/ Matthew Pitt / 03 April 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (Photo: PokerNews)
Viktor Blom is not the kind of poker player to do things by halves. When he first burst onto the poker scene he literally appeared from nowhere and started to play the biggest names in the business for the highest stakes possible at the time. Although the $500/$1,000 games have disappeared along with Full Tilt Poker the young Swede has been more than happy to play anybody at any time.
In the past year Blom, better known to the masses as his online moniker Isildur1, has taken on all comers in his so-called SuperStar Showdown and has been successful in doing so. In the SuperStars Showdown Blom and a challenger sit down at four heads-up tables of No Limit Hold'em or Pot Limit Omaha with blinds of $50/$100 and play for 2,500 hands or until one opponent loses the $150,000 they have set aside for the match. Until this weekend Blom had faced off in 13 matches and won ten of those, the only losses he sustained were on from Daniel Negreanu and two defeats at the hands of Isaac Haxton.
Haxton is widely regarded as one of the best cash game players of his generation, if not of all time, so many questioned Blom's sanity when it was announced he would take on Haxton in $1,000,000 special edition of Blom's challenge over the weekend. The rules were slightly altered from past encounters so whilst the duo still battled it out over four tables of heads-up No Limit Hold'em the blinds were raised to $200/$400 and the hand restrictions were removed. Instead Blom and Haxton agreed to play daily four-hour sessions until one player has won the others $500,000!
But How Much Did You Lose?
There were sections of the poker community and media, myself included, that thought Blom had bitten off more than he could possibly chew and that he would soon be finding himself relieved of half of a million dollars. But poker is a funny old game and not only did Blom not lose he completely obliterated Haxton and took his $500,000 in less than three sessions spanning just 5,030 hands! His win rate for this particular challenge, according to the PokerStars Blog, was a staggering $40,000 per hour! Nice work if you can get it!
Blom ended the first day, Saturday 31 March, with a lead of $198,438 and he extended that lead to $281,365 on Sunday 1 April then last night he completed his demolition and walked away as a $500,000 winner! Blom ran extremely well throughout the challenge but it was still an impressive achievement from the young Swede.
Shortly after the match had ended Blom was asked how it felt to walk away an an emphatic winner. He replied by saying, "It feels good. It was a tough game. Haxton played well as usual. Maybe he played a bit too passive."
Haxton has so far declined to comment.
Blom is now 11-3 in 14 SuperStars Showdowns and is in profit to the tune of $1,034,090. Love him or hate him you cannot deny the hyper-aggressive over-betting Swede is a joy to watch.
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