mean thanks.

“Yes. 100 percent.”

He’s not under investigation or anything, is he? Got a DWI maybe, or how ’bout an illicit rendezvous with Guy Laliberte and the Swedish women’s curling team … that would all be good for traffic.

“Nope. Just playing high-stakes no-limit hold’em and PLO.”

Everybody’s been saying for a couple months that it was a given Viktor Blom and Isildur1 were one in the same. Seemed plausible enough, but I didn’t really know, and I’m pretty sure 95 percent of the people saying as much didn’t really know either — they were just repeating what they heard from someone else who said they heard from someone else who said they knew.

I didn’t really care, because I actually liked him better as a mystery man. And figuring how easy it is for misinformation and spin to spread through the poker internet, I was willing to bet against Isildur1 being Viktor Blom if you gave me 3:1 odds. But no longer. I personally now believe 98.9 99.8 percent that Isildur’s alterego could run into trouble with Swedish tax authorities has a listing in the Hendon Mob database.

Sorry it took so long for me to come around … maybe I was just in denial because I really was hoping to see the mystery continue for years to come:

Baby Isildur1 by Pokerati
Design custom shirts at zazzle.com

Meanwhile, even without a highest-stakes masked man at the tele-tables, PartyPoker still plans to bring a new component to televised cash games, with each player choosing “walk-on music“.

Click below for the Isildur1-less roster of players who have submitted their personal soundtrack poker theme songs:

Tony G – Team PartyPoker.com – ‘Bicycle Song’ – Queen
Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz – ‘Pass Out’ – Tinie Tempah
Paul Marrow – ‘Champagne Supernova’ – Oasis
Jennifer Tilly – ‘Maneater’ – Hall and Oates
Neil Channing – ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ – The Smiths
Dusty ‘Leatherass’ Schmidt – ‘Flashing Lights’ – Kanye West
David Peat (Viffer) ‘Remember The Name’ – Fort Minor
Dixie Dean – ‘London Calling’ – The Clash
Issac Haxton ‘Basketcase’ – Green Day
Justin Bonomo ‘Bullet And A Target’ – Citizen Hope
Roland de Wolfe -’ Hungry Like The Wolf’ – Duran Duran
Andrew Feldman – ‘Mamma’s Gonna Knock You Out’ – LL Cool J
Simon “Schnibl0r” Münz – ‘Conquest Of Paradise’ – Vangelis
Roberto Romanello – ‘Sex Bomb’ – Tom Jones
Laurence Grondin – ‘Rich Girl’ – Gwen Stefani
Sam Trickett – Right Round’ – Flo Rida
Richard Wheatley – ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ – StealersWheel
Paul Zimbler – ‘Who Am I (Zimm Zimmer) – Beanie Man

Then buy a T-shirt.

Names already announced for the cash game include Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Isaac Haxton, Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz, Neil Channing with several other players to be announced over the next few days. Previous “Big Game” broadcasts filmed by Matchroom Sport have been 25-50 NL holdem, with the possibility of the blinds increasing during the session. The final product will first air on Channel Five in the UK, and eventually appear on networks around the world.

Here’s a promo previewing last year’s “Big Game” broadcast, picture this action in a much nicer location:

Tell the G you’re the man he’s been looking for with this powerfully stylish le chemise, perfect for an episode of High Stakes Poker:

I am Isildur1 by Pokerati (w alcanthang)

Also … just related:

I am Isildur’s Brother

From our friends at the Betfair blog:

Firstly, the player in question is Swedish – the same nationality as Isildur1 – and is certainly playing the type of nosebleeds stakes expected from the most talked about online player for years.. A railbird told me he was seen recently with just under 400k at the tables waiting for action at some 250/500 and 100/200 NL HU tables.

[...]

Other factors that have stoked this rumour include railbirds noticing Omlphalotus playing a similar style to Isildur1 as well as enjoying long sessions multi-tabling.

More details here from a site with an arguably less-compromised interest in pimping high-stakes games on Betfair.

Also: a $27k Omlphalotus suckout.

NOTE: Omphalotus (without the extra 1/l) is a funky-looking but poisonous mushroom.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Michalski
1/07/10

BTW, a little breaking-ish news on this episode — and perhaps an indication of the perceived threat of the NAPT-Venetian, which just so happens to coincide with the LAPC, the usual early-year destination for the LA-LV poker masses … anyone who buys into the $10k WPT-LAPC main event at the Commerce before February 19 now will receive a seat in the televised $200k WPT Invitational. Neato!

If only I had a collection of cars, I’d name them all … Free Pokerati T-shirt to anyone who outfits they’re vehicle with the above or any of the following pokertastic plates, all of which are available, some surprisingly so:

Have your own fun with the Nevada DMV here. Interestingly enough, I was looking for one for Allen Kessler … but Chainsaw is too many letters, and Chansaw is already taken.

Also … DURRR is not available, but DURRRR is.

Instapoker

A few other interesting links of late:

The upcoming LAPC is the best tourney-fest since sliced bread/the WSOP?

A guy who could pass for Phil Ivey’s dad at a Bob Marley concert.

NBAers Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton draw guns in what could be a standoff over poker debts?

Bill Rini has a well-thought-out response to the datamining issues raised by Beanie’s Pokerati op-ed.

But PokerNews ed-honcho Matt Parvis did speak with a heavily accented Isildur1 on the phone recently, for a limited two-part interview:

In Part 1 they address the controversial session against Cardrunners Pro Brian Hastings. And though hardly seeming upset, Isildur does say he intends to file a complaint against presumed datamining violations.

In Part 2 Isildur reveals that he had been playing $200/$400 NL on different sites before coming to Full Tilt in October; he isn’t the other mysterious Swedish nosebleeder Martonas (“Martonas is honestly my enemy in poker”); he learned to play PLO only 8 months ago; durrr is good, Ivey tough; and yes, he’ll be back.

Which brings us to Brian Townsend, a Full Tilt Poker pro and popular CardRunners instructor who has recently learned something about bans and TableRatings. It seems that Townsend, Cole South, and Brian Hastings got together to brainstorm strategies for taking down Isilidur1 shortly before Hastings booked his incredible $4.2 million win against the Swedish phenom.

While their strategizing was in no way a violation of FTP’s Terms of Service, the fact that they poured over a Townsend-supplied database of hand histories in order to decipher Isildur’s playing patterns was — and, as a result, Townsend is now playing without his red status for 30 days. Our buddy Matt Parvis has the full story over at Poker News.

Part 1 is an 18-minute interview where they discuss the Isildur1 phenomenon, the advantages of playing anonymously, and other matters relevant to those risking six- and seven-figure sums against him.

Part 2 gives nearly 30 minutes of actual hand analysis where Antonius discusses what was going through his mind at the time.

The question is, with millions of dollars being shifted around each session – or hand, as the case may be – how much longer can they keep these remarkable games going without any fresh fish at the table? Our friend Bill Rini thinks the answer is not much longer.