PCA Retrospective: Online Legend Viktor Blom Scores Massive Win in 2012
In 2012, the $100,000 Super High Roller returned to the PCA schedule after its first edition in 2011. The second edition of the event tallied 30 players and 32 entries, thanks to the reentries of Bill Perkins and Jonathan Duhamel. The attendance was down from the opening installment, but nevertheless a prize pool of $3.136 million was generated. Of that, $1.254 million would be awarded to the winner and the top five spots were slated to pay out.
Day 1 of the event saw 18 players advance to Day 2 with Isaac Haxton in the lead. Day 2 finished with eight players remaining and Galen Hall atop the pack. Also still alive at this point were Humberto Brenes and Daniel Negreanu, who both made Day 3 and cashed the prior year. Duhamel, who was in the event for $200,000 in buy-ins, also maneuvered his way to Day 3.
Brenes fell short of a cash in eighth place, and then Mike "Timex" McDonald busted in seventh. With the tournament on the official bubble with six players remaining, Scott Seiver saw his stack get shorter and shorter. Eventually, Seiver ran pocket jacks into Hall's pocket kings and finished as the event's "bubble boy."
Negreanu was the first to go in the money, earning $250,900 and brining his two-year total in this event to $1.25 million. Duhamel then busted in fourth place, winning $313,600 and profiting $113,600 on his run. Both of those eliminations were taken care of by Viktor "Isildur1" Blom.
Hall then busted in third, leaving Blom and Dan Shak heads up with Blom in front. The two jabbed back and forth in the early portion of the match, but then Blom took the first big chunk from his opponent to really extend his lead. Not too long after that, Blom finished Shak off to earn the $1.254 million first-place prize. Shak scored $846,700 for his second-place result.
The $100,000 Super High Roller in running for the sixth time at PCA. If you enjoyed this look back in time at a prior year of the event, click here to read about the other years from our PCA retrospective series.