Blom Takes Big Stack Into WSOPE Day Three

Viktor Blom gathered over 443,000 chips in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event to lead the 66 players who remain in contention after Day 2.

Blom is best known to the poker world as the probable identity of online poker superstar Isildur1. While it’s uncertain if Blom really is the high stakes legend, what we do know is that Blom is certainly a successful online professional, even if he has yet to have a major cash in a live tournament. With 36 players making the money at the WSOPE Main Event, Blom looks to be in excellent position to get on the live scoreboard this week.

Blom wasn’t the most notable player to accumulate a big stack on Day 2, however. Phil Ivey was right at the top of the leaderboard with Blom for most of the day, and finished play with 289,300 chips – good enough for 6^th position heading into Day 3.

Several other big names are still alive in their quest to make the WSOPE Main Event final table. Contenders include Daniel Negreanu, Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra. John Dolan, one of the November Nine who will return to Las Vegas in November to play for the World Series of Poker Championship, is also in the field, albeit with a short stack.

Of course, there were also many superstars who found themselves out of the tournament on Day 2. The final two remaining WSOPE champions, Barry Shulman and John Juanda, were both sent to the rail during the day’s play. They were joined by Jeffrey Lisandro, Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow and Phil Laak, among many others.

In other WSOPE news, a time has finally been set for Gus Hansen and Jim Collopy to determine the winner of Event #4, the High Roller Heads-Up Championship. With both players eliminated from the Main Event, Hansen and Collopy have agreed to play the final match of their best-of-three series on Sunday at 6 pm. With the score tied 1-1, the winning of this match will win their first WSOP bracelet.

This year’s World Series of Poker Europe is being held in the Casino at the Empire in London, England. First prize in the Main Event is £830,401 – or just over $1.3 milllion.