Railbird Report: Watch JNandez's 'The Isildur1 Documentary'

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Mar 23, 2018 6 min read

It is hard to believe that Swedish poker superstar Viktor "Isildur1" Blom is just 27 years old. After all, he has been around the game in the public eye for almost a decade.

Last week, Switzerland's Fernando "JNandez" Habegger published the first of two parts of The Making Of ISILDUR1 - A Documentary. It focuses on the early years of Blom's rollercoaster ride through poker, all before his identity was revealed during the 2011 PCA.

The documentary begins with Blom's amazing call in the last hand of the partypoker MILLIONS Germany last February. That call, with just second pair, saw him win the title for €850,000 ($1,048,153).

Habegger then goes back to the beginning of the story and discusses how Blom began playing micro-stakes games with friends. He follows him from there on his way to the highest stakes and the time he created the "Isildur1" screenname on Full Tilt in September of 2009.

Blom, whose identity was still unknown at the time, was playing nosebleed games against the best players in the world right away, facing Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius to name just a few. The obvious result: many in the poker community asked themselves, "Who is Isildur1?"

The documentary goes on to discuss how Blom quickly lost $1 million against four different opponents on Full Tilt. However, after that, Blom went on a monumental upswing of $6 million in profit in just a six-week period.

Blom made history, but not in a good way. He lost $3 million to Finnish poker pro Patrik Antonius. Antonius, who lost $1.6 million the previous day to Blom, got Blom to agree to play some of the tables in pot-limit Omaha, which Blom was fairly new to.

The Swede broke his own record, which still stands to this day, after losing $4.2 million in just five hours to Brian Hastings. The documentary mentions that "Hasting did his homework," but fails to go deeper into the controversy surrounding the match that followed later.

After a break, Blom won $3 million in early 2010 before he gave it all back.

The first part of the documentary concludes with reviews of some of the most memorable hands played by Blom on Full Tilt Poker.

Catching Up on High Stakes Action: Three Biggest Pots of The Week

Blom was one of the most active players last week, recording almost 3,200 hands resulting in a loss of nearly $77,000 in the period of March 15-21. The Swede had a rollercoaster week which included winning some big pots and losing the biggest one of the week on Wednesday.

1) "AmSoGood" wins a $105,029 Pot (263 Big Blinds) from Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (March 21)
^{($200/$400 PLO 6-Max)}

In heads-up play, the action began with "AmSoGood" raising from the button to $1,200 before he called a three-bet to $3,600 from Blom in the big blind.

Blom led out for $4,800 on the Q♥5♠10♣ flop and got a call from his opponent. The Swede fired out $12,800 after the 6♦ appeared on the turn and "AmSoGood" called once again.

Blom then check-called an all-in bet of $31,315 from his opponent on the 8♥ river. Blom was ahead most of the way holding pocket queens for a set. However, his opponent had the best hand on the river holding jack-nine for a straight and took down the $105,029 pot, the biggest of the week.

2) Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov wins a $98,110 Pot (245 Big Blinds) from Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger (March 17)
^{($200/$400 NLHE 6-Max)}

The winningest player of the year Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger and Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov battled it out in an epic heads-up hand on Saint Patrick's Day where neither player had a premium hand preflop.

Kuznetsov raised to $900 from the button before he called a three-bet to $4,000 from Loeliger in the big blind. From there, Loeliger attempted a three-barrel bluff which ultimately failed against his opponent who called on all three streets.

The betting started out small with Loeliger firing out for $2,479 on J♠7♥Q♣ rainbow flop. His second barrel was for $8,550 after the 10♥ appeared on the turn before he went all in for $34,026 after the 6♠ completed the board on the river.

Loeliger turned over K♦3♦ for king-high and a massive $98,110 pot was shipped over to Kuznetsov after he turned over Q♥5♥ for top pair.

3) Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger wins a $86,408 Pot (216 Big Blinds) from Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov (March 16)
^{($200/$400 NLHE 6-Max)}

The day before the second biggest pot, Loeliger and Kuznetsov were at it as well. Again it was heads-up, again neither player held a premium hand preflop. The main difference was that this time, Loeliger was the one to pick off a bluff from his opponent.

The action began with Loeliger raising to $1,004 and Kuznetsov calling from the big blind. Kuznetsov check-raised a bet from $1,323 to $5,000 on 7♦3♣J♠. Both players checked after when the 8♥ appeared on the turn before the action heated up after the 9♠ completed the board on the river.

Kuznetsov opted to fire out a bet for $37,200, more than triple the pot at the time. Loeliger opted to call with his straight; holding 10♣7♣ suited. Kuznetsov turned over Q♣6♣ and the pot worth $86,408 was awarded to Loeliger.

This Week's Online High-Stakes Biggest Winners and Losers

Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky once again proved why he is one of online poker most feared ring game players. He was the biggest winner of the week after he recorded $129,146 in profit.

Propelled by winning the biggest pot of the week, "AmSoGood" was not too far behind Sulsky with $127,966 in profit. This player's big week came from logging in just three sessions and 214 hands total.

Kuznetsov, who was involved in many big pots throughout the week including two of the biggest three, wasn't too far behind this duo with $124,036 in profit.

The biggest losing player also came with relatively low volume with "donthnrmepls" recording a loss of $141,620 in four sessions and just 512 hands. Closely behind "donthnrmepls" was "BERRI SWEET" who recorded a loss of $141,149.

The 2018 Leaderboard

Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger extended his lead on the 2018 leaderboard while James "JayP-AA" Park and Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn swapped spots for second and third.

"ImagineKing" added to his losses and once again has a solid hold on the most loss of the year. Mikael "ChaoRen160" Thuritz notched a small profit but remained firmly in second to last place on the leaderboard.

Meanwhile Jonas "OtB_RedBaron" Mols notched enough profits last week to pass Elior "Crazy Elior" Sion, who now in third as player down the most for the year.

The above top winning and losing players in online poker for 2018 only takes PokerStars accounts into consideration. All public data courtesy of HighStakesDB.com. If you want to opt out of being listed in this PokerNews update on high-stakes action, send an email with your username to [email protected].

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• Tags Viktor Blom Railbird Report Full Tilt Cole South CardRunners Brian Townsend Brian Hastings Alexander Kostritsyn Isildur1 Patrik Antonius PokerStars Cash Poker
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