Viktor Blom’s “SuperStar Showdown” challenge had been on an eight week break but the enigmatic Swede returned to action on Sunday night to take on Rui “PepperoniF” Cao in the tenth instalment of his cash game challenge.
Cao, born in China but now resides in Paris, France is one of the best Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) players on the planet who has a playing style similar to Blom, that is hyper-aggressive. Cao had enquired about playing Blom in the SuperStar Showdown as long ago as December 2010 but for one reason or another the two never got around to locking horns with each other. However, that changed on Sunday night with dramatic consequences.
It was rumoured that Cao would only play if they pair could play all of their 2,500 hands over four table of Pot Limit Omaha but when the challenge kicked off the two high-stakes cash specialists sat at two tables of No Limit Hold’em and two Pot Limit Omaha, each with blinds of $50/$100 and both players set aside $150,000 for the purpose of the challenge. The fact that Cao wanted to play solely PLO is quite ironic as he literally got owned at this format either by Blom outplaying him or by the deck being cruel.
Within 60 seconds of the challenge starting there was an all in at one of the PLO tables and it was Blom who saw the $20,000 pot slide towards his stack. Blom raised to $300 preflop, Cao made it $900 to play and Blom called. The flop came down Jd-9d-4s and after a brief raising war the players were all in, Coa turning over Kh-Qh-9c-4c for two-pair and a gutshot straight draw but was behind to Blom’s Jc-7d-6c-4d for a better two pair and flush draw. The Ks on the turn improved Cao to the best hand but the 8d on the river filled Blom’s flush and he scooped the first major pot of the session.
Cao could do nothing right and by the time the duo had played out just 1,300 hands he found himself down by more than $123,000! He did stage a mini comeback but Blom was just too much for him to handle and on the 2,257th hand of the allotted 2,500 and with Cao only able to afford to sit on one table of PLO, the final hand took place. Cao opened with a raise to $300 and then called as Blom made it $900 to play. The 7s-5d-2d flop was greeted with a $1,300 bet from Blom and a call from Cao. Blom did not slow down on the turn as the Jh made an appearance, instead he bet $2,850 and quickly called when Cao raised all in, $11,988 in case you were interested. Cao turned over KcJh8s7h for two pair but Blom held 9s9c5h5s for a set of fives. The 9h on the river unnecessarily improved Blom to a higher set and after a simple “gg” in the chat box from both players the tables were closed and Blom was the victor.
This latest high profile win for Blom means he has now won eight out of the 10 SuperStar Challenges and has profits exceeding half a million dollars. The only players to beat him so far are Isaac Haxton and Daniel Negreanu, although the latter was also the first player to lose his entire $150,000 bankroll to Blom in the first of two matches. Nobody knows who will be the next player to step up to the plate but whoever it is, is going to have their work cut out when they sit down with Swedish Team PokerStars Pro.
