Isildur1 Online Poker Exploits

*** Accepting US Players ***

Isildur1 causes high stakes rumpus

 It’s been a few weeks since enigmatic Swede ‘Isildur1’ exploded onto the Full Tilt Poker high stakes arena like a Viking raiding for treasure. His name isildur1 might sound like some pretentious elf from the Lord of the Rings, but Isildur1 is showing more courage than Frodo scaling Mount Doom. Wanting to prove he was no ‘Martonas’ (who rather like Golomb seemed threatening but in end capitulated from the heat of the Full Tilt volcano), Isildur1 set about beating dwan and Antonius. Isildur1 made over $5 million profit by November 15th, giving Tom “durrrr” Dwan a torrid induction into life as a new member of Team Full Tilt. Dwan may have proved his worth on hit poker television shows Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker, but the young Dwan Luke ‘FullFlush1’ Schwartz refers to as a ‘cringe-worthy geek’ isn’t having it all his own way on the virtual felt.

Isildur1's identity is still unknown

Dwan wasn’t the only player losing to isildur1, with the Swede booking also beating high stakes poker players Ziigmund and Cardrunners pro Cole South. To the ongoing frustration of exuberant railbirds, the official identity of Isildur1 remains a mystery. Most believe isildur1 is iPoker legend Viktor ‘blom90’ Blom, who enjoyed just a little slice of luck when he ran his bankroll up from $250 to $2 million in the space of months back in 2007. This fits with Luke Schwartz’s EPT interview at the EPT London he gave nearly two months, when he suggested Blom would be next talented European poker player to play at Full Tilt Poker.

 Sadly for Isildur1, he’s now been sat (- or shat if you’re feeling crude) on more than an IKEA chair by what many consider to be the world’s best poker players. Four tabling the nosebleed stakes against poker’s best poker players including Antonius and Tom Durrrr Dwan takes its toll, and sure enough Isildur1 lost to Patrik Antonius a few days ago – losing $2.1 million to Antonius and losing an online poker record $1.3 million pot swim to Patrik Antonius. Playing the volatile $500/$1000 PLO games, Antonius (Ah 3s Ks Kh) moved all in on a 4s 5c 2h board with a made hand and backdoor flush draws. Isildur1 (6d 9s 7d 8h) called Antonius with a draw, but the 5h, 9c bricked on the turn and river to give Antonius the largest online poker pot ever recorded.

 Then Isildur1 played Phil Ivey. Fresh from his 7^th place finish at the 2009 WSOP Main Event (which by the way he was unlucky to exit), Ivey beat Isildur1 out of $1.2 million two nights ago. Isildur1’s monthly profits may still hover around the $1 million mark, but Isildur has met his match in the equally aggressive Ivey and Antonius. The real shock, however, is not so much the identity of the biggest winners / losers, but the sheer amount of money being wagered. To these high stakes poker players, a $1 million deficit is just part and parcel of the combustible online environment. It begs the question, just how high are the stakes going to go? Right now, Ivey and Isildur1 multi-table on 3 tables online, with both Ivey and Isidulr1 starting with a $1 million stack. $100k online poker pots are a given, with some exceeding the $1 million mark.

Largest Online Poker Stakes

A few years ago, the Prima (now Microgaming) network introduced its groundbreaking $100/$200 tables. These have now been comfortably surpassed by the largest high stakes poker tables, $500/$1000 on Full Tilt, a pioneer in the high stakes poker world. The highest official poker table limit exists at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio – $8000/$16,000 – where professional poker players stay during the WSOP. These may only be (officially) ‘Limit’ games so pots are lower, but the old adage of ‘what goes on in Bobby’s Room stays in Bobby’s Room’ applies, and it’s rumoured the likes of Ivey and Ziigmund have played out pots in the excess of $2 million during Chinese Poker.

 So, despite a worldwide economic recession, are we going to see $10k/$20k blinds in online poker sometime in the next five years? You wouldn’t make a pot sized bet against it.