Viktor Blom has had a good go at splitting the attention of the Poker Media over the past 7 weeks or so, as we have all had at least one eye on the events in Las Vegas, but have had to leave at least part of our attention focussed on the enigmatic Swedish Poker Hero.
We were glad we did keep an eye on Viktor Blom. Between the 28th of May (the first day of the 2013 WSOP) and Saturday the 13th of July, Viktor played 38,405 hands, over 402 tables, and earned a profit of $1,805,054.
This has to be more than Viktor could have been reasonably expected to win in Las Vegas playing the WSOP Events, and probably would have been more than he could win even including the ridiculous Cash games that always seem to run during the WSOP. Based on what Viktor Tweeted (see below) he knows that, but part of him still wanted to make the trip.
i skipped WSOP. i missed it a bit but realized today i would have had to finish 5th in the main to score what i made last two weeks 🙂
— Viktor Blom (@ViktorBlom) July 15, 2013
Viktor started off his working Sunday playing some 6-Max $400/$800 NLHE with the tables filled with “Trueteller,” “MalACEsia,” “Denoking,” “Rhje,” and new to the scene “Tight-Man1”. Over 80 minutes Viktor played this table of “unknowns” and sat for 161 hands. Viktor didn’t make the most of the action, and ended up losing $80,092 with the two big winners at the tables being “Tight-Man1” and “Denoking.” We have some of the bigger action in the video below, just for your enjoyment.
The next up was a single table of FLO8 against Watch regular Kyle “KPR16” Ray. Blom sat against his regular opponent for a mere 52 hands of action. However, ever the opportunist, Viktor was able to make these hands counts, and ended up adding $111,988 to his bankroll from the coffers that have been supplying “KPR16”. We caught some of the action between these two, and you’ll find some of the more interesting hands below:
Viktor took a break from the tables at this point, and I can’t blame him. If he’s still in London, the night would have been hot sticky, and not conducive to playing good poker. Viktor obviously got over that, as he came back to the tables against someone wwe’ve not seen for a while. Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene sat against Viktor at some $400/$800 NLHE , not something I’ve seen happen in the time I’ve been writing this series.
Over 516 hands of NLHE action these two played heads up against each other, and the returning Tollerene seemed to have the advantage. The NLHE action cost Viktor $261,703, and when you add in 5 hands of $200/$400 $16 Cap PLO that cost Viktor another $46,138, you have to give this matchup to “Bttech86.” We have some of the bigger hand between these two for your enjoyment in the video package below.
With only another 91 hand 6-Max $400/$800 NLHE session closing out his day, Viktor ended the 14th of July with a $253,507 loss. This takes his yearly profits down to $4,459,247, not including his tournament winnings.
Viktor seemed to have an ok day at the office. His overall loss for the day can be pretty much explained by a single table costing him $358,794 over 89 hands while he was playing Tollerene. The rest of the day actually looks pretty dull, and would have resulted in a “breakeven” day for our hero.
The “new” Viktor Blom is putting me in a bit of a quandary. While I’m very impressed about the monumental improvement in his mental game, and how he appears to have got hold of his tilt issues, I’m being left with less and less to write about. Some of the fun about following Viktor has been watching the repercussions of a bad day. Thing is, I haven’t seen a really bad day out of Viktor for a pretty long time. That’s to Viktor’s credit, and just means I’ll have to be a little more imaginative with my analysis.