"Isildur1" - a nickname referring to a fictional character from Tolkien's universe (son of Elendil and founder of Númenor) conquered the online poker world in November and December 2009. While most high-stakes players seem to choose their opponents carefully and only sit at tables where they think they have an advantage, the mysterious "Isildur1" was open to all. A number of high-profile pros, such as Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey, were eager to take on the bold newcomer, but were gradually sent home with their tails tucked. Who was this man, about whom no one knew anything, who had no qualms about taking on the best in the world?
The birth of a legend
When Blom first appeared on Full Tilt, he was regarded as just another wannabe pro whose ego had messed with his head. No one knew how he came to have a bankroll that allowed him to play at stakes as high as $500/$1,000, although it was rumored that he built it up practically from scratch.
His first session that caught the poker world's attention took place in September 2009 against Haseeb Qureshi. After an insane 24 hours, Qureshi was $500,000 lighter and Isildur1 was simply out of the money after winning for an extended period of time. But everyone knew he would be back one day, and by October Isildur1 was back and a series of epic heads-up matches were about to begin.
He started on the losing side, dropping approximately $1,000,000 against Patrick Antonius, Cole South and Brian Townsend. The general consensus at the time was that the unknown wannabe was playing too aggressively and wouldn't last long against such elite players. However, Isildur1 soon proved everyone wrong.
As October came to a close, the Swede managed to win nearly $2,000,000 from South and Townsend, which only increased his appetite and desire to play. Of course, there was no shortage of challengers. In the first week of November, Blom took on the legendary Tom "durrrr" Dwan, a young poker superstar feared by many. Isildur1 was having none of it, playing Dwan in six heads-up matches simultaneously and without a break all week. When it was all over, Blom cashed for $4,000,000.
Shortly thereafter, he challenged Antonius to a rematch and won another $1.6 million from him. By mid-November, Isildur had notched up a total of more than $6,000,000 on Full Tilt Poker. And while the defeated opponents wondered what had happened, the poker forums were abuzz.Some believed it was a simple case of fish on water, others were convinced that this anonymous player was a poker genius who would bring the high stakes community to its knees. The truth was somewhere in the middle.
For a long enough time, no one managed to beat Isildur. He recorded one winning session after another, and his name began to be bandied about more and more in the poker community. Isildur was clearly on a roll, but eventually things started to turn in an unwanted direction for him. Of course, as many of you probably know, this story didn't exactly have a happy ending for the hero - the scythe eventually hit the rock and Isildur disappeared from the scene altogether.
The end of the tale?
One thing no one could take away from Isildur1, and that was his spirit and his desire to get along with anyone who was willing to play along. This universally admirable trait ultimately cost Blom approximately $3 million when he accepted an offer to play with Antonious PLO. Omaha was Patrick's game, and Isildur confessed that he didn't know much about it, but he wasn't intimidated and took the plunge nonetheless. Antonius won big in the first game, but Blom was able to recover a bit in the rematch and eventually cut his loss down to "only" $1 million. That loss, combined with his loss to Phil Ivey a little earlier, inflated his losses at Full Tilt to just shy of the $2 million mark. And then came the match with Brian Hastings.
In one of the craziest sessions recorded in online poker history, Hastings managed to bring Isildur to his knees and booked a huge $4.2 million win after five hours of play against him. It was later revealed that Hastings had analyzed more than 30,000 hands played by Blom to uncover his strategy. After this big loss, Blom's bankroll was seemingly decimated as he lowered the stakes and no longer challenged players left and right. The legend may have been defeated, but it would have taken more than that to get rid of him from the players.
In the continuation of this article, we'll find out why Isildur was considered one of the toughest opponents, recall how his identity was revealed, and take a look at what he's been up to in recent years....
Sources: reddit, YouTube, casino.org, bestpokercoaching, pgt, kingsresort
