Whether you know him as “jungleman12” or “w00ki3z,” Dan Cates is the next opponent for Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in the SuperStar Showdown. The promotion, which will take place on PokerStars this Sunday at 5:30pm ET, features two of the game’s brightest stars and what will surely be an entertaining evening.
Four $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em tables on PokerStars will be used for the 2,500-hand SuperStar Showdown and the goal is to walk away with more money than your opponent. For Blom, it’s his first official online SuperStar Showdown since revealing himself as the man behind the Isildur1 moniker during the recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas. He was long thought to be the mystery Swede, but had not publicly revealed his true identity.
Blom’s first SuperStar Showdown match came back in December, when he squared off against 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event runner-up Isaac “philivey2694” Haxton. When the smoke cleared and 2,500 hands had been dealt, Haxton walked away with a profit of $41,000.
Soon after Blom’s defeat at the hands of the fellow young gun, the PokerStars Blog hinted that its newest member of Team PokerStars Pro would be back with a vengeance: “Although a few railbirds were calling for everyone to send Isildur1 a dollar ‘since he’s broke,’ rest assured, he’ll be back online in no time, just as he always is.” Two weeks later, just after the clock struck Midnight on 2010, the poker community’s wish was granted.
Blom’s second SuperStar Showdown opponent was Tony G, a sponsored pro of PartyPoker. The boisterous veteran was Blom’s rumored former backer and coaxed him into playing last year’s PartyPoker sponsored Big Game only to watch Blom pull out at the last minute. This time, however, Blom had the last laugh and profited nearly $45,000 in a mix of Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em.
Interestingly, Blom did most his damage against Tony G in 1,250 hands of Pot Limit Omaha. In fact, Isildur1 booked all but $500 in profit at the Pot Limit Omaha tables, leaving many to wonder how he’ll fare in 2,500 hands of No Limit Hold’em against Cates on Sunday.
On the TwoPlusTwo forums, posters came alive when news broke that Blom and Cates would be battling in the third PokerStars SuperStar Showdown. One poster wrote, “U Blom haters forget that Blom totally humiliated the highly esteemed Tony G in the last competition. Even with his .500 record in these things, Blom has to be the favorite since he has so much more experience with the format. I mean, how many PokerStars SuperStar Showdowns has Cates played? Oh yeah – zero.”
Another member of the online poker community forecasted how he thought Sunday’s match would play out: “Isildur1 may be up towards the beginning, but as the match progresses, I expect him to go on tilt and then for jungleman12 to steamroll him.” Cates is Tom Dwan’s second opponent in the ongoing Durrrr Challenge on Full Tilt Poker.
For you Mac poker fans out there, you can rail the action along with a host of other players on PokerStars, which offers a fully downloadable Mac client. Plus, the world’s largest online poker site happily accepts players from the United States. Sign up now.
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