You could say that Isildur1(pictured) isn’t exactly a fan of the spotlight. After all, the Swedish poker phenomenon chose to conceal his identity from adoring railbirds for months, even as he created a sensation at the nosebleed tables on Full Tilt. But, after accepting a sponsorship deal at the site where he had already won and lost millions, the enigmatic pro eventually revealed himself to be Viktor Blom, a 23-year-old grinder with a fearless attitude at the poker table.

Recently, the normally media-shy Blom took to Twitter to answer questions from the poker community and gave us a rare peek inside the mind of one of the game’s most talented players. Blom kept his answers short and to the point, but even with Twitter’s 140-character limit, we can piece together how the Swedish pro got his start, built his bankroll, and how he views his high-stakes opponents.

Responding to one user’s question on how he was first introduced to online poker, he said, “a friend of my brother told me about it and I decided to give it a try.” He obviously had a gift for the game and explained that instead of being financed to play in big games, “I just ran up my bankroll myself.”

Astonishingly, it didn’t seem to take very long, as the 23-year-old revealed that he ran his bankroll up to $100,000 in “8-9 months since first time I played.” Even more incredibly, he wrote that at one point, starting at low-stakes No Limit Heads-Up games, he took $2,000 and “spun it up to a little over $2m in three weeks.”

But apparently, even for a player of Blom’s caliber, learning poker wasn’t always a walk in the park. He told user @justinrklein that he started out playing $6 Six-Max Turbo SNGs and $6 to $11 MTTs and admitted that “.25/.50 cash was tough for me then.” But, he proved a quick study and said, “When I played low-stakes SNGs, I learned quickly how much aggression was worth in a game. High blinds meant I could shove every hand and others never seemed to get that back then. One Russian guy was more aggressive than me and he was the biggest winner at the time.”

So what poker players does Isildur1 hold in the highest regard? At No Limit, he credits Saniker as being the best “for the moment,” and at PLO “it’s Galfondfor sure.” But, for Brian Hastings, the high-stakes pro who took millions of dollars off Blom by allegedly sharing strategies, hand histories, and statistics with Isildur1’s other opponents, he didn’t have such kind words.

When asked how long it took to build his bankroll back from those devastating matches, he said, “I feel like I’ve never fully recovered from that. I learned that I don’t like Brian Hastings that much.” Hastings is pictured.

Blom, for his part, claimed to not use any poker software at all, unlike the majority of pros at his level. He said that he “tried it once, but didn’t like it.”

What does he do after a huge win or loss? “Nothing special,” he said. According to Blom, the only thing on his mind after playing a big session is “whether or not I played well.”

So what advice does the poker phenomenon give to aspiring poker players? “Start playing small SNGs and big field, very low-stakes tourneys, and be aggressive, but be smart about it.”

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