Up and Down: Isildur1 banking scores on partypoker as Chinese Player wins Sunday Million

When online poker’s greatest legend gets busy at the tables and wins a tournament, you can guarantee there will be people interested. The same can be a said of a Chinese national winning PokerStars’ Sunday Million tournament when the legality of their operations in China could perhaps be considered questionable. Both of our stories have drawn attention this week, but for PokerStars. It may not be the kind of attention they want to see.

Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom back at the tables

His favoured online poker room may have shifted lately, and the same can be said of many top online pros, but Viktor Blom remains a huge attraction anytime he sits down at the virtual tables. This week the Swedish star got involved in a few MTT’s at partypoker, taking part in the final day of the latest POWERFEST series. Playing under his usual name ‘Isildur1’ Blom bested a field of 350 players to win almost US$66,000 for 1st place in the US$1,050 PKO Eight Max with fast blind levels. ‘GuyFromTiltBook’ took 2nd place for just under US$36,000.

In addition to this win, Blom banked US$229,688 for 4th place in the $25,500 Eight Max Super High Roller event. 80 talented individuals were involved in this tournament, with a huge US$2.5 million being guaranteed for the tournament. ‘Isildur1’ continued to prove his credentials as a tournament player with his 4th place finish, with his overall profits on PokerStars under the name Isildur1 now standing at almost US$1,458,135. His profits on partypoker under the same screen name now exceed US$200,000.

Isildur1- PokerStars

Chinese player ‘wangli0402’ wins Sunday Million for almost US$612,000

This week’s Sunday Million was a very special occasion, with US$10 million guaranteed for what was the 13th anniversary instalment of this prestigious tournament. The field size grew to a staggering 61,342 players, generating a prize pool of US12,268,400. Despite not coming into the final table as one of the biggest stacks, China’s ‘wangli0402’ managed to spin his way up to 973 million chips by the time he reached heads up play, giving him a near 2 to 1 chiplead. The unknown Chinese play never faltered and with a deal having already been struck five handed to flatten the payouts, he defeated Germany’s ‘xbambi’ to take a 1st prize of US$611,944. ‘xbambi’ took home US$550,689.

$215 Sunday Million 13th Anniversary Edition Final Table Results

With the legal questions hanging over online poker in China, Pokerstars may have now drawn attention to their operations in China with this headline grabbing Sunday Million result. Most poker operators have kept away from the online market but for now, PokerStars still allows Chinese players to play.

Article by Craig Bradshaw