Mysterious Player Hits High Stakes Circuit

November 18 - Who is Isildur1? This is the question on everyone's lips as the mystery player continues to make million after million playing high stakes online poker.

The player first came to the industry's attention after he answered a challenge by bad boy Tom "durrr" Dwan to enter a series of high stakes poker and left Dwan flabbergasted with a $3.1 million loss in a three day carnage.

Dwan and Isildur1 played out a series of games in hold 'em and pot limit Omaha formats with stakes ranging from $200/$400 and $500/$1000, and Isildur1 managed to win millions off an already financially crushed Dwan over a few short days.

Isildur1, who took his name from one of the characters in Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings, went on to challenge other huge name players in the industry, including Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.

Isildur1 was praised for his game strategy in his matches against Tom Dwan, in a blog entry by Galfond who said: "Not many people can handle a style like Tom's at nosebleeds with stacks that deep for so long. You have to remain on your A-game constantly or risk getting completely picked apart. Isildur has shown that he can stay on his A-game for many hours, across six tables, without much sleep. Something I don't think I could do."

Which doesn't answer the question: Who is Isildur1?

Some are speculating that the player is a young, up and coming Swede who is trying to avert taxation on his poker earnings in his native country.

Others have speculated that one of the top professionals has opened a second account and is playing anonymously, while others are accusing Isildur1 of actually being a bot.

The identity of the player is yet to be revealed, but until then, he continues to play some of the most powerful hands seen in the industry for a long time.