In September 2009, a player called Isildur1 appeared on the high-stakes Full Tilt Poker tables and threatened to turn the poker world upside down. The unknown player played a super-high-variance game and took on everyone who wanted to play heads-up at PLO or no-limit hold’em, at the highest stakes and across multiple tables.
In October, it looked like the fun might be over. Isildur1 dropped $1 million in a little over a week, which is when Tom Dwan – sensing blood – stepped up to the plate.
However, Dwan then lost four straight sessions to Isildur1 and in the space of two disastrous weeks, dropped over $5 million to the mystery player.
The game was on, and the world’s best players started circling, keen to get their teeth into Tom Dwan’s lost fortune.
Record loss ends the fun
Everyone who is anyone turned up for their shot, including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Brian Townsend, David Benyamine and Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies, and what followed was the biggest rollercoaster ride in poker’s history, with Isildur1 recording a peak profit of just over $5m, before losing the lot, winning back close to $3m and then losing it all in one ill-fated session on December 8 against Brian Hastings.
The $4.18m that Hastings won on December 8 is the biggest single-winning session in the history of online poker.
The chatlog in the game vs. Hastings gives you some idea of Isildur1’s mental state. He was losing $4 million and running $3 million under expectation.
Isildur1: ??????????
Brian Hastings: getting very tired...
Brian Hastings: i feel bad quitting tho
Brian Hastings: would be cool w/ playing someone else?
Isildur1: just f off
Isildur1: wåfä'qqqqqqqnhjwe4nm
Isildur1: dW
Isildur1: GFE4¨ÅN,K N,KN,KN,KN,KN,KN,KN,KN,KN,KN,K N,KN,KN,K3
Isildur1: Q
Isildur1: u know how lucky u are?
Brian Hastings: yes i know
Isildur1: i can promise this is the worst
Brian Hastings: ill give you 30 more min if you want
Isildur1: luck anyone had
Brian Hastings: but im rly tired
Isildur1: k 30 mins more
Isildur1: take my last $$
Isildur1: i dont want it
It was an incredible finale to a story that had almost the entire poker world on the rail watching, but even after the players logged off, sparks continued to fly.
Controversy for Cardrunners stable
After his monster session, Hastings was interviewed by ESPN, where he said that most of the credit for his win should go to his Cardrunners stablemate, Brian Townsend. “Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker,” Hastings said, before adding the more incendiary information. “He analysed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I'm very thankful to him.”
It didn’t take long before the forums were alight with the fact that sharing hand histories is against the terms and conditions of the online site where they were playing. What this amounted to – the forumites claimed – was a group of Full Tilt pros effectively sharing information – against the rules – and stinging another player for millions of dollars.
Amid calls for Isildur1’s money to be refunded, Townsend decided to come clean and take the blame for what had happened. “I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur1 and I acquired another 30k hands,” wrote Townsend. “Of the three, I was the sole one to break the [terms and conditions]. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game.”
Isildur1 outed as Viktor Blom
Townsend was suspended for one month, which left him plenty of time to count up how much he had personally won from Isildur1 – $1.5m. Add in the winnings of Cole South ($210k) and Brian Hastings ($3.8m) and the Cardrunners stable took a combined $5.6m from the mystery Swede, who disappeared from the high-stakes tables.
Talking to PokerNews afterwards, Isildur1 said he wasn’t happy. “I think I am going to put through a formal complaint as I think this is a case where the sharing of hand histories directly affected the match I played with Brian [Hastings]… They were able to dissect the exact way I was playing because they analyzed the hands so precisely, and it was impossible for me to adjust, as I had no idea they were doing it.”
But who was he? In the end, Isildur1 was outed by none other than Tony G in a blog post, where he said: “I don’t want to talk too much about Isildur1, but I can reveal to all it is Viktor [Blom].” He tried putting the genie back in the bottle in a subsequent blog post, but it was too late. Blom's secret was out and he was soon snapped up by PokerStars as an ambassador.
Blom is still playing at the highest level today. He recorded his biggest tournament cash in June this year when he came third in the $100K WSOP High Roller for $1,311,091 and has close to $6 million in career earnings over the past 14 years. Almost exactly the amount he lost back in the tail-end of 2009.
Timeline: Three months that shook the poker world
- September 16
Isildur1 is first spotted on the high-stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker. - October 23
Isildur1 moves his bankroll straight onto the higher limit tables against some of the biggest regulars, including Ashton ‘theASHMAN103’ Griffin and Brian Hastings, but doesn’t fare too well, recording a $522k loss over 24 hours. - October 29
Back on the PLO tables it looks like Isildur1 is going to be another aggressive player who took a shot and went broke, dropping another $500k. - November 4
In a week where he recorded a couple of big sessions online against players like Cole South and Brian Townsend, Isildur1 shows his big leak is PLO, dropping close to $600k, but limiting his losses to a little over $200k thanks to wins at NLHE. - November 5
Isildur1 limits his losses to Cole South on the PLO tables, dropping $84k before tempting him onto the hold’em tables where he wins over $500k. - November 6
Isildur1 continues to sit in the biggest games online and records another $200k win. - November 8
Just after Dwan signs a major sponsorship deal, Isildur1 and the world’s best online player lock horns across both PLO and hold’em and Isildur1 comes out a massive winner taking $1.2m off Dwan. - November 9
It’s Isildur1 vs Dwan 2 but once again Isildur1 comes out on top, this time to the tune of $616k. - November 10
It’s a hat-trick for Isildur1 as he wins another $460k from Dwan and records the biggest pot of 2009 which tops the scales at $995. Dwan’s losses to Isildur top $2m. - November 11
For the fourth night in a row Isildur1 dominates Dwan taking him for another $700k and taking his winnings from Dwan to over $3m. Dwan becomes the year’s biggest loser with losses totalling $4.4m. - November 14
With Dwan playing his live challenge in London, Isildur1 looks for new opponents and Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Brian Townsend and Phil Galfond step up to the plate. They can’t ruin the party though and Isildur1 wins over $500k. - November 15
Isildur1 bumps his bankroll up another $819k, courtesy of David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius. This puts his year’s profits at over $5m, making him 2009’s biggest winner. - November 16
Isildur1 and Antonius contest the biggest online pot ever, with the $878,959 going to Antonius. All the money went in on the turn with both players tabling two pair with redraws. Antonius hit his gutshot on the river and finished the session up over $2m. - November 17
Isildur1 takes on Dwan, Ivey and Antonius simultaneously and incredibly finishes the night over $80k up. - November 18
Isildur1 takes on Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies at hold’em and destroys him for $1m. - November 19
Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius prove why they’re at the top of the pile, booking a $1.6m win against Isildur1. - November 20
Tom Dwan returns to the fray but can’t get a win against his nemesis. Dwan loses another $674k and records an incredible loss for the year of almost $6m. - November 21
Isildur1 and Antonius shatter the online record, with a monster $1,356,947 going to Antonius. It’s a disastrous day for Isildur1, who loses $2.1m total to Antonius and $1.2m to Ivey. Is this the end? - November 22
No. Dwan is back but loses another $700k to Isildur1 who then goes on to win a $1.1m pot from Ivey. He still finishes $337k down to Ivey but wins $700k the next day against Patrik Antonius. - November 25
In matches against Brian Townsend, Tom Dwan, David Benyamine and Ziigmund, Isildur loses close to $1m, with Townsend taking the unknown Swede for $1.1m. Isildur1 makes it all back playing Antonius and Dwan. - November 26
Isildur1 continues to rebuild his monster bankroll, winning $667k from the majority coming from Antonius. - November 29
Massive swings for Isildur1 as he takes on Ziigmund, crushing him for $1.8m before losing back $1.2m in a second session. - November 30
Isildur1 crashes and burns, losing over $2.7m to Townsend, Ziigmund and Antonius. - December 6
As his bankroll continues to slide Isildur1 tables a massive reversal, with $3.1m in wins over Brian Townsend, Tom Dwan and Ziigmund. - December 8
Isildur1 starts playing Brian Hastings and starts off well, going up over $1m before Hastings obliterates him. In the single biggest winning session in online poker history, Hastings goes on a $4.2m heater to leave the session up $3.2m. It’s Isildur1’s final session at the high stakes tables, and controversy is sparked when Hastings admits that he used hand histories of Isildur1 compiled by Brian Townsend. - December 20
Brian Townsend admits violating online rules and is suspended for one month from his Full Tilt sponsorship deal.
How did Isildur1 fare against...
- Tom Dwan: +$5,518,393 (45,172 hands)
- Brian Hastings: -$3,841,151 (8,463 hands)
- Phil Ivey: -$2,910,133 (6,372 hands)
- Patrik Antonius: -$2,181,212 (22,230 hands)
- Brian Townsend: -$1,571,392 (17,725 hands)
