Despite setting Full Tilt Poker a buzz in late 2009 and early 2010, the celebrated poker maniac known as Isildur1 has now joined rival poker site PokerStars as one of their sponsored pros. Isildur1 originally gained notoriety as a player after appearing on Full Tilt almost from nowhere before then relieving Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and other top poker pros there of around $3 million of their bankrolls.
Isildur1 first came to notoriety in late 2009, when he began playing top professional players on Full Tilt Poker in games at nosebleed stakes. His swings soon became legendary, with weeks where the player won or lost millions of dollars seemingly becoming commonplace.
One of the most interesting facets of the Isildur1 story is the mystery of his identity. As it is known that Isildur1 is a Swedish player, much speculation has centered around poker pro Viktor Blom, a young player from Sweden who seems to have fit the profile of Isildur1. However, as of yet, there has been no confirmation that Viktor Blom is indeed the high-stakes player behind the screen name.
However, an allegedly Swedish poker pro Isildur1 then proceeded to lose back his winnings and then some, helped least by a five hour session of heads-up Pot Limit Omaha action, which saw Brian Hastings walk away with $4.2 million of the mystery Swede’s money. Isildur1 complained that something felt odd at the time, which later led to data mining allegations and a Full Tilt suspension of Hasting’s fellow Cardrunners friend Brian Townsend.
The mysterious high-stakes best poker player, Isildur1 is considered to be played with the largest pots in online poker history, has signed a deal to become a Team PokerStars Pro and not with Full Tilt Poker in which he usually plays poker online. The deal follows weeks of speculation about what site Isildur1 would ultimately sign with.
As part of their promotion, PokerStars have arranged a once a week challenge for Isildur1 called the SuperStar Showdown which, as PokerStars explains:
“Is a head-up cash game match that takes place over a single session of 2,500 hands. The hands will be split evenly across four tables of No Limit Hold’Em and Pot Limit Omaha, at stakes no lower than $50/$100. The winner of the match will be the player that shows a profit after all 2,500 hands have been played.”
“In addition to money won during the 2,500 hands, the players will be competing for a prize purse of at least 300 big blinds ($30,000). The purse will be funded from the players’ bankrolls and will be held by PokerStars in escrow (to be transferred to the winner after the match).”
While PokerStars has not announced any players who have stepped up to challenge Isildur1, they have stated that any interested parties can make themselves available by emailing showdown@pokerstars.com. However, only serious online poker players will be considered for the showdowns.
The first of these showdowns will take place on December 19, with weekly matches to follow later. In addition, qualifying tournaments will allow at least one lucky player to play Isildur1 in a $5/$10 match with similar rules.
The first of these showdowns will take place on December 19, with weekly matches to follow later. In addition, qualifying tournaments will allow at least one lucky player to play Isildur1 in a $5/$10 match with similar rules.
Isildur1’s progress at PokerStars can now be followed by fans via a Twitter account from @RealIsildur1.
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