Viktor Blom in Six Hour PLO Scrap Online
With the focus of the poker community currently fixed on the All Suite Rio Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, it’s easy to forget that not every big name in the business has made the trip to the Nevada desert. Viktor Blom is probably the biggest name to have not made the trip yet, and based on his run last year while every other big name grinder headed to the WSOP, he’s playing the numbers.
Yesterday saw the man behind “Islidur1” play over 3500 hands against relative unknown “Carlooo13” at the $100/$200 Pot Limit Omaha tables, with the action taking over six hours to play out.
The start of the day’s play between these two saw “Carlooo13” take an early lead, with the Swede taking an early loss of around $70k. The play was back and forth between these two, with hands playing out for massive pots.
We’ve managed to get some of the hands from the battle between these two, and we’re going to have a look at some of the action between these players, and I shall attempt to apply some of my analysis to players that are far better than I am.
The hand starts off with a standard (for him) 3 times the big blind bet (3x) from Blom on the button, which “Carlooo” flats to bring the flop. The flop brings two Broadway cards, and a raggy six putting a straight draw on the board. With “Carlooo” making the call out of position, the chances of him having picked up at least a pair is pretty high. “Carlooo’s” check call on the flop actually widens his range here, as I’d expect him to play back against Blom with either a straight draw, or a decent King here. He could also be sandbagging against Viktor, given his propensity for semi and straight out bluffing.
The Ace of hearts on the turn completes several straight draws, as well as bringing the heart flush draw into play. “Carlooo” checks, and Viktor fires out a pot sized bet, probably aimed at ending the hand right here. This time however, “Carlooo” comes back over the top with a pot sized re-raise. This time it’s Blom who calls to bring the last card, leaving him less that a pot sized bet behind. The action on the Turn seemed to indicate that Blom probably had at least a pair, and had just picked up a hearts or straight draw at the same time. “Carlooo” is still pretty wide, but has a made hand, but is likely to be drawing to something better as well.
“Carlooo” shoves the river, and Blom makes the call. The cards are flipped over, and “Carlooo” had started with a pair of queens in the hole, and had hit a king on the flop. He had then seen a straight draw develop when the ace of hearts had hit the turn. He also had a decent blocker to a flush as he held the king of hearts.
Blom had started with a worse hand, but had flopped two pair, turned a better two pair, and rivered the flush. With that flop, Blom was never going to fold before show down, and “Carlooo” had enough equity as the hand progressed to continue to add chips to the pot, but I doubt he really considered his pair of kings to be good on the river. The fates had decided that this was always going to be a big hand.
In the biggest hand of the day, Blom again opened his button to 3x, but this time, “Carlooo” three bet to $1,800. Blom four bet to $5,400, and a five bet saw “Carlooo” raise to $16,200 and Blom called. Action like this is pretty rare, even heads up, and seeing 5 bets preflop polarises both players ranges. The flop is soaking wet, with broadway and diamond draws to go with the high likely hood of sets.
“Carlooo” fires out a flop bet of $20,600 but Blom wasn’t finished with the hand and re-raised to $94,200, putting “Carlooo” all in. “Carlooo” made the call. Both players actions here are screaming strength to me, so I wasn’t surprised to see “Carlooo” turned over a set of Aces, and Viktor had a flush draw as well as a pair of queens. The Hand had started with “Carlooo” having a 51.07% chance to win the hand, and by the time the money was all in that had changed to and exact 50%. The turn helped “Carlooo,” leaving Blom looking for a diamond that didn’t pair the board to win the $195k pot. The last card was the four of hearts, and the largest online pot of Monday went to the unknown “Carlooo13.”
The scrap between these two players ended after more than 3,500 hands. The overall loser was “Carlooo13”, who ended the day down $24,363. Viktor Blom however finished his day on the tables with a relatively minor profit of $19,462 (the difference between the two is mainly down to the rake).
Maybe Blom can use some of the money he won yesterday to buy a nice gift for his Personal Assistant, Megan. He issued one of his rare tweets today that indicated that he needed some help!
I need to get my PA Megan a really cool birthday present but I’m on holiday. (And this tweet was definitely not her idea) #powwownow
— Viktor Blom (@ViktorBlom) June 10, 2014
Megan, obviously not impressed by Blom’s attempts, issued replies that corrected Blom’s hashtag usage, as well as suggesting shoes may make a good gift.
@ViktorBlom How am I supposed to get a cool present if you can’t even use the right hashtag? Have to do everything myself! #powwowHELPMEnow — Megan Hockley (@MeganHockley) June 10, 2014
@PlayinWitDreams @ViktorBlom Well I do like shoes. I REALLY like shoes #powwowHELPMEnow
— Megan Hockley (@MeganHockley) June 10, 2014
Blom obviously has a lot on his mind, both at the table, and away from it. I hope Megan gets a nice pair of Jimmy Choo’s from the internet’s biggest poker celebrity. Anyone who is able to manage Viktor Blom is probably also able to herd cats, solve world hunger and bring world peace. I just hope that the world can survive long enough without Megan solving these issues to allow her to get the fantastic gift she obviously deserves!
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