Forum posters and the poker media are speculating on the identity and origin of a new and mysterious high stakes player. Epic high stakes battles have recently taken place on the virtual felts of Full Tilt and the catalyst behind them is the player known only as Isildur1. Often playing four to six tables of $500/$1000 No Limit Hold’em and/or Pot Limit Omaha heads-up, Isildur1 has proven he has an uncanny ability to dance with the big boys.
Ivey, Ziigmund, OMGClayAiken and several other high stakes regulars have all lined up to take their shot at this unknown player named from a fictional character in The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkein’s book, Isildur is the warrior who cut the ring from Sauron’s hand and endangered Middle-Earth by refusing to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. Obviously not the best decision if you’re familiar with the story but watching Isildur1 play will show you sicker calls than that.
Reactions from the pros and more AFTER THE JUMP...
In a forum post, Barry Greenstein confirmed that he knows who Isildur1 is and provided the only clues to the mysterious player’s true identity. “I won't unmask him since that's his decision,” explains Greenstein. “He's not a publically known player at this time, but he has done very well in big head-up games on European sites. He just started playing on American sites. I have a feeling you will start hearing about [Isildur1] in live games and tournaments once he gets a little older, since he likes to play poker all the time.”
Reactions from the pros and more AFTER THE JUMP...In a forum post, Barry Greenstein confirmed that he knows who Isildur1 is and provided the only clues to the mysterious player’s true identity. “I won't unmask him since that's his decision,” explains Greenstein. “He's not a publically known player at this time, but he has done very well in big head-up games on European sites. He just started playing on American sites. I have a feeling you will start hearing about [Isildur1] in live games and tournaments once he gets a little older, since he likes to play poker all the time.”
Greenstein believes that Isildur1 probably hasn’t come out publicly because of how poker earnings are taxed in Sweden. “Top Scandinavian players will avoid attention until the ridiculous tax laws concerning poker get changed. Notice that Gus and Patrik felt compelled to relocate in Monaco and Peter Eastgate went to England.”
After first appearing at the high stakes tables in November, Isildur1 drove the majority of action. In just one week, Isildur1 smashed the previously held record for biggest online pot twice and was even involved in multiple pots worth more than $1 million each! The first history-making pot was worth $878,958.50 and won by Patrik Antonius. In another heads-up PLO session with Antonius only days later, Isildur1 played the current record-breaking hand worth $1,356,946.50.Here’s how that historic hand went down—Antonius was sitting on a stack of $1.2 million in the big blind and Isildur1 had $678k. After Isildur1 bet $3k from the button, Patrik put in a raise of $9k and Isildur1 re-raised to $27k. Patrik responded with another three-bet to $81k, which Isildur1 called. The flop came 4s-5c-2h and with $162k in the pot, Antonius led out with a bet of $91k. Isildur1 pushed $435k of his stack into the middle and Antonius re-raised enough to put him all-in. Isildur1 called to show 6d-9s-7d-8h for a wrap straight draw but was drawing behind Patrik’s Ah-3s-Ks-Kh flopped wheel. The 5h on the turn eliminated some outs for Isildur1 and the 9c on the river saw the massive pot shipped to Antonius.
In a session less than 48 hours later, Isildur1 was on the winning side of a $1,127,995 pot where Phil Ivey paid him off on a flopped full house. Even after winning that hand Isildur1 is down $3 million to Ivey and as we go to press Antonius is up about $1.5 million over him as well.
However the young Swede is dominating Team Full Tilt’s newest member, Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Isildur1 was briefly mentioned in the first post on Dwan’s official blog. “I’ve been playing Isuldur1 a lot lately. He’s a very aggressive player, and there have been some huge swings because of both of our aggressive styles.” PokerTableRatings.com shows Isildur1 up more than $4.5 million on Dwan over almost 40k tracked hands.
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has taken on the mystery man before but admits to resisting the temptation to play him now. According to a blog post from Galfond, he respects Isildur1 and is extremely jealous to not be involved in such epic sessions.
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has taken on the mystery man before but admits to resisting the temptation to play him now. According to a blog post from Galfond, he respects Isildur1 and is extremely jealous to not be involved in such epic sessions.
“lsildur has shown that he can stay on his A game for many hours, across 6 tables, without much sleep. Something I don't think I could do. Yes, running well at nosebleeds will help a lot with your focus. Adrenaline and the thrill of beating the best probably has made it easier for him to stay focused.”Let’s hope the high stakes don’t destroy Isildur1 like the power of one ring ended his fictional counterpart. If he can control his bankroll, Isildur1 could possibly lord over the big games for years to come.
With a $30,000 guarantee in the main event, you won't want to miss it.
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