I’ve written a lot about Isildur1 and his adventures in the nosebleed games online. The unknown Swede was having a roller coaster month until he ran into Brian Hastings, who took him for $4 million, ostensibly knocking him out of the biggest games.

It turns out, Hastings’ big win may have not been by the rules.

Full Tilt Pro Brian Townsend was suspended from his red pro status for one month, following allegations he shared a database of 50,000 hands with Hastings.

According to an ESPN article Hastings credits his win to Townsend, who along with Hastings is a pro at Cardrunners.

Part of the triad that took down Isildur1

From the article:
“Hastings had played Isildur1 three times previously, so he, Townsend and Cole South conglomerated their hand histories, allowing them to study the mystery man’s playing style.
“We’ve done quite a bit of studying of his habits,” Hastings reflected. “Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker. He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. In a way, I feel bad that it wasn’t Brian who got this win instead of me. Obviously I’m happy and I’ll take it, but Brian did a ton of work. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I’m very thankful to him and to Cole as well.”
The poker site’s terms and conditions say “Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play,” so the site decided to suspend Townsend, since he was the one who compiled the hand histories.

This is the second time Townsend has been suspended from the site — he lost his status for six months after it was discovered he was playing under two different names.

But the biggest issue is the teaming up on Isildur1 — and whether or not the Swede would still be around if Townsend and others had followed the rules. Just think of facing a new opponent, someone you’ve played only a few hands against, that knows all of your tendencies and has information about how often you bluff the river after checking the turn or how often you check-raise the flop with air.

I’m a little biased here, because I loved watching Isildur1 play and part of me wants to see him get his money back. But the real reason the Swede may have lost was because Hastings played him when Isildur1 was at the end of a reported 15-hour session — not taking a break to eat or nap.

I’d like to see Townsend and company suspended for a longer term — it’s hard enough facing one solid high stakes player, let alone three teaming up against you.