Viktor Isildur1 Blom Wins SCOOP Main Event for 1 Million Dollars

The name, Viktor Blom. The reputation, capricious. The arena, PokerStars’ Spring Championship of Online Poker (a.k.a. SCOOP). The prize, over $1 million. That about sums up the high-stakes Main Event that saw a field of near 600 slowly and meticulously whittled down to nothing as the infamous ‘Isildur1’ emerged victorious at one of the card room’s most prestigious online poker events.

580 players posted the $10,000 + $300 high-stakes buy-in to participate in the annual SCOOP Main Event, bringing the overall prize pool – originally guaranteed at $3 million – to almost double that; $5,800,000. The action began on May 26 at 2:30pm. With only the top 72 placements destined to bubble, a ferocious battle of mental strength ensued. Interestingly enough, the first day of action would come to a close with exactly 73 players remaining; only one that would not cash.

The opening of Day 2 revealed a familiar name among the chip leaders, one known to tingle the spine of many a worthy opponent. The Swedish poker prodigy Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom held the second highest stack of 412,539, bested only by the UK’s Tom ‘7tHEcROw7’ MacDonald. It only took 10 hands for the bubble to burst as one highly unfortunate ‘smokrokflock’ busted out in 73rd.

The hours went by, player after player falling to the wayside. Blom chipped his way into the final table and diligently outlasted the remaining competitors, one by one. Nearing the final hour of Day 2, Viktor found himself going heads up against Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, who began the final table with the highest stack by nearly 2x. Action continued until just two remained. At the start of heads-up play, Boeken, who had already earned a SCOOP watch in Event #13, found himself leading more than 3-to-1 with 6,525,734chips, against Blom’s 2,174,266.

Isildur1 led out cautiously in the beginning, knowing that he had enough big blinds to avoid taking any risks this early on. That mindset paid off dramatically as he skimmed 1m chips from Exclusive’s stack in just half an hour of HU play. A few hands later, Blom’s stack would exceed 4 million, and before Boeken knew it, he was going into the break as the severe underdog; Viktor holding about 6,721,891, Boeken 1,978,109.

Only a few minutes back from break and the final hand would play out. From the button, Boeken offered a minimum raise of 100k. Blom called and the flop came down: Js-Kc-9s. A check from Isildur1 incited a 130k bet from Exclusive, which brought about the ominous check-raise from the Swede. Boeken shoved all of his chips into the pot, called by Blom, and the hands were revealed.

Isildur1: Qc-10c
Exclusive: Ks-5c

Viktor had a distinct advantage, but Noah wasn’t drawing dead just yet. A 9c on the turn meant Boeken would need a King or another 9 to survive Blom’s flopped straight, but with an Ad on the river, it simply wasn’t meant to be. Isildur1 claimed the pot and emerged victorious, winning the $10,000 SCOOP “High” Main Event for an impressive $1,096,200. Noah cashed in for $803,300, just missing his second watch-win in the 2013 SCOOP; a feat Blom pulled off in last year’s series.