11/28/09 - In days rather than weeks, the mystery Swedish high stakes online poker player Isildur1 has gone from a downswing that saw him lose $5 million to a recovery of $2.2 million, and he's done it at the expense of some of Internet poker's best exponents.
Thursday saw Isildur1 back on Full Tilt, playing across several tables and attracting a throng of online railbirds curious to see who he would play and how he would fare.
Isildur1 kicked off his evening with some $300/$600 PLO against Patrik Antonius and Rafi Amit, although the latter reversed out of the match after only a hundred hands, having made $181 000 - mainly off Antonius.
After a brief sally across the $500/$1 000 No-Limit Hold'em tables that saw him up $160 000 against DjAdi, Isildur1 and Antonius clashed again on PLO with the Finnish pro intent on winning back some of his considerable recent losses.
Sadly for Antonius, it was not to be and he took another bath, paying Isildur1 $536 000 at the end of the session in addition to a loss of $152 000 earlier in the evening in six-max action against the Swede, according to MarketPulse figures.
Overall another successful evening for Isildur1, who took home $667 000, cutting his losses over the past week down to around $2.2 million.
The Isildur1 phenomenon was discussed on the new US-facing poker television program “Poker2Nite” over the Thanksgiving break, with hosts Scott Huff and Joe Sebok examining the record $1.3 million Pot Limit Omaha hand between Patrik Antonius and the Swedish online poker player.
Replaying the hand, Sebok no doubt summed up the thoughts of many when he commented: “Sickness. Madness. I’m wondering if we’re going to fit these guys for straightjackets soon. At the end of the day, they feel like they have an edge over whoever they’re playing.”
Like legions of online poker fans on message boards, blogs and Internet media, Sebok was unable to come to a firm conclusion on the identity of the Swedish phenom, remarking: “I think this is a kid we’re going to see more and more of. He’s already probably a top five Omaha player in the world. The only problem he’s running into is he’s playing maybe number 1 and 2 in Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.”
Googling the name Isildur - as an aside - furnishes the information that the name refers to "....a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in the author's books The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
"He was (briefly) the second king of Gondor and Arnor. His name means "devoted to the moon". In a note written well after the initial publication of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gave Isildur's height as seven feet tall.
"Isildur was born in the year 3209 of the Second Age in Númenor, the first son of Elendil son of Amandil, the last Lord of Andúnië. He had a younger brother, Anárion. Isildur had four sons: Elendur, Aratan, Ciryon, and Valandil."
So now you know!
