Who is Isildur1 on Full Tilt Poker?

The rapid rise of Isildur1 means different things to different people all of which add an extra appeal and dimension to the observer. The most common would be the timeless US vs Euro debate, who is better at poker? Many see Isildur1 as the European contender who has come to challenge the hierarchy of established US pros as well as the preconceived notion by many American players that there is a higher standard of poker played in general on US based sites. Others see Isildur1 as the dawn of a new generation of poker players that will become increasingly visible whilst taking away the limelight from the current crop. To some this has given them inspiration and a new found passion for poker. They believed that the current crop of players were the pinnacle of poker in terms of skill and strategy and perhaps now that poker is in fact much more complex.

The story of Isildur1

Isildur1 first appeared at the 25/50 NLHE level on Full Tilt where he was described by the regulars at that limit as “hyperaggro”, barrels like a monkey and was more than willing to put his stack in light. Despite this assessment he proved to be a strong opponent at both NLHE and PLO; it wasn’t long before he was noticed by some of the biggest names in the online poker world in the form of the Cardrunners’ Pros Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings and Cole South. Their matches in both NLHE and PLO went back and forth with leads being taken by both sides but quickly surrendered.

Despite a rocky start, that saw him featured as the 3rd biggest loser for October according to Highstakesdb with a loss of close to $990,000 over a very modest 6,832 hands he managed to turn the tables in November. His matches with the aforementioned players hadn’t gone unnoticed by the player many deem as the best HU NLHE player in the world, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. The heads up match that was to commence between Isildur1 and Durrrr was about to become of the most memorable HU matches ever played; described by high stakes pro, INTERNETPOKERS, as “an unstoppable force meets an immovable object” with the former used to described Isildur1 and the latter Tom Dwan.

The first session of their marathon match featured 7,375 hands of NLHE as well as 122 hands of PLO which saw Isildur1 winning $810k and $409k respectively. Part 2 was to take place the very next day, after 12,000 hands and 15 hours of play Durrrr’s pockets were $600k lighter. These losses would have been greater had Durrrr not won one a $504,000 pot via a runner-runner flush. Towards the end of the session it appeared that Durrrr’s Full Tilt bankroll was not sufficient to play on all six tables Isildur1 was sitting at:-

durrrr: lets play little more
durrrr: i think ilari has ftp $$
Isildur1: hmm
durrrr: play 10min while we wait
Isildur1: this no fune anyway playing 2 tables
durrrr: he said 1min then msn
durrrr: 3 tables
durrrr: n id assume he has ftp $$ unless he sent out
Isildur1: yeah but takes like 5 mins till its 2
Isildur1: i just need to sleep
durrrr: ya but hopefully 6 soon
Isildur1: we can arange a time
[...]
Isildur1: im to tired, we said we should quit like 10 h ago lol
durrrr: ok gg i guess
durrrr: would u play if 6tbls?
Isildur1: play later ?
Isildur1: yeah 6 tables
Isildur1: i play
Isildur1: if u get in much i play
durrrr: ok, lets play 5min
durrrr: and then gg if no 6tables
Isildur1: i play if u get in more
Isildur1: else no point
durrrr: ya, ill call ilari
Isildur1: ok

As scheduled the match resumed the following day and early signs seemed to indicate that Durrrr would be able to recuperate some of his losses following some clear adjustments that he had made to his game. In fact Durrrr came within $350k of being even and many believed the end was nigh for this unknown pretender. This was not to last however with these thoughts proving to be premature as Isildur1 appeared to adapt and returned to the previous high point of the day before and also surpassing it to end the session $800k and over $2 million overall in the black. With Durrrr having to move to Las Vegas to take part in the sixth season of High Stakes Poker it appeared that would be the end of their encounter at least for the moment but it wasn’t to stop Durrrr from taking one more shot. The results were no different however with Isildur1 making another tidy profit taking his overall winnings against Durrrr to $3 million (30 buy ins) in roughly 33,000 hands and Durrrr announcing his return once the filming of High Stakes Poker is over.

All in all, Isildur1 amassed a princely profit of $6 million in little over a week with David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius unable to stop him. This profit was enough to award him 4th place on Highstakesdb’s all time winner’s board behind Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Phil Galfond. This was not to be the last of Patrik Antonius as he was about to take his money back with interest and reveal that this anonymous player really is human after all.

Isildur1 versus Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius

With Durrrr out of the picture this allowed the other biggest names in poker in the form of Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius to have their crack of the whip. Isildur1’s initial success against Patrik Antonius was to be short lived with Patrik Antonius striking back winning an incredible $2.7 million off the unknown Swede in a single session setting a new World Record breaking pot of $879k in the process. This record was to be short lived with the two players again going head to head at PLO; with Patrik Antonius again emerging as the victor winning the largest pot in online history with what was effectively a coin flip and obliterating the last record with a $1,356,947 pot:

$500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

Antonius (BB): $1,258,450
Isildur1 (SB): $677,974

Pre-flop ($1,500):
Isildur1 raises to $3,000, Antonius raises to $9,000, Isildur1 raises to $27,000,
Antonius raises to $81,000, Isildur1 calls

Flop ($162,000):
Antonius bets $91,00, Isildur1 raises to $435,000, Antonius raises to $779,000,
Isildru1 calls with $162,474 all-in

Turn ($1,538,474):

River ($1,538,474):

Hole cards:
Antonius: (a straight, five high)
Isildur1: (two pair, nines and fives)

Antonius wins $1,356,946.50

Phil Ivey was also able to join in on the party winning close to $2 million over the course of 2 sessions. With massive losses staring him in the face it does not appear to faze the young Swede as he continues to show a great appetite for the highest stake games. Many of his fans fear that this recklessness illustrated by him playing both Ivey and Antonius at the same time could lead to his downfall. It would seem obvious even to the complete novice not to play the greatest poker players on the planet at such a disadvantage of having to split your concentration whilst your opponents have the luxury of spending more time on their decisions.

What is Isildur1’s real identity?

In a recent interview, fellow high stakes pro, Luke ‘_fullflush_’ Schwartz made a reference to Viktor Blom being the best NLHE player he had seen also mentioning to expect him to arrive at one of the major sites shortly. Although this has yet to be confirmed as his true identity he is the most probable candidate circulating on various forums as the moment. Viktor Blom is a young player from Uddevalla in Sweden who has spent his time honing his skills on the high stakes HU tables on the iPoker network under the alias “Blom90”. It is believed that he has accumulated a several million dollar bankroll in the process and is the cream of the crop of European players so despite his recent heavy losses to Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, don’t count him out just yet!