Poker Forum
Top Ten Stories of 2010: #5, Isildur1’s Journey to PokerStars
In 2009, the online poker world was rocked by the appearance of a mysterious Swedish player known only as "Isildur1." This unknown player was aggressive, prone to bet big, and wasn’t afraid to take on the likes of Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius on the high-stakes tables of Full Tilt Poker. Million-dollar swings were practically occurring on a daily basis as 2010 rolled around, leading up to what would be an up-and-down year for Isildur1.
Isildur1 entered 2010 at the tail end of an epic downswing. In late November of 2009 he lost $4.1 million in a single week...
Still not sure why I'm supposed to admire Islidur1 or even find his story compelling. The guy is clearly a gambling addict but has a huge backroll due to someone else's work (family, etc.?). Anyway, he's a fool who's lost millions, so what?
12-29-2010 07:12
DrudReportI agree with DrudReport - how can the poker media continue to glorify someone who has "wasted" millions of dollars - what kind of role model is this person to inpressionable young people wanting to play poker
12-29-2010 09:07
Islidur1, by being an anonymous high stakes player is an everyman symbol. Yes his swings were insane but at those levels pretty par for the course. As for the switch from FullTiltPoker ... considering the collusion by players sharing hand histories that allowed Hastings to optimize his play against Islidur1 ... it is not hard to understand why Islidur1 switched to PokerStars. FullTilt probably did not address Islidur1's complaint acceptably after that incident so Islidur1 walked with his feet.
flintsword
"The lucky player is usually the player that knows how much to leave to chance."
www.myspace.com/flintsword
12-29-2010 13:06
flintswordisildur1 went bust and Pokerstars have an online team so he went there so he could lose their money instead, that's my take on it and it seems totally logical. The main reason he is popular is because he plays high stakes against anyone, the fact that he always loses all his money never seems to put people off. He'll never be a great until he learns how to stop going bust, the way some people tell it he is a genius but I don't see it myself, I give him credit for having balls of steel but so do most really high stakes players. The difference is the really successful players have good game selection and don't go bust every few weeks, he should have dropped down to like $1/$2 and built a roll and learnt bankroll management, instead he went running to Pokerstars so he could shill for them.
12-29-2010 13:41
How do you guys feel about Isildur1 being revealed to the world? Should he be revealed or should they keep him unknown?
12-29-2010 16:07
donpetersI'd like to find out who he is, I guess — just to see how old he is, what his background is, etc.; but I understand the anonymity. It's one of the cool things about online vs. live poker. People don't have to learn who you are!
12-29-2010 16:13
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