After several high profile high stakes poker players took on Viktor "Isildur1" Blom in the Superstar Showdown, the fourth edition will feature play against an online qualifier. His online username is DodgyFish72 and he is from Hungary. He managed to qualify by winning an $11 online satellite followed by winning a 140 players heads-up tournament.Blom now sits with a 3-1 record after having defeated Eugene Katchalov, Dan "jungleman12" Cates, and Tony G. while losing his first match to Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton. Blom is up over $150k in profits in his four matches.
Is DodgyFish72 up to this challenge? A quick glance at DodgyFish72’s results on pokertableratings shows that he has played around 6,015 hands of mostly 0.50/$1 NLH and PLO and is currently in the red -$1,490. In addition, Sharkscope reveals his average SnG buy-in is around $8.
For this fourth edition, the stakes have been reduced to 1/10th of the usual stakes at $5/$10, with each player having a starting stack of $15,000. PokerStars is staking DodgyFish72. He gets to keep any money he has left at the end of the match, as well as a $10k knockout reward if he manages to bust Isildur1.
The match will take place this Sunday on PokerStars at 3pm ET.
Zimba analysis:
I find it quite odd that they are allowing an online qualifier play at reduced stakes. Have they run out already of visible high stakes pros willing to play Isildur1? Are fans really going to watch this match against an unknown with no proven track record of playing this high?
What purpose does it serve? If they are trying to demonstrate that skill defeats luck, as is the case in a current Swedish court case, then have at it, but otherwise I think this is a sad version of the promising Superstar Showdown challenge.
I find it quite odd that they are allowing an online qualifier play at reduced stakes. Have they run out already of visible high stakes pros willing to play Isildur1? Are fans really going to watch this match against an unknown with no proven track record of playing this high?
What purpose does it serve? If they are trying to demonstrate that skill defeats luck, as is the case in a current Swedish court case, then have at it, but otherwise I think this is a sad version of the promising Superstar Showdown challenge.
