The third edition of the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown kicked off on Sunday afternoon featuring Team PokerStars Pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and his latest opponent, Dan “wooki3z” Cates. Ever since the heads-up battle was announced earlier in the week, the match-up of two of the most captivating high-stakes online pros overshadowed anything that the online poker industry could provide. Over the roughly four hours of play, the Blom/Cates battle lived up to expectations.
The SuperStar Showdown rules are as such: the combatants play four tables of No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, or a combination of the two at stakes of at least $50/$100. A minimum of 2,500 hands are dealt, with the winner being determined by whoever scores the most money. For Sunday’s battle, several caveats were tossed into the mix.
For the first time in the SuperStar Showdown, there was no requirement that the 2,500 hands had to be played equally over four tables. Additionally, if a player busted on one table, a new one would be set up.
From the start, both players displayed the hyper-aggressive tendencies that they have become known for. It took only five minutes for the first all-in to occur, with Cates looking at a board of 3h-6c-2d-Ah-2h and facing an all-in on the river from Blom. Cates made the call and tabled A-Q, only to see Blom out-kick him holding A-K. The early double moved Isildur1 up $10,000 very early in the match.
Blom was able to take another $20,000 pot off Cates shortly afterward when his J-7 hit a seven for a pair and he was able to fade a flush draw. Cates would fight back from the $20,000 deficit over the course of the first 600 hands of play, eventually turning the tables into a $20,000 lead for himself.
Cates then edged back into the lead when, holding a well-camouflaged pocket aces, he got Blom to bet every street with pocket eights. The hand moved “wooki3z” back to the lead with 30% of the SuperStar Showdown completed.
Blom’s wild swings would continue, as he would gradually build a lead before crashing to Earth in dramatic fashion. At one point prior to the halfway mark, Isildur1 found himself down $30,000; yet, by the time the first 1,225 hands had been completed, he had turned it back around to take slightly less than a $10,000 lead.
The duo would continue to swap the lead back and forth, but, over the last hour of the match, Blom began to slowly work his way out to a lead that Cates could never recover from. Save for a few big hands at the end, the final tally could have been much worse for “wooki3z.” By the time the dust had settled, Isildur1 had emerged with a $51,196 profit, raising his record to 2-1 in the SuperStar Showdown.
Both players passing out “gg” kudos to each other, seemingly unmoved by the change of money between them. Even after his defeat, Cates was calm on his Twitter account. “Lost ~$50K vs Isildur1,” Cates casually Tweeted. “Could have played better and had some better cards. gg.”
Once the third edition of the SuperStar Showdown was complete, Blom accepted congratulations from fellow Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, who had some questions regarding the format of the challenge. Negreanu and Blom retreated to e-mail to discuss the situation, leaving many on the rail to wonder if “Kid Poker” will be the next player to step up against Isildur1 in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown series.
