Isildur 1 chases €1million at EPT Deauville
Isildur 1, aka Viktor Blom, closes in on lead in first European Poker Tour event of 2011 in Deauville
by The Suited Connector | January, 27th 2011 |
Overall: 5
|
Above: Online poker ace Isildur1 is flying at the EPT Deauville
Isildur1, aka Swedish pro Viktor Blom, is chasing down the leaders at the EPT Deauville - the first European Poker Tour event of 2011.
The 20-year-old, who had kept his identity secret until earlier this month, heads into Day 2 in 12th spot with an impressive 144,700 chips after dominating his opponents on Day 1B.
The overall chip lead is still held by Day 1A leader Guillaume De La Gorce, but Isildur1's charge up the leaderboard is an ominous sign for the locals.
Playing only his second live event since 'coming out' at the PCA, the young Swede came back from the brink of an early exit at the Deauville International Centre to amass a huge chip stack and bully countless opponents into constant folding and simply handing him their chips.
Not so lucky were Blom's fellow pros Dario Minieri, Arnaud Mattern, Daniel Negreanu, Jude Ainsworth, Liv Boeree and World Champion Jonathan Duhamel - all of whom busted early here.
The pros that have survived into Day 2 include Juan Manuel Pastor (68,300), Jose Nacho Barbero (65,000), Salvatore Bonavena (63,300), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (62,500), Joep van den Bijgaart (55,000) and Pieter de Korver (33,000).
The €5,300 EPT Deauville Main Event is well on target to smash last season's 768-strong record. A first prize of close to €1million is expected.
EPT Deauville 2011
Main Event
Chip Count: Start of Day 2
Level 8, 400-800 (75 ante)
Entries 471, 251 remain
Guillaume De La Gorce France 196800
Bruno Launais France 185900
Julien Muel France 183100
Philippe Massias France 175600
Gerome Guitteau France 168600
Pedro Mendes Muller Brazilia 166300
Nicolas Babel France 164100
Pierre Calamusa France 154300
Patrick Bruel France 153100
Chamoun Lioui France 147600
Mikael Oestreicher France 146400
Viktor Blom Sweden 144700
Jose Furtado France 143600
Rafal Arendt Poland 142900
Petr Targa Czech Republic 142800
Mathew Ernest Frankland UK 141800
Sacha Ordeheide France 135900
Benjamin Carpenter UK 129800
Ancil Faiwel Dickstein France 128300