Blom defeats Haxton in $1 MIL freezeout on PokerStars

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Apr 03, 2012 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

In less than 12 hours Viktor “Isildur1” Blom was able to best Isaac Haxton in the duo’s $1,000,000 Heads-Up No Limit Holdem Freezeout match at PokerStars. The two have been embroiled in the heads-up contest since Saturday, playing for four hours each day and not stopping until one of the two was felted.

Blom finally got the better of Isaac Haxton after losing two Superstar Showdown matches to him, making Haxton the only player Blom had been unable to beat in the challenge matches.

The match was played across four $200/$400 NLHE poker tables at PokerStars, with each player putting up a total of $500,000. The stipulations of the match were very simple: Both players would participate for four hours each day, with the match continuing on every single day until one of the players had the entire $1,000,000.

Blom, who as I stated above had lost two previous heads-up matches to Haxton, albeit at much smaller stakes, controlled the match throughout, ending Saturday’s action with a near $200,000 lead, and continuing his domination on Sunday (nearly ending the match when Haxton had the last of his money all-in with Pocket Terns against the AQ of Blom) extending his lead to over $280,000, and finally finished off his fellow Team PokerStars Pro on Monday.

Haxton made a number of runs during the match but after the early hours of the opening day was unable to gain enough momentum to retake the lead from Isildur1, and was forced to play catchup throughout.

When the match was announced Haxton went off as a slight favorite (Haxton was -110 while Blom was +106) due to his previous two wins against Isildur1. But one factor that may not have been taken into consideration was the stakes: Blom is notoriously reckless with his money, and a $200/$400 NLHE game is not something new for the 21 year-old Swedish phenom. On the other hand, even though he is widely viewed as one of the top Heads-Up NLHE players in online poker, Haxton is considered by virtually everyone to be conservative with his bankroll, and $200/$400 games are something new for him.

In an interview with the PokerStars blog, Isildur1 reversed course on his initial thoughts of Haxton’s play (famously chiding him after their first Superstar Showdown encounter in 2010) and may have hinted the stakes might have played a factor in his victory, telling the PokerStars blog: “It feels good. It was a tough game. Haxton played good as usual. Maybe he played a bit too passive.”

The poker world is anxiously waiting to see if these new super-sized Superstar Showdown will become the norm at the site, or if Blom and whoever his next challenger might be will switch back to the more conventional matches of 2,500 or 5,000 hands, played at $25/$50 and sometimes $50/$100 stakes.

For more information on the match you can head over to the PokerStars blog

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