Isildur1 and PokerStars part ways

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom is no longer a Team PokerStars Pro. During his time as a PokerStars pro, Blom had some memorable victories in both live and online tournaments. He won the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller event for $1,254,400 in January 2012 and claimed back-to-back SCOOP titles for a combined $410,000 just a few months ago. Blom has also faced off against several renowned players at PokerStars' SuperStar Showdown. Some of his opponents in this show include Isaac Haxton, Daniel 'jungleman12' Cates, Daniel Negreanu and Alex 'Kanu7' Millar. Blom holds a 11-3 record at the show.

According to Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars' head of corporate communications, Blom and Stars have agreed not to renew the sponsorship contract. "In his short time as a poker player, Viktor has played against the biggest names in poker at the highest stakes in the toughest games," said Hollreiser. "It’s hard to recall a player who has kept the poker world so riveted at such an early stage of his career. We’ll be watching with great interest and we wish him nothing but success."

Viktor Blom commented on the end of the agreement: ""I’ve enjoyed my time as a Team Pro and I wish everyone at PokerStars the best. Now I just want to concentrate on playing poker."

Isildur1 is one of the most active high stakes players on PokerStars. SO far he's played around 180,000 hands in 2012, but he's down $1.2 million on the year.

He was more famous when he still had blond hair. Pokerstars probably noticed this as well.

Huh.. interesting.. wonder why.

As a PS pro you're binded by contract to play exclusively PS and it's probably not worth the ~500k / year he gets from his contract to not be able to play on fishy european sites. Also an action monkey like isildur probably finds having to attend tournaments and do interviews etc. very annoying.

On August 15 2012 23:15 Smuft wrote: As a PS pro you're binded by contract to play exclusively PS and it's probably not worth the ~500k / year he gets from his contract to not be able to play on fishy european sites. Also an action monkey like isildur probably finds having to attend tournaments and do interviews etc. very annoying.

lol if you think thats even close to a possible legit reason

Probably just got an even better offer with a competitor

On August 16 2012 09:36 wobbly_au wrote: Show nested quote + On August 15 2012 23:15 Smuft wrote: As a PS pro you're binded by contract to play exclusively PS and it's probably not worth the ~500k / year he gets from his contract to not be able to play on fishy european sites. Also an action monkey like isildur probably finds having to attend tournaments and do interviews etc. very annoying. lol if you think thats even close to a possible legit reason

I have negotiated 2 Team Pro PS contracts and a couple of my closest friends work at PS. I've seen first hand and heard of both of these reasons effect a player's decision to renew. I mean it's possible you know something about this that I don't but my reasons are at the very least within the realm of a "possible legit reason".

On August 17 2012 02:08 Smuft wrote: Show nested quote + On August 16 2012 09:36 wobbly_au wrote:   On August 15 2012 23:15 Smuft wrote: As a PS pro you're binded by contract to play exclusively PS and it's probably not worth the ~500k / year he gets from his contract to not be able to play on fishy european sites. Also an action monkey like isildur probably finds having to attend tournaments and do interviews etc. very annoying. lol if you think thats even close to a possible legit reason I have negotiated 2 Team Pro PS contracts and a couple of my closest friends work at PS. I've seen first hand and heard of both of these reasons effect a player's decision to renew. I mean it's possible you know something about this that I don't but my reasons are at the very least within the realm of a "possible legit reason".

1. isildur1 cant say he can make 500k a year
2. he can still play on euro sites by just getting vpn/not letting stars find out whether hes contracted to play stars only or not.

1. Maybe he shouldn't say that but I'm sure a man like isildur 100% believes himself to have >500k EV income over the next year and probably doesn't think his PS contract is very valuable at all (500k is the absolute cap, it's probably a lot lower and more than half of it is in tournament buyins)

2. Do you really want to have 100's of K's on a site under someone else's name using a VPN? This is fairly safe if you want to play midstakes as most euro sites don't screen for VPN's you'll just blend into the player pool but I don't think a player as unique as isildur can successfully smurf high stakes 50/100+


I think that PS's acquisition of the FTP brand also makes isildur much less valuable to them. Whereas Isildur just like 100% of every poker players on the planet overvalues himself and probably wanted a lot more from PS. My guess is things went sour at the negotiation table with isildur wanting a lot more and PS wanting to renew at the same.

Yo Smuft, thanks for the input