Viktor “Isildur1” Blom won Event 2-M of PokerStars’ PokerStars SCOOP yesterday, a $1m guaranteed $215 No Limit Hold’em freezeout tournament.
The $247,200 first place prize means his run as a losing tournament player on PokerStars is well and truly over. Until Monday night, Official Poker Rankings had him down over $37,000. Less than a buy in at his usual cash game tables, but it must have rankled nonetheless.
After two days of action and collecting the chips from 8,240 entrants, Isildur1’s stats now show him up over $200k. The money will be welcome but this first major online tournament win will be more valuable in cementing his position as a truly great No Limit Hold’em player.
The PokerStars Team Pro needed what every tournament winner needs to pull off the big one: a lot of run-good at the right time. The 21 year old prodigy certainly got lucky when he needed to, but his victory came as much from his ability to exploit the opportunities he was given.
Down to the last four players at the final table, Blom got it all-in pre-flop against third placed Fred_Brink. The 24m chip pot saw Isildur’s AQ up against AK. A brutal QQ7 flop gave the lead to Isildur but the turn brought a possible spade flush draw, keeping Fred_Brink’s hopes alive. The river four of hearts brought no joy and Isildur was left with a huge chip lead 3-handed.
At the end, RaisingRay91 faced Isildur heads up. 16m chips against 66m with blinds rising, RaisingRay had to take chances. He 4 bet shoved K8s and failed to catch the cards to beat Isildur’s AJ.
Isildur has beaten all comers in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown; won the live PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller 8-max event; and now a $1 million guaranteed SCOOP event. What’s next? The Limit HU Challenge perhaps?
