Viktor Blom Stays Away From WSOP, Enjoys $500k Upswing Instead

While most of the world’s top poker pros headed to Las Vegas this summer for the 45th Annual WSOP, Swedish high-stakes pro Viktor Blom decided to stay at home and continue playing online at Full Tilt, instead. The move proved to be a lucrative one, too, as the Full Tilt Ambassador ended up raking in around $500k from online cash games, with only “punting-peddler” ($550k) earning more than the Swede.
Viktor Blom’s latest upswing  helped to limit his online losses for the year to -$1,315,871, and -$2,989,761 since first playing on the site in 2009.
In spite of being a cash game specialist, Blom  has also enjoyed success in live tournaments having racked up $1,721,834 in winnings, including victory at the 2012 PCA $100k Super High Roller Event for $1,254,400. Nevertheless, tournaments have never been Blom’s main motivation for playing poker, and when asked if he enjoys playing them, replied:
“I enjoy them, but the first day is tough for me. I don’t have a lot of patience, but when you go deep I think it’s more fun to be in a tournament than in a cash game.”
There was another major reason stopping Blom from traveling out to Las Vegas this year, and that was the WSOP coinciding with the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As the 23 year-old pro explained before the WSOP kicked-off:
“It sucks so much that it’s right in the middle of the summer. It’s crazy as I won’t be able to enjoy the World Cup that way. I didn’t go last year, but we’ll see. I might be there.”
Interestingly, Full Tilt’s other Ambassador, Gus Hansen, paid just a fleeting visit to the 2014 WSOP. The first tournament he played, The $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship (Event #65), did not go so well and as Gus later tweeted:
“Very sad – Quick exit of the 50K – played a 460K pot with the nut flush draw vs QQ – No Heart No Ace :-(”
Gus Hansen had no more luck at the $10k Main Event, either, and overall recorded no cashes at this year’s Series. In total, the Dane still boasts an impressive $11,258,052 in live tournament winnings, a figure almost as impressive as the -$18,418,236 he has managed to lose playing online cash games. This year, Hansen is currently down -$3,545,491 at Full Tilt.