Viktor Blom, best known in the poker community by his online alias "Isildur1" is a Swedish professional poker player. He stormed into the online poker scene in late 2009, crashing the high-stakes games at Full Tilt Poker and challenging many of the top-class poker pros.
Intro
Blom was born in Sweden in 1990. He started playing poker around the age of 14 with his friends, and as soon as he turned 18 Blom started playing poker online. Due to the Swedish tax system, which rakes most of their citizens' online poker winnings, Blom left his home country and moved to London at the age of 21. Despite his success at the online tables, Blom has a couple of dozen live tournament cashes, the biggest of which is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller title which he won in 2012.
Background
A Swedish player under the username of Isildur1 appeared on Full Tilt Poker in September 2009 and, in just two months, became an online phenomenon. He started playing the high-stakes nosebleed games against some of the biggest pros in the field, including Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend, Cole South, and Patrik Antonius.
World Series of Poker
Blom does not frequent the World Series of Poker (WSOP) that often, partly because of the tax situation in his native Sweden but also because he prefers playing cash games. That said, Blom does have several WSOP cashes to his name, including one worth $105,235, his reward for a 14th place finish in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2014.
European Poker Tour
Blom's largest live poker tournament haul came at the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), which was part of the European Poker Tour (EPT). The talented Swede defeated Dan Shak heads-up in the $100,000 No-Limit Super High Roller for $1,254,000.
Other Achievements
Inside the poker community, Blom is best known for his performances in online nosebleed games against some of the world's best poker players. He first appeared on the online poker radar in September 2009 and, by mid-November already had $6 million in online cash game winnings and status of a new-born online poker star. However, Isildur's winning balance changed completely in just a month when he lost most of his bankroll to Ivey, Antonius, and Brian Hastings.
On December 8th, 2009, Isildur1 played a five-hour $500/$1,000 Heads-Up Pot-Limit Omaha session against Hastings, during which the latter won over $4 million. The game was then followed by online poker community's accusations of Hastings of taking advantage of Isildur's hand history, which he obtained from South and Townsend. After the big loss and the controversy following the game against Hastings, Isildur1 disappeared from the high-stakes field and didn't return for almost a year.
Blom won the �5,300 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Germany Main Event for �850,000 in February 2018. Blom made a superb hero call during the tournament's final hand to become a worthy champion.