Isildur Comes Crashing Back

Aug. 19, 2011, Posted by Pokerfarm

Swedish maniac Viktor "Isildur1" Blom made a triumphant return to the tables this week after taking a four-day break.

The brief sabbatical had prompted many Blom bankroll railbirds to speculate he may be short on funds, but following a few sessions at slightly lower stakes, Viktor was right back at the nosebleeds.

His comeback began on Tuesday as he ran extremely well vs. US pro Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky at $25/$50 HU PLO. Over the course of a 1k hand session, Blom applied consistent and measured aggression leaving Sulsky on the back foot. The session ended not long after Isildur1 took down a bloated $54k pot. The Swede called Sulsky's 5-bet holding a double-suited wrap on the button. Sauce123's pair of kings with a suited ace didn't find much help on the flop as he held just the overpair and a broadway gutshot. Undaunted, he led out for just under half pot. Blom, who had flopped the nut straight, raised pot, and Sauce123 found room to shove his vulnerable holding. The straight held, and Blom took down the ten buy-in pot, which formed sizeable chunk of his $141k session winnings.

Buoyed by this success, Viktor moved up to the more familiar $50/$100 PLO tables a little later in the day, liberating $77k from French pro Rui "PepperoniF" Cao.

The following day, Blom wrested a cool $105k from fellow Scandinavian berserker Illari "Illari FIN" Sahamies, the bulk of which came from a monster $82k pot. Blom's aggression had risen to match the higher stakes, and he got frisky on the button, 4-betting complete air with KhTd5s3s. Sahamies responded with a sizeable 5-bet holding AdJhQc6c. Blom somehow found a call. Illari led pot on the Js9h3c flop, committing to his top pair with backdoor straight and flush draws. Blom simply flatted, unwilling to release his bottom pair with backdoor spades. The 7c turn gave Sahamies the club draw, and he shoved for his remaining $16k into the $48k pot. Blom, perhaps wondering how he got himself into this spot, made the call with nothing but a pair of threes, a gutshot and 27.5% equity. Par for the course, he hit the 3d on the river and took down the 8 buy-in pot.

The session ended not long after, presumably because Sahamies finds it hard to play while he pukes his guts out. Blom went on collect a modest $18k from Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond before calling it a day.

In a rare reversal of form, after winning large sums at PLO, Blom then lost around $100k at 6 max NLHE. He couldn't seem to find his feet in the short session, never recovering from losing a $65k pot in which his flush ran into quads.

After less than 500 hands Isildur1 was back at the PLO tables, this time 6 max and FR. In the course of 1600 hands at $100/$200, the inimitable Swede collected just south of $300k. In the first Blom pot that topped $100k this week, he 3-bet As7sQdTh in the small blind and flatted the 4-bet of "1-ronnyr3" who held AhKhJs6s. The Ad8c7h flop gave Blom aces up, and the money went in with him as the favourite. He held, and took down the $109k pot. Just a few hands later, he broke the $100k barrier again against the same opponent, shoving a pair with an open-ended straight draw into 1-ronnyr3's overpair in a 4-bet pot. The turn gave him the straight and the biggest pot of the week at $179k.

This week-long heater has seen Blom up around a half-million dollars, which should put to rest any rumblings of him being busto, at least for the moment. However, railbirds will stay tuned to see when the primary rule of Blom poker physics kicks in – what goes up must come down.