The Story of Viktor Blom Continues – The Darkest Day of the Isildur1 Legend

Many of you read our recent article that revisited the early days of Viktor Blom, aka Isildur1: how he discovered poker as a teenager, how he rapidly built a bankroll worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, how he lost it even faster, and how he managed to climb back once again.

In today’s article, we revisit another defining chapter of the Isildur1 legend: the Full Tilt Poker era, when Blom bulldozed his way through the world’s most feared online high stakes players – right up until one fateful night when Brian Hastings took down his entire bankroll in what became the biggest online session of all time.

The session took place over 15 years ago, but it remains one of the most iconic moments in poker history. Let’s take a look back at the night everything came crashing down.

In the late 2000s, Full Tilt Poker was home to the highest-stakes online cash games in the world. Legendary players like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Phil Galfond dominated the virtual felt. It was the golden age of online poker – and the Black Friday crackdown was still years away.

It was during this time that an unknown screen name appeared at Full Tilt’s highest-stakes tables: Isildur1. Most newcomers were cautious, hunting weaker opponents and avoiding the fearsome regulars. But not Isildur1 – he played everyone. And he didn’t just hold his own. He crushed them.

He played with reckless aggression, overbet constantly, and even the best struggled to adapt to his style. In NLHE heads-up games, he had no equal: within weeks, he had won over $6 million. There were sessions where he played nine $500/$1000 heads-up tables simultaneously against durrrr, Ivey, and Antonius. At one point, he was up nearly $5 million against durrrr alone.

But his dominance eventually dried up the action. With fewer willing opponents at NLHE, he made a critical decision: to seek out challenges in PLO – a game he barely knew.

And that would prove to be a fatal mistake…

On December 8, 2009, and into the early hours of December 9, a session unfolded that would go down in online poker history. It was the night CardRunners coach Brian Hastings delivered a devastating blow to Viktor “Isildur1” Blom’s bankroll.

Isildur1 began the day facing another CardRunners coach, Brian Townsend, at Full Tilt’s $300/$600 Pot Limit Omaha tables. Things started badly: he lost $592,000 over 1,224 hands. They moved up to $500/$1,000 stakes, and Isildur1 bounced back, recovering $354,000.

Before the match with Townsend even ended, Patrik Antonius and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies jumped into the action. New tables opened immediately. Antonius won $436,000 over 409 hands, while Ziigmund lost $526,000 in just 56 hands.

After all three opponents had left, Isildur1 began a $100/$200 NLHE heads-up match against yet another CardRunners coach – Jungleman12. Over 4,583 hands, Isildur1 completely dominated, walking away with roughly $450,000 in profit.

But the real bloodbath came next. In his third match of the day against a CardRunners pro, Isildur1 sat down with Brian Hastings at four $500/$1,000 PLO tables. After quickly building more than $1 million in profit, he requested to open two more tables. And from that moment on, everything changed…

Hastings began scooping pot after pot, and over 2,867 hands, he broke Isildur1’s bankroll – taking home $4,206,960.

As the session drew to a close, the following conversation appeared in the chatbox:

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

Isildur1 had effectively lost everything that night. Rumors quickly spread that the CardRunners team had been studying him for some time, sharing hand histories and analyzing his play using a large, shared database.

The session became part of poker folklore – Isildur1’s meteoric rise and catastrophic fall cemented his place as one of the game’s most legendary figures.

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