The very first PokerStars SuperStar Showdown took place on Sunday and featured Isaac “philivey2694” Haxton squaring off against site pro Isildur1. In the end, Haxton boosted his bankroll by $41,000 over the 2,500-hand match and was declared the winner. Both Haxton and Isildur1 bought in for $150,000.
According to the PokerStars Blog, the lively rail for the very first SuperStar Showdown match featured high-stakes pros like Kevin “ImaLucSac” MacPhee and Chad “lilholdem954” Batista. The group watched one of their own battle against an unknown Swedish online pro who many believe to be Viktor Blom. Four $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em tables served as the battleground for the Showdown, which kicked off at 6:00pm ET last night.
Through the first 372 hands of heads-up play, Isildur1 staked out an $11,000 lead. However, several minutes later, Haxton’s chips found the middle on one table holding Q-J of spades against Isildur1’s pocket queens. What seemed like an insurmountable lead quickly turned sour for Isildur1 when the flop came 10-9-4, giving Haxton an open-ended straight draw. The turn was a blank, but a king on the river filled Haxton’s straight and the challenge was back to even.
Isildur1 scooped a $34,000 pot after hitting a flush on the turn to take a $12,000 lead in the SuperStar Showdown with 1,124 hands in the books. By Hand #1,250, or the midway point, the mystery Swedish star was up by nearly $25,000.
However, the final 1,000 hands belonged to Haxton, who was the runner-up in the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and the 2009 World Series of Poker $40,000 commemorative No Limit Hold’em event for a combined $2 million. The challenger hit a flush to cut into Isildur1’s lead and then promptly spiked aces-up to snap off a bluff from the Swede.
Text found on the PokerStars Blog explains, “Stuck and perhaps steaming, Isildur1 flicked the ‘Gambool’ switch to ‘On’ and ramped up the aggression. Instead of 3betting small over Haxton’s opening min-raises, he started 5x-ing. Rather than continuation-betting two-thirds of the pot, he was going for full pot.”
On a board of 9-7-5-A-6 with three clubs, Haxton shoved holding J-8 of clubs for a flush. Isildur1 called all-in for $8,800 with 9-8 for a straight, but Haxton scooped the mammoth $26,000 pot for a critical score in the late portion of the SuperStar Showdown.
Near the tail end of the match, a $44,000 pot occurred that saw Isildur1 move all-in for $15,000 on a board of 5-9-3-2-2. Haxton called and Isildur1 showed J-9 for nines-up, but Haxton had him out-kicked with K-9. When all was said and done, Haxton booked a $41,000 profit and became the first ever PokerStars SuperStar Showdown champ.
On TwoPlusTwo, a 90-page thread erupted about the match. One poster lamented that he wished there would have been more to the SuperStar Showdown besides a chance to play against Isildur1: “If they hype it up to be a special showdown of some sort, it really should have a special element to it rather than being 2,500 hands of Heads-Up NLHE.” Another TwoPlusTwo member disagreed: “This is pretty damn good entertainment. I hope PokerStars expands on this. Maybe they could have a league or a tournament.”
The next PokerStars SuperStar Showdown opponent for Isildur1 has not yet been announced and interested players are encouraged to e-mail showdown@pokerstars.com. On its blog, PokerStars claims that a SuperStar Showdown may take place at the upcoming PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, although whether Isildur1’s true identity would be revealed at that time remains to be seen.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest. Also, check out our video console to the right of the site for highlights from the match.
