Grudge Match On!
So, will it happen? Will the Doug Polk versus Daniel Negreanu grudge match, heads-up poker challenge take place? Well, it seems so. The website PokerGo’s executive producer Mori Eskandani has been talking up the event. This $200/$400 high stakes game will be in the form of 25,000 hands of poker over many weeks. The first 200 hands will be streamed live on PokerGo website (and their Youtube channel PokerGo is subscription-based). It will move from live play at the PokerGo Studio in the Aria Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, to online at WSOP.com, with the pair heads-up 3 or 4 times a week.
The two players have not seen eye-to-eye since 2016 at least. It all began when PokerStars announced that it was increasing game rake and Negreanu being an Ambassador for the brand, came out in support of the move. Negreanu claimed that a higher rake would remove the poker sharks and give the recreational player a better chance. However, Doug Polk disagreed and made it known on his podcast. In fact, on the first day of the Super High Roller Bowl event, Negreanu and Polk were seated next to each other. The seat draw could not have worked out better for Polk. After 27 minutes Polk took off his shirt to reveal a t-shirt underneath emblazoned with the words “More Rake is Better”.
Daniel Negreanu, nickname ‘Kid Poker’ has won six WSOP bracelets and two WPT Championship titles. Doug Polk has three WSOP titles. It is fair to say that Polk was in the past, considered the best heads-up player in the world. So, does Doug still have what it takes? Will this be a well-mannered event? I shall keep you posted.
Watching, 130+ hands of 200 in and it all seems pretty nice and chatty, no real digs. Enjoying it actually. Daniel is really playing it safe, or so I thought, when this hand came up. There has not been an ‘all-in’, until this hand…….Wow, what a bluff, I took Daniel at 4-1 odds, so am pretty happy after this hand.
So, with just 20 hands left in the online session, Doug and Daniel discussed the point that as the play is pretty fast, they could probably play more than the 200 hands originally agreed. My gut says that if Daniel is on front by the 200th hand, he may want to take this as a first game win. Let’s see…
My gut may be right, 15 hands to go….
I think Daniel needs to let it go, take the win, look at this pot!
Polk is rattled.
