One year ago, PokerStars confirmed that the enigma "Isildur1" would be in attendance at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. As Viktor Blom stepped out of the shadows of his dominating online alias into the forefront of the poker spotlight, online railbirds everywhere put a face to the screen name that had six- or even seven-figure swings with regularity. The debut offered a new type of member of Team PokerStars Pro. Blom's inexperience in front of the media ensured that he wouldn't be viewed in the same light as Daniel Negreanu or Jonathan Duhamel, but Stars viewed Blom as the face of the new era of online cash games. He was their Tom Dwan.

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Joe Giron/Pokerstars Viktor Blom earned $1.25 million for the Super High Roller victory.

From the very start, Blom was on the precipice of greatness, but while Isildur1 continued to bring attention to the nosebleed cash games, his live tournament game failed to match the hype. Blom's online action (and success) remained his primary focus, but as the 2012 PCA rolled around, his attendance was once again required in the Bahamas. This time, Blom put up a performance nobody will ever forget as he earned the win in the 32-entry $100,000 buy-in event for a $1.2 million pay day.

"This was more fun than winning the same amount in a cash game," said Blom after his victory. "I'm not used to making it this far in a tournament. I didn't expect it. It feels great - very different to playing online."

The field of 30 players boasted the boldest the world had to offer. Putting up $100,000 to play against the toughest competitors in the world is often not +EV, but emerge with the win, as Blom did, and people will respect your abilities forever.

"It feels so good to succeed. I really appreciate this win, and I love the Bahamas," said Blom who also stated how bad he felt he played a year ago during the same interview.

Blom knocked out 2011 PCA main event champion Galen Hall in third place (A-A over 9-9) to give him the chip lead entering heads-up play. Online, Blom is a heads-up specialist, and given the edge in experience, many expected for Blom to coast to the victory. It wasn't easy, but Blom held the lead over Dan Shak throughout the short-lived one-hour match and finished the job when his top pair held against Shak's flush draw. Shak earned $846,700 for second place, the second-best cash of his career and enough to put him in the top 200 on the all-time money list.

Hall started the eight-handed final table with the chip lead as all competitors eyed not only first place, but also fifth. While most pros don't consider the bubble of many main events to be of pivotal importance, the $100,000 price tag of entry altered some perceptions. Humberto Brenes went out at the hands of Hall before Blom, who began the final table in fourth, began his ascension to the top with his elimination of Mike McDonald. The bubble approached and vanished as Hall made Scott Seiver the bubble boy in a cooler, picking up kings against jacks six handed.

The two other players to make the money was Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel. Negreanu finished second in this event last year and was eliminated in fifth in 2012, cashing in his third $100,000 buy-in out of four attempts. He earned $250,900 for the three-day effort. Duhamel, recovering from his recent domestic assault, finished in fourth for $313,600. Duhamel was one of two players who optioned to re-enter the event on Day 1. Venture capitalist Bill Perkins was the other and he was eliminated on Day 2.

"Yeah that was a good rebuy," said Duhamel on Twitter.

The 2010 WSOP main event champion also finished fifth in the $5,000 turbo side event for $17,800 on Sunday.

The next two "Super High Roller" events will take place at the Aussie Millions in a few weeks.

PCA Main Event:

No surprise here, attendance in the 2012 PCA main event was down significantly. That said, you aren't going to find many $10,000 buy-in tournaments with more than 1,000 players anywhere this year. Hall defeated the field of 1,560 in 2011 to win the $2.3M top prize. This year, the champion will emerge with a top prize of $2 million with 1,072 competitors battling for one of the most prestigious titles around.

Nearly half of the field was eliminated during the first two starting days on Saturday and Sunday. Only 544 players remain in contention with Alexey Repik leading entering Day 2. Notables holding the bigger stacks include Chino Rheem, Arnaud Mattern, 2010 champion Harrison Gimbel, Adam Levy and Victor Ramdin. The field will come close to making the money on Monday, with 160 players earning at least $15,000. The final table will take place on Friday.

Small blinds: Randy "nanonoko" Lew set the world record for playing the most hands of poker in eight hours while remaining profitable. Lew played 23,493 hands and ended up $7.65 in profit. He was down nearly $1,200 at one point. … Noah Schwartz won the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament for $97,780. He defeated Chino Rheem heads-up for the title. … La Sengphet became the first woman to win three WSOP Circuit titles. Sengphet defeated a field of 377 in the $345 no-limit hold 'em event at the Bicycle Casino. She earned $25,242. … It was David Shallow who enjoyed the WPT's debut in Ireland most. Shallow won the WPT Ireland main event title worth $289,031. His previous top tournament cash was worth $12,398 at the 2005 EPT London main event.