While the month of January was disastrous for Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, in February he's shown the world what he's made of.
He did so in plenty of different games, too, as the big-time PLO games are back and kicking online and picking up steam.
The action across the board even brought three big names back to the nosebleed tables last week:
Phil Galfond, Chun "samrostan" Lei Zhou and Gus Hansen.
Blom Beats Zugwat
If was almost blasphemous to say it but the glamor seemed to disappeared from Viktor Blom’s image as a superstar lately.
The 24-year-old from Gothenburg had been doing nothing but donating money since last summer and some players were already asking if the Swede was even still able to compete at the highest limits.
Blom has answered the questions in the way he knows best. On Full Tilt last week he made $500k profit, good enough at least to leave the bottom five players of 2015 for that account.
Two players were most helpful for him: One of them was Steven Zugwat Silverman, who had proven himself at the high stakes the week before but had nothing to stand up against isildur1 on 2-7 Triple Draw.
Early on last week they battled it out in a real marathon match that lasted almost 24 hours with the Swede coming out victorious.
The next player to learn a lesson was unidentified patriktortonius from Russia. The player who seems to be mocking Finnish star Patrik Antonius took on Blom in 8-game, but couldn’t stop the Swedish phenomenon.
PLO Draws in Galfond
More and more action is happening at the PLO tables and it’s like the game is reborn. And as expected it's Ilari Sahamies driving the action.
Maybe his presence was responsible for the temporary return of another PLO icon: Phil Galfond, who paid a visit to high-stakes poker last week.
Particularly noticeable was the performance of two other players, however. JayP-AA, who made headlines three years ago for his enormous swings, now seems to be ready for the highest levels.
He won another $300k last week he’s now moved up into the top 5 players of the year. AckmaJin, on the other hand, is still on his way down. We don’t know who it is but he’s lost almost $880k in only a couple of weeks.
How much more of this can he take before he has to leave the tables again?
Speaking of leaving the game, Gus Hansen made a comeback last week, and so did Chun Lei Zhou. The Great Dane only delivered a short show, though, as he played a session of 2-7 TD against Alexander Kostritsyn, lost a little money, and disappeared again.
Chun samrostan Lei Zhou on the other hand left a more lasting impression. He won $240k on the 8-Game tables and catapulted himself into the top 5 players of the week.
Notably he won the money heads-up against Dan Cates and in ring-game sessions against players like Kostritsyn, Brian aba20 Townsend, Ilka Bernard-bb Koskinen, Trueteller, Elior CrazyElior Sion, and Alexandre BiatchPeople Luneau.
Biggest Pot of the Week
Viktor isildur1 Blom and unidentified patriktortonius were involved in the battle for the largest pot last week in $300/$600 heads-up PLO.
As patriktortonius raised and Blom 3-bet there was $7,200 in the pot when the flop fell
Blom led out with a bet of almost $5,000 but his Russian counterpart was having none of it and raised to $22k -- much to the liking of the Swedish king of swings, it seemed, who reraised to $72k.
Now patriktortonius moved all-in for $125k and Blom called. Turn and river were dealt twice. 1st draw: 2♥ 5♣. 2nd draw: 7♠ A♠. Hands at showdown:
Viktor Blom:
Patriktortonius:
Blom’s hand is pretty good for a heads-up match and he hits the nut flush draw on the flop. On the other side of the table patriktortonius has hit top set.
In the first draw, Blom completes his flush but gets beaten by a full house. In the second draw the river gives Blom the higher set. The ace on the river gave Blom half of this $257k pot.
Winners of the Week
- Viktor Isildur1 Blom (FT):$+510,286
- JayP-AA (PS), $+350,571
- Alexander joiso Kostritsyn (PS): $+308,254
- Chun SamRostan Lei Zhou (PS): $+239,434
- Elior CrazyElior Sion (PS): $+221,108
Losers of the Week
- Steven Zugwat Silverman (FT): $-343,760
- AckmaJin (PS): $-291,952
- M.O.P. (PS): $-162,296
- Ben Sauce123 Sulsky (PS): $-131,018
- Carlooo13 (PS): $-123,962
Biggest Winners in 2015
- Trueteller (FT): $+1,409,860
- Alexander joiso Kostritsyn (PS): $+1,165,207
- Ilari Ilari_FIN Sahamies (PS): $+702,600
- JayP-AA (PS): $+603,663
- Elior CrazyElior Sion (PS): $+374,106
Biggest Losers in 2015
- Cort thecortster Kibler-Melby(FT): $-914,861
- AckmaJin (PS): $-780,099
- Viktor Isildur1 Blom (PS): $-472,258
- Ravenswood13 (PS): $-366,509
- Mikael ChaoRen160 Thuritz (PS): $-334,504
