Following the days of the Moneymaker Boom in the mid-2000s, online poker exploded into a global phenomenon, with thousands of young players taking their shot at the game.
Platforms like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars were offering regular online games with stakes going up to $500/$1,000, with millions of dollars changing hands on a daily basis.
The biggest poker games of this era weren’t played in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo, but online, where well-known pros like Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius butted heads with young prodigies like Tom Dwan.
And just as the poker world had established an equilibrium of sorts, where the best pros were all known to the fans, a brand-new name emerged at the tables and took the world by storm. That name was Isildur1.
A Poker Phantom Dominates at Full Tilt Poker
In 2009, a new screenname started showing up in the higher-stakes cash games at Full Tilt Poker. After a little research, it had become clear that Isiludr1 had built up his bankroll by playing low-stakes games and dominating through the stakes, all the way to the nosebleeds.
Noone knew who Isildur1 was at the time, which made his story even more interesting. The poker phantom was willing to take on anyone who would play him, and he was beating everyone.
Isildur1, later revealed to be a young Swedish player by the name of Viktor Blom, was playing a hyper-aggressive style of poker, and he was willing to play the likes of Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan heads up, dominating in both No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha.
Within a few weeks, Isildur1 was up millions, while the likes of Hansen and Ivey were left scratching their heads as to how to beat this young prodigy.
Tom Dwan, known at Full Tilt Poker as “durrrr” had the worst of it, as he lost $5 million in a single marathon session of heads up against Isildur1.
Blom’s unpredictable style and seemingly perfect instincts were winning him millions, but it was all about to come crashing down in a spectacular fashion.
The Day It All Came Crashing Down
High-stakes poker is a volatile game even for an average player, and Isildur1’s playing style made it ten times more volatile.
In November 2009, just as he was dominating the poker world, Isildur1 sat down to play with Brian Hastings, another poker prodigy who was known for his exploits as a poker coach.
According to some reports, Hastings prepared for the match by studying Viktor’s game with Cole South and Brian Townsend, two other players who had played the young prodigy.
The players apparently shared their hand histories with Hastings, which some considered unethical, but the group did not engage in any cheating to beat Viktor.
Instead, Hastings simply took Isildur1 after studying his game, and what ensued was one of the greatest bloodbaths in online poker history.
The two played heads up for about 24 hours, and by the time it was all done, Hastings was up $4.2 million on the young Swede.
A blur of unsuccessful bluffs, thing value bets gone wrong, and massive coolers resulted in Isildur1 losing most of his earlier profits to Hastings.
While some critics blamed Hastings for the way he acquired his knowledge to beat Blom, most agreed that the way in which he studied his opponent was a bid dodgy, but not illegal.
The Full Tilt Poker games were watched by thousands of railbirds in those days, making these games the closest we had to poker live streams back in the day.
Isildur1 Goes Public
Following his loss to Hastings, Isildur1 went underground for a while and didn’t actively participate in the nosebleed games on Full Tilt Poker.
The very next year, the rival poker site PokerStars revealed Isildur1 would become their ambassador. The site revealed Viktor’s identity, and he began playing regularly on the platform.
Blom’s playing style matured, and while he continued to play high-stakes poker aggressively, he made tweaks to his game that made him an even more dangerous opponent.
Blom also stopped playing the kind of stakes he was involved with at FTP, and instead shifted to more reasonable games, while many of his previous opponents also adjusted their careers.
After the Black Friday hit in 2011, the likes of Tom Dwan were forced to rely on live poker for their success, while pros like Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius continued dominating the tournament circuit.
While Viktor Blom remains a high-stakes poker pro today and has made appearances at recent WSOPs, the mystical aura that followed the player in those early months was never quite restored following the beatdown at the hands of Brian Hastings.
A Defining Moment that Taught Us Lessons
The story of Viktor Blom is perhaps one of the most teachable stories in poker history for young would-be poker professionals.
Viktor came out of nowhere and built up his poker bankroll the right way, grinding his way from a small deposit to a fortune.
While his talent and skills were beyond question, his brash approach to the games and unwillingness to game select or quit eventually cost him almost his entire bankroll.
The likes of Hastings and South also taught us the importance of information and studying, as they showcased how a well-informed poker pro could demolish even the most talented of opponents.
The group went on to run some of the most successful poker coaching platforms of the era, and their approach started online poker on a path where studying beats pure talent.
Poker players of the modern era understand the importance of studying and spend hours in the lab preparing for their games.
In a sense, Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom were the pioneers of online poker in a similar way that the like of Doyle Brunson and Puggy Pearson were to live poker.
Poker players in their 30s and 40s these days look back to the days of Full Tilt Poker with nostalgia, as we reminisce about the battles of pure talent and willpower we had a chance to witness in those days.
