Swedish Sensation Isildur1 Gives First Interview to English-Speaking Magazine

As an anonymous force of nature known Isildur1, he terrorised the high stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker in late 2009, scattering the regulars in his wake and taking $5 million from Tom Dwan in a matter of days. Now, for the first time in an English-speaking magazine, Viktor Blom, the man behind the myth, talks exclusively in Bluff Europe’s August issue about the rise of Isildur1 and that epic match against Dwan. He also speaks frankly about his defeat at the hands of Brian Hastings and Cole South, how he felt about it, and what it’s like to lose $5 million in a matter of days.

Also a first: the interview will be available on the iPad from today, in advance of magazine or web publication, so if you can’t wait to read about Isildur’s epic rise and fall, visit the iTunes store and search for “Bluff Europe”. iPad readers can choose to download a single FREE edition from iTunes.

Blom graces the August cover with photo shoot taken by the legendary photographer Rankin. The issue also contains Rankin’s stunning portraits of other Team PokerStars pros, including Live Boeree, ElkY, Sandra Naujoks and Dario Minieri.

“Viktor is now a proud member of Team PokerStars and, although still notoriously publicity shy, is beginning to emerge from the shadows,” said Philip Conneller, Editor of Bluff Europe. “However, when Isildur1 first appeared a couple of years ago, he turned online poker on its head and it truly was an epic couple of months. At the time, we still didn’t know precisely who Isildur was, yet were desperate to talk to him and put him on the cover, so it’s very exciting that we’ve finally got him.”

Finnish Player Hits Record-breaking IPN Bad Beat Jackpot of $1,831,426

A player from Finland hit the Bad Beat Jackpot of $1,831,426 (€1,265,583) at Poker Heaven, one of the poker rooms on GTECH G2's International Poker Network. His share of the record-breaking jackpot was $640,696 (€442,954).

This sets a new IPN Bad Beat Jackpot world record, breaking the previous world record of approximately $1.2 million. The new Jackpot has already started at over $360,000 – remaining the largest Bad Beat Jackpot in online poker.

The player known as OmgoMgomGo, the loser of the hand (with Quad Kings) but the winner of the record breaking Bad Beat Jackpot, received $640,696 (€442,954). Hand winner with Quad Aces, 7Adelaida7, won $320,391 (€221,477). The other 7 players in the hand all received $45,766 each (€31,639) for participating in the hand.

OmgoMgomGo, who joined Poker Heaven earlier this year after seeing the great array of promotions available, was unsurprisingly delighted: “WOOOOOOOOW!! I had KK and all the money went in pre-flop. Once I hit my quads and saw the second Ace come on the river I was hoping that my opponent had hit their 1 outer! When I realised it had happened I was so happy, I still cannot believe it! The atmosphere at the table when it hit was great and I would like to thank all of the players and the Poker Heaven staff for their best wishes. As for what I am going to do with the cash, I am planning to buy a house, a car and will certainly be partying hard.”

William Scott, VP GTECH G2 said: “These are exciting times at IPN. We’ve raised the bar with a massive new world record and with our €2 Million investment into the IPN, we are committed to delivering even bigger promotions and tournaments to our players.”

The IPN, operated by GTECH G2, is Europe’s largest independent poker network. It has more than registered 4,000,000 players and has dealt more than two billion hands. It includes such popular poker sites as VirginPoker.com, PokerHeaven.com, MermaidPoker.com and the Sportingbet.com poker room ParadisePoker.com. A list of International Poker Network poker sites can be found at: http://www.ipnpoker.com/ipn_poker_rooms/area-52.html