Online poker player “Isildur1” has been careful about keeping his identity a secret since bursting onto the high-stakes scene in October. However, poker publication PokerNews.com was able to track down the unknown Swede for an interview earlier this week to discuss his poker career, nosebleed matches with the game’s best, and the recent scandal involving Brian Townsend and fellow Full Tilt Pros sharing hand histories.
Isildur1 has been on a wild ride since taking a shot at the highest games on Full Tilt. After recording massive wins over Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies early on, the Swede took severe hits to his bankroll during sessions with Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Brian Townsend. The million dollar swings caught the attention of the poker world and seemingly restored the Full Tilt nosebleed games that had appeared to be drying up in 2009.
When asked by PokerNews.com who his toughest and weakest opponents were at the $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha tables, the Swede didn’t shy away: “Out of all the players I faced, I felt as if I had the biggest edge over durrrr. He tends to make some stupid plays, and I was able to take advantage of them. Phil Ivey was tough for me, as he only likes to play two tables at a time. But for me two tables is not enough action, and I had to play others at the same time.”
While his losses to Ivey and others were gargantuan, it was a session against CardRunners instructor Brian Hastings that created a buzz never seen before in online poker. After five hours of ruthless heads-up Pot Limit Omaha action, Hastings walked away with $4.2 million of the Isildur1’s money, leaving the Swede scratching his head over what took place during the richest match ever played online.
Shorty after the historic bout in an interview with ESPN, Hastings openly admitted to sharing hand histories with Townsend and Cole South in order to break down Isildur1’s strategies. “Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here,” Hastings told ESPN. “He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots.”
According to Full Tilt’s Terms and Conditions, such a practice is not allowed: “The use of shared hand histories provides detailed information on opponents a player has little or no personal experience playing against, and is deemed to be an unfair advantage. Violating this policy is subject to the maximum penalties for prohibited software use.” PokerNews.com made sure to ask Isildur1 if he knew of the restrictions that the site had in place involving data-mining and hand histories.
“I was not aware of the exact rule that you just mentioned,” he replied, “but since seeing that it is in fact a rule at Full Tilt Poker, I think I am going to put through a formal complaint, as I think this is a case where the sharing of hand histories directly affected the match I played with Brian [Hastings].”
“I played with Brian Townsend and Cole South a lot,” Isildur1 continued. “They were always waiting for me. The last session where Hastings won all the money, it just felt like something was wrong. Everything that could go wrong for me did. Every time I tried to pull off a bluff of some kind, it felt as if it was being picked off. At the time, I just thought it was crazy luck, but now, knowing they shared a lot of their analysis of hand histories with each other, it makes a lot more sense.”
This eye-opening information resulted in a month-long suspension for Townsend from Full Tilt as a Red Pro, meaning he won’t collect any benefits (such as 100% rakeback), but should be able to continue playing on the site. He confessed to the violation in his blog, saying, “Of the three I was the sole one to break the T&C of Full Tilt. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game.”
Meanwhile, Isildur1 has virtually disappeared from Full Tilt Poker since his loss to Hastings, but he explained his reasoning behind his absence. “I still have a bankroll and will be back,” he told PokerNews.com. ” I am planning on putting in the request to Full Tilt to look into [the Townsend/Hastings situation] further, and until I hear back, I don’t plan on playing much poker on the site.” Full Tilt Poker is the second largest online poker site in the industry, trailing only PokerStars.
We’ll continue to bring you the latest high-stakes news involving Isildur1 and the Full Tilt Pros here at Poker News Daily.
I hope Isildur1 will come back soon. He was an exciting figure of the online poker life!!!
File and win Isil……btw, why the drama about keeping his identity a hush hush?
Just like in football where coaches study other teams past games footage its the same thing. Hasting prepared for isildur1 and that’s that. Isildur1 bluffed too much and got caught plus he had too much of a total disregard for playing long hours and grinding money from your opponent which takes skill. 4.2 million he lost fair and square its poker deal with it.
I think Gabe Kaplin is a jerk get him off the air He makes says really stupid comments. Get someone who is who is more knows what they are talking about
durrr was semi-bluffing.. he didn’t yet have a made hand, but he had twelve outs to a iagtsrht or a flush otf, which I think meant he had around a 45% chance of connecting on one of them by the river. that chance plus any fold equity he may have had means it was a pretty standard play even if it didn’t work out for him this time