Viktor “Isildur1" Blom: Just How Good Is He?

Phil Galfond is one of the most talented and insightful players in the poker world today and so reading his latest blog entry entitled “Viktor Blom: The Man, The Myth, The Legend” was quite a revelation.
Describing Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom as “a truly nice and genuine good person,” one of Galfond’s interesting facts about the Swede is that he doesn’t use  any HUD, database or any of the resources routinely used by full time online pros. Another is that he likes to make his decisions instantly while playing so as not to second guess his first instinct.
This would seem to tie in succinctly with Galfond’s assessment that Blom is an incredibly smart person whose fun derived playing the best poker competition the game has to offer far supersedes any concern he has over the money involved. Highlighting this point, Galfond explains that after Blom built up his bankroll concentrating on HU NLHE, he shifted to taking on the top pros at PLO, even though he was largely unfamiliar with the game.
Galfond mentions that at the time he he was also able to exploit Isildur1’s PLO weakness and in one session managed to walk away with over $1.6 million in profits. However, by end of 2011, Isildur1’s PLO game had improved so much that Galfond “was shocked by how far his PLO game had progressed over such a short period of time. Not only had he corrected most of the leaks I’d seen earlier, but he was playing a style that was new to me, and forced me to think very hard about my own game.”
Finally, in his article, Phil Galfond was careful to highlight some of Blom’s weaknesses but not his strengths, which could have potentially tipped off opponent’s on how to break down his game. Instead, he has helped point out some areas which could help Isildur1 plug some rather costly leaks, instead. As Galfond explains:
“Viktor definitely has a C game that he hits often after losing a large amount..[he’d] benefit a great deal from..employing a stop-loss strategy..he needs to work on his discipline if he wants to have sustained and major success.”
Galfond also describes Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom as possessing more raw talent than almost any poker player he knows, and having the capability to rise to the very top of any poker format he chooses. You can read the whole of Galfond’s fascinating article here.