Isildur1 defeats w00ki3z in SuperStar Showdown
Last week it was announced by PokerStars that the third player to challenge Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom in the SuperStar Showdown would be Daniel ‘Jungleman12′ Cates (who plays on PokerStars using the alias ‘w00ki3z’. The announcement came as no suprise because the pair had been locked in heads-up battles for several days, with Cates proving victorious. Yesterday saw Blom get revenge however as he finished the match with a $51,196 profit. The pair of high-stakes junkies played 2,500 hands of No-Limit Hold’em at stakes of $50/$100 and managed to complete the match in just over four hours.
As you would expect from these two, the action was very aggressive and saw lots of pre-flop all-in’s. Around twenty minutes into the match they played a pot worth $27,100 which Blom collected. The hand saw Cates make a pre-flop five-bet shove which Blom called. Blom held A
K and made trips on the flop leaving Cates’ pocket Jacks dead and pushing Blom into the lead.
The pair exchanged the lead multiple times throughout the match though, and it was Cates who took down the largest pot worth $36,900. The hand saw Cates open for $200 and Blom 3-bet to $800, leading to Cates four-betting to make it $2,100 and Blom then five-bet making it $3,850 which Cates called. The flop came 742 and Blom made a continuation bet of $2,850 which Cates called. The turn came 2 and once again Blom bet, making it $4,650 to go, which led to Cates shoving all-in for $22,350 to which Blom called off the last $7,100 of his stack. The cards were revealed with Cates holding AA dominating Blom’s 88 to take down the $36,900 pot.
After just over four hours and 2,500 hands it was Blom who was victorious with a profit of $51,196 and the pair entered ‘gg’ (good game) into the chat box to end the match. Blom’s record in the SuperStar Showdown now stands at 2:1. He lost around $40,000 in the first match to Isaac ‘philivey2694′ Haxton, then claimed victory against TonyG for $44,000 and with this latest victory against Daniel Cates he looks to be getting back on track despite suffering heavy online cash-game losses in recent weeks.
After the match was completed Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu popped up in the chat box requesting for Blom to email him because he had some questions about the rules. This has led to speculation that Negreanu will be the next player to battle Blom in the SuperStar Showdown, however Negreanu recently said he wasn’t comfortable playing four tables and would need a few more months of practice. Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond is now rumoured to be next in line, while others are speculating it will be Jay ‘Krantz’ Rosenkrantz. Both have had lots of encounters with Blom before and it will certainly draw up lots of attention to their poker training sites.