First, Daniel Negreanu wanted to play Phil Hellmuth heads-up. Now, he's making a high-stakes bet that he can't compete against the world's best poker players in high-stakes tournaments.
- So, although Kornuth is one heck of a poker pro, Galfond was expected to win this challenge by a wide margin. But it certainly wasn't easy for the Run it Once poker site founder.
- Kid Poker vs Poker Brat? Daniel Negreanu challenges Phil Hellmuth to heads-up duel - Will the Poker Brat and Kid Poker have a nosebleed showdown? Daniel Negreanu issued a heads-up challenge to Phil Hellmuth after Hellmuth was highly critical of his play during his $1.2 million loss against Doug Polk.
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Negreanu tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he bet against the 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner being profitable in the $25,000 buy-in tournaments that have recently started running again at the Aria in Las Vegas. Negreanu will be laying 2:1 against Hellmuth profiting over a 50-tournament sample size.
Negreanu will be laying $400,000 against Hellmuth's $200,000. If Hellmuth finishes in the black over the course of that sample size, Negreanu will lose the bet and fork over the six-figure sum.
Bet offered and accepted:
I'm laying $400k to phil_hellmuth</a> $200k that over 50 $25k buy in <a href='https://twitter.com/AriaLV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>AriaLV tournaments that Hellmuth will end up in the red.
If he shows a $1 profit he wins the bet.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 2, 2021
The bet looks like an extension of a recently ignited feud between the two poker legends. Following Negreanu's seven-figure loss to Doug Polk in their high-stakes heads-up grudge match, Hellmuth publicly criticized the six-time bracelet winner's play in the challenge.
Hellmuth's words sparked a fiery response from Negreanu, who offered to play heads-up at any stakes in any venue for any duration. The challenge seemed to imply a cash game challenge, which Negreanu had just spent months studying, but the two agreed to play in a heads-up sit-n-go format on PokerGO's 'High Stakes Duel.'
It will be Hellmuth's second battle on the show after beating Antonio Esfandiari three straight matches for $400,000 in his first go-around.
Not only is Negreanu calling his heads-up game into question but is now openly doubting how good Hellmuth is at multi-table tournaments, a format that has netted him the career WSOP bracelet record, as well as more than $22 million in earnings.
Other high roller regulars are agreeing with Negreanu. Ali Imsirovic, a 24-year-old pro who made a meteoric rise up the ranks while netting more than $9 million in career tournament earnings, offered to wager even more if Hellmuth was willing to take more action.
If hellmuth wants more action, I'll bet as much as he wants. pic.twitter.com/nBZMXR1QSt
— Ali (@aliImsirovic) March 3, 2021
Four-time WSOP bracelet winner and 2009 WSOP main event winner Joe Cada was willing to bet that the challenge doesn't even get completed.
Can I bet this challenge doesn't get completed? Has Phil even played over 50 25k's in his lifetime?
— Joseph Cada (@JoeCada99) March 3, 2021
A few others implied that the regulars are already licking their chops at the thought of Hellmuth being a regular spot in the field.
25k regs rn pic.twitter.com/kMIXDjIGep
— Max Silver (@max_silver) March 3, 2021
Germans right now pic.twitter.com/XTQh6nAt80
— Alex Huang (@alexjhuang) March 3, 2021
Aria's Director of Poker Operations Sean McCormack said in the thread that Aria has 'a few a month on average,' when someone asked how many $25,000 buy-ins run regularly. Betfred lottery checker results. It will likely take Hellmuth most of the year to complete the challenge at that pace, but the frequency that the property runs those tournaments will increase if there is a major live tournament series this summer or fall.
When it comes to high-stakes tournaments, Hellmuth has always been somewhat of a polarizing figure.
During his heads-up match with Esfandiari, high-stakes legend Phil Galfond gave Hellmuth props, saying that it took him a long time to realize 'just how talented he is.' The tweet was met with backlash from many high-stakes pros claiming that Hellmuth was overrated.
A little more than a month ago, six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu was down nearly $1 million to high-stakes poker pro Doug Polk in their $200-$400 no-limit hold'em heads-up grudge match.
In the nearly five weeks since then, Negreanu trimmed that margin by a sizable amount. At one point, he almost cut it in half thanks to a five-session winning streak between Dec. 28 and Jan. 11.
During that timeframe, the Canadian pro and GGPoker ambassador sliced the lead to just $484,073. In the final session before the halfway mark of the match, where he declined the option to quit, Negreanu won about $40,000. Following the match, the two agreed to take a short break to celebrate the new year.
Negreanu won about $27,000 in their first match of the second half on Jan. 4. He continued the heater by winning $98,579 on Jan. 6, $27,945 on Jan. 8, and $132,648 last Monday.
'Just about a 12 [buy-in] downswing now peak to trough,' tweeted Polk after his most recent loss. 'Tough stretch but feel good about how we are playing. On the positive side, we did manage to stack him once today.'
Polk, who has three WSOP bracelets of his own, snapped Negreanu's winning streak with a six-figure win of his own in their most recent session last Wednesday. He won $119,609 over 600 hands, bringing Polk's total profit to $603,683 through 15,850 of their 25,000-hand match.
Polk held the lead for most of Wednesday's action, but Negreanu climbed out of a hole of nearly $200,000 and was nearly even for the session before Polk went on another run late in the match.
'Not over by a long shot but we stopped the bleeding and if we can get a couple more solid wins, [the match] should be hard to lose,' tweeted Polk after his win on Wednesday.
Polk may think that victory is within his reach, but some data suggests that he is running better than Negreanu. Corey Steel, a former PokerStars sponsored pro has been tracking the expected value from all the all-in pots. Crazy super bowl prop bets 2021. According to his data, Negreanu is running $243,635.95 below expectation.
3 more all-in hands for our infamous all-in EV spreadsheet that has RealKidPoker</a> down almost exactly 9 buy-ins now against <a href='https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>DougPolkVids
Now with graphs as well, so check it out! https://t.co/bYVo7DcHtwJoeingram1</a> <a href='https://twitter.com/jeffplatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>jeffplatt@DanSmithHollapic.twitter.com/giNtSL41uG
— Corey Steel (@CoreySteel_) January 14, 2021 Betvictor 1946.
Before the match started back in November, Polk and Negreanu had a history of public dislike for one another. There was plenty of social media drama between the two. But as the match has progressed, the pair of poker pros seemed to have mended any problems they once had.
Poker Pro Phil
Tuesday morning, Polk complimented Negreanu on how much his heads-up strategy has improved in just the few months they have been playing each other.
I gotta say @RealKidPoker is playing just night and day better than at the start of the challenge. I still think I have the edge but I wouldn't be surprised if its pretty low at this point. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
— Doug 'Truck Driver' Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 12, 2021
— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) January 12, 2021
Phil Ivey Poker Pro
In post-game interviews on the GGPoker YouTube channel, Negreanu has been open about the work he has put into his game. At the start of the match, Negreanu was only using two different bet sizes. After a few months of almost exclusively playing heads-up no-limit hold'em, and extensive work with his coaches, he currently uses several different sizes, making it a much tougher strategy for Polk to counter.
Polk and Negreanu will continue their match Friday afternoon. They will continue to play sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the 25,000 hands are completed.
Poker Pro Phil Crossword
