Viktor Blom has done it again.
The €5,300 buy-in partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Germany Main Event, which attracted 1,022 entries to King’s Casino Rozvadoz, offered a €5 million guaranteed prize pool. After four days of intense play, it was online legend “Isildur1,” aka Viktor Blom, who walked away with a €850,000 ($1,048,153) first-place prize.
Another Seven-Figure Score
It was a welcome win for Blom, who finished as the tournament’s Day 1A chip leader. He’s been struggling a bit online thus far in 2018. As of February 17, he was down $88,621 in 12,096 hands spread across 110 sessions. Of course, with him, he could win that all back, and then some, in a single session.
In the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Germany Main Event, Blom made it to heads-up play against Moldova’s Pavel Plesuv, and it proved to be an epic battle. At one point, Plesuv held a nine-to-one chip lead, but the Swede used his years of experience to claw back. The two eventually struck a deal in which they both locked up €750,000 ($924,841) and left €100K and the trophy to play for.
In what would be the final hand of the tournament, the blinds were 6,000,000/12,000,000 with a 12,000,000 ante when Blom, who looked down at the K♥6♦, raised to 35 million.
Plesuv called with the Q♦7♦ and the flop came down Q♥9♥K♦. Plesuv check-called a bet of 45 million and then check-called one of 105 million on the A♦ turn. When the 5♥ completed the board on the river, Plesuv moved all in and Blom picked him off with a pair of kings.
The win marked Blom’s second-largest score of his career behind only the $1,254,400 he earned after winning the 2012 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller. His next biggest score was a more modest $179,847 for finishing runner-up to Vitaly Lunkin in the EPT10 Monte Carlo €10k Turbo Six-Max.
Blom now has $2,787,194 in live lifetime earnings which vaults him into eighth place on Sweden’s all-time poker money list.
Last Partypoker Pro Standing
Another player to make a deep run in Main Event was Brazil’s Joao Simao, the last partypoker ambassador in the field. The Brazilian made it all the way to four-handed play, which is when he ran into the Blom buzzsaw.
In Level 39 (3,500,000/7,000,000/7,000,000), Blom made it 21 million to go from the button with the A♦8♠ and Simao defended his big blind with the J♠9♠. When the flop fell 7♠7♣K♥, Simao moved all in for 31.5 million and Blom snap-called. Neither the 2♦ turn nor A♠ river helped Simao, and he hit the rail in fourth place for €280,000 ($345,274).
It was actually Simao’s fourth cash of the series, after finishing runner-up to Patrik Antonius in the €25K High Roller for $307,772 and placing fourth in the other €25K High Roller for $134,746. Toss in a small cash in the Warm-Up, and the Brazilian earned $795,753 during the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Germany, which moved him up to fifth on Brazil’s all-time money list.
Others to cash the partypoker Main were 2017 GPI Player of the Year Adrian Mateos at 12th for €40,000 ($49,325), Ludovic Geilich in 26th for €22,500 ($27,745), recently signed partypoker ambassador Philipp Gruissem at 28th for €22,500 ($27,745), and American Jason Wheeler in the 44th spot for €17,500 ($21,580).
The partypoker LIVE MILLIONS will head to Barcelona in April for its Grand Final, which will offer up €23 million ($28.5 million) in guaranteed prize pools.
Final Table Results
1 Viktor Blom (Sweden) €850,000 ($1,048,153)
2 Pavel Plesuv (Moldova) €750,000 ($924,841)
3 Rickie Silcock (UK) €400,000 ($493,249)
4 Joao Simao (Brazil) €280,000 ($345,274)
5 Radoslaw Wesierski (Poland) €200,000 ($246,624)
6 Ondrej Drozd (Czech Republic) €140,000 ($172,637)
7 Moschonas Aristeidis (UK) €100,000 ($123,312)
8 Niko Wieland (Germany) €70,000 ($86,319)
9 Yiannis Liperis (Cyprus) €50,000 ($61,656)
