Viktor Blom Discusses Tournaments, His Dislike of TV Tables, and Big One for One Drop
Viktor Blom is a bit of an enigma in the poker world. For quite some time, he hid behind the online poker screen name "Isildur1" where he played the biggest cash games in the virtual world day after day, week after week, month after month. Blom has been much more visible in recent years, though, especially since he was brought on as one of the Full Tilt Poker Professionals.
Blom is currently in Vienna playing the European Poker Tour festival, and PokerNews' own Frank Op de Woerd had the opportunity to catch up with the young superstar quickly on a break during Day 2.
Everyone knows the online players like to stay involved. The transition from playing multiple tables online to playing one, much slower live table can often be a bit of a downer. When it comes to the current EPT Vienna stop, Blom seemed to be enjoying himself, but that might simply be a result of a good, exciting table.
"...there've been a lot of big pots. It's been fun, really," said Blom. "I like it when there's things happening at the table. I'm having a good time for sure."
Blom's "good time" might have seemed a little short-lived, though, as he was soon moved up to the feature table, which was to be live streamed under the bright lights — something Blom isn't too fond of.
"I don't really like it because it's so hot up there," he said. "On top of that, it's gonna take a lot of time for each hand to finish, so we'll play less hands. I just prefer a normal table, but it is what it is."
Notice how Blom was again citing the fact that live poker, especially live poker with the television element in play, tends to be a bit slower than he would like to see. At any rate, Blom has still had some very good success in live poker tournaments even though he is considered an online cash-game pro.
Blom has over $1.5 million in live tournament earnings. The bulk of that stems from January 2012 when he won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller for over $1.25 million.
When asked if he enjoys tournaments, Blom said, "I enjoy them, but the first day is tough for me." Interestingly, he went on to add that tournaments can eventually become more fun than cash games. "I don't have a lot of patience, but when you go deep I think it's more fun to be in a tournament than in a cash game," he said.
The young Swede also has three World Series of Poker cashes on record, including an impressive 14th-place finish worth $105,235 in the famous $50,000 Poker Players' Championship in 2012 when no one thought he knew how to play anything other than no-limit hold'em.
This year, Blom isn't quite sure if he's even going to make it out to the WSOP, but he did admit that the $1 million Big One for One Drop is on his mind.
"...of course it's on my mind, but I haven't thought about it too much," he said. "I don't know yet, to be honest. I think I'll be at the World Series this year, but I'm not 100 percent sure yet, though. It sucks so much that it's right in the middle of the summer. It's crazy as I won't be able to enjoy the World Cup that way. I didn't go last year, but we'll see. I might be there."
Whether or not Blom makes it out to the WSOP in a couple of months is left to be determined, but for now, Blom has plenty on his plate trying to make a deep run in the EPT Vienna Main Event.
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