Internet Poker Wall of Fame Inducts Viktor Blom, Guy Laliberte, and Taylor Caby

February 25th, 2016 | by Kaycee James

Online Poker Wall of Fame’s latest: Internet poker pioneer Taylor Caby is honored by the community as the latest IPWOF inductee. (Image: chicagonow.com)

The Internet Poker Wall of Fame (IPWOF) has just announced its latest round of inductees. Topping the bill this month is online poker pioneer Taylor Caby.

The Cardrunners poker training site CEO and Hold’em Manager analytics software managing partner’s addition to the Wall continues the trend of honoring not just players, but also industry figures who often get overlooked by the more traditional WSOP Hall of Fame.

Along with Caby, Cirque du Soleil creator Guy Laliberte and online legend Viktor Blom have also been inducted into the IPWOF.

Caby as Innovator

For those who were around back when Internet poker was booming, Caby is a name that should raise a smile. Playing under the moniker “Green Plastic” for the majority of his online career, Caby was one of the original high stakes stars.

Crushing the whale games on Ultimate Bet (having started on there with just $35) and partypoker before switching to Full Tilt, Caby was one of the top six-max and heads-up No Limit Hold’em players in the world back in the day.

However, as impressive as his earnings were online (he made well in excess of $1 million), it was his work with CardRunners that have put him into iconic status.

After watching novice players struggling to play, Caby decided to work with his friend and fellow high stakes player Andrew Wiggins to create instructional videos. With the community wanting more, CardRunners was founded in 2005, and over time, it built up a library of poker videos from the likes of Caby, Wiggins, Brian Hastings, and Brian Townsend.

That site not only turned a generation of fish into sharks, it also set the blueprint for all other online poker training sites and caused the overall skill level of the online industry to increase.

Two More High Rollers in the Mix

IPWOF creators Adam Schwartz and Terrance Chan of the TwoPlusTwo Pokercast also gave props to Guy Laliberte and Viktor Blom.

Aside from blowing a ton of money on Full Tilt, Laliberte is a poker legend, thanks to his charity work with One Drop and the WSOP, and the founder of the nearly endless performance franchise in Las Vegas and around the globe known as Cirque du Soleil.

Of course, when it comes to players that have set the online poker world on fire in recent years, few can match Viktor Blom.

Making his name on a host of European sites before joining Full Tilt under the name “Isildur1,” Blom has racked up more $1 million swings than any other player in online history.

Lest you need a prompt to recall some memorable Blom moments, there is the infamous $5-million-win month in November 2009, as well as the $4.2 million loss in a single day to Brian Hastings.

Basically, if there was a mammoth pot played between 2009 and 2010, it’s highly likely Blom was in the middle of the action, and that’s why he deserves to be inducted into the IPWOF.

The last time we reported on the IPWOF it was Isaac Haxton, Shaun Deeb, and Neteller making the grade and at the start of February the forum thread had welcomed three new names:

Vikrant Bhargava (former partypoker marketing executive), author Mason Malmuth, and high stakes Nordic hunk Patrik Antonius.

What is the Internet Poker Wall of Fame?

Unlike the WSOP Hall of Fame, the IPWOF doesn’t have any age restrictions or strict rules such as “must have played against top competition.”

Moreover, the inductees are announced on a more frequent basis with around six awards being handed out each month.

Since its inception in August 2015, the IPWOF has honored a total of 17 players and industry figures that have helped turn the online poker community into what it is today.