Viktor Blom’s Sunday was a “Mano-a-Mano” affair, with him going to war against three different opponents, and the “prizefights,” were all between heavyweights. Viktor seems to be taking his foot off the pedal a little as he’s backed off on his volume over past few days, maybe he’s lying back, taking it easy, and enjoying the fruits of his labour. Or more maybe he’s playing Open Face Chinese, which to be honest is probably more likely.
Viktor’s first bout of the day was against “jama-dharma” at the nosebleed Fixed Limit Hold’Em tables, and the battle between these two was drawn out over 3 distinct rounds.
The first saw Viktor nearly knocked out as he lost $150,848 over 199 hands, but after a break (in which he played other games) Viktor picked himself up, dusted down, and the second round was a marginal points decision in the Swede’s favour, when he made a $12,974 profit from the next 169 hands. The third and final round had a decisive winner, when Viktor took $101,991 from his opponent. While Viktor finished strong, the judges decision went to “jama-dharma” along with a $35,883. We have a highlights package of all the big punches traded between these two:
The next fight was a mixed martial art affair between Viktor and “Kagome Kagome.” The first round was again at a FLHE table, and Viktor was the one dropping bombs, as he went out to an early lead with a $95,994 profit. The second round was split over another FLHE table, and the first 2-7TD action of the day. With both of these tables going to Kagome, for $89,493 and $98,152 respectively, the matchup had swung in the enigmatic German poker player’s favour. The final round was a short one, over 54 hands, Viktor was a flurry of aggression at the 2-7TD table, and crushed Kagome for $113,990, to take the matchup on points with a $22,339 profit. The video below shows the players sparring over the matchup.
The title fight was up next, and we saw the return of Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene to the battlefield. In our four round main event, we started with Tollerene coming out swinging, and taking a $336,965 profit lead in the 42 hand first round. Viktor may have been a little punch drunk, but he managed to take the second round with a $76,045 profit over 65 hands. The third round was the longest, containing 323 hands. It went in the favour of “Bttech86” to the tune of $155,088, and put him firmly in control of the bout. The last round was a short affair, and only lasted 35 hands, and ended with Viktor being knocked out, when $126,928 left his account, and went over to Tollerene’s.
We bring you so close to the action, you can almost taste it in out next video package.
So Viktor went 1-2 for the day, and the win he did get was a close run thing. It certainly won’t be making his “Happy Poker Memories” photo album, as Viktor lost $556,480, taking his yearly profits down to $3,415,282.
This was the first day we really saw Viktor get into a spot where he could have spiralled out of control, and lost large sums of money. The $500k+ he did lose could have been much worse if he continued to play at the PLO tables against Tollerene, as he has been known to in the past. Considering the high variance at these games, I think Viktor probably pulled the plug at the best time. While he could have done so earlier, he had to give himself a chance to ride through some of the variance, and the action only lasted 465 hands. If Viktor had lost this amount of money over twice as many hands, I’d be more concerned he was tilt spewing off his money.
Tollerene was recently interviewed over at Quadjacks, and he really gives a good insight into his mindset, and how he has overcome some of the issues I think Viktor occasionally succumbs to. Ben thinks he has an edge over Viktor, but doesn’t elaborate on that for obvious reasons. It’s a really interesting interview, and I recommend it for any real Isildur fan.
