Thanks to his talent and complete lack of fear Blom has captured the poker community's imagination like few others.
In his limited experience playing live tournaments Blom has proved himself to be a versatile pro. Since his first tournament in 2010 he's racked up over $1.5 million in earnings, with the stand-out highlight being his victory in the $100,000 PCA Super High Roller last year.
Most recently Blom was in Ireland, playing at the Full Tilt Poker Galway festival of poker as part of FTP's elite pro team “The Professionals”.
Blom doesn't do live interviews so we submitted our top questions via email:
PokerListings.com: What motivates you to compete in live tournaments since you can win first-place money in a day or two of high-stakes online?
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Viktor Blom: If you get deep it’s very exciting in any live event. No one believes me for some reason, but whether I'm playing low-stakes or nosebleed, I try hard to win.
With tournaments, I enjoy the challenge and proving I can be good at different styles of poker, not just cash games.
I learn from players in tournaments every time I play online or live.
PL: What kind of new strategy trends are defining the high-stakes games now?
VB: I have no idea, everyone just seems a lot better now with all the new tools and stuff.
If I did though, I wouldn’t say them here for obvious reasons.
PL: How differently do you think about money compared to a regular person? What does it feel like to win or lose huge amounts in a day on your computer?
VB: I guess quite differently, I’ve kind of become used to it over the years.
My mood doesn’t switch too much if I been having a good/bad day, most of the time anyways.
PL: Is there something similar in how it feels to win big money or lose big money?
VB: It’s like any game, either poker or tennis etc. It’s always going to feel better being ahead then down and behind.
PL: Are Swedish tax laws unfair towards poker pros? How do they impact you?
VB: I have no idea, I live in London and I'm enjoying it here so it doesn’t impact me really.
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