Dwan Next Up Heads-Up in Hellmuth High Stakes Duel

Last updated on August 6th, 2021

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Everyone knows that Phil Hellmuth is the reigning heads-up poker champion in the PokerGO High Stakes Duel series. He has the championship belt to prove it. And he’ll tell you all about it.

Hellmuth is undefeated, having started the series with three wins against Antonio Esfandiari and then another three against Daniel Negreanu. The most recent victory came in a one-off match against Fox Sports 1 broadcaster Nick Wright.

While Hellmuth enjoyed the challenge of playing a relative unknown (in poker) in Wright, he relishes the big wins over big names. A Tom Dwan match had been teased for some time, but it is now official. The battle is set for August 25.

Dwan Picks Up Where Wright Left Off

The aforementioned Hellmuth vs Wright match ended after one session. Wright put up $50K to play the first round and decided not to challenge for a second round, which would have cost $100K. For a person who doesn’t regularly play high-stakes poker, that can be a tough amount to fork over for a fun game.

Hellmuth wanted more action. He seems consistently ready to defend his High Stakes Duel title and try to extend his seven-match win streak. Tom Dwan had long been floated as a potential competitor, and it is now official. Dwan will pick up where Wright left off, putting in $100K to play the second round of HSD III.

The match will play at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Wednesday, August 25. If it is like the others – and there is no reason to believe otherwise – there will be a hype show the day before, which will preview the match.

🚨🚨 @phil_hellmuth vs @TomDwan 🚨🚨
That's it. That's the Tweet. pic.twitter.com/esoj2oQF6A
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) August 3, 2021

Hellmuth-Dwan History

The two longtime pros started a bit of a feud online, around the time of the poker boom. During that online play, Hellmuth challenged Dwan to travel to California to play heads-up live. He believed that Dwan’s online skills wouldn’t translate to live poker wins.

That preceded the duo’s match-up at the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Championship. Hellmuth had won the inaugural Heads-Up Championship in 2005 and seemed to discount Dwan’s ability to compete in that arena. Just a few hands into that match, Hellmuth started with pocket aces, and Dwan raised with tens. Hellmuth reraised, but Dwan moved all-in. Hellmuth confidently called, but a ten on the turn gave it to Dwan. Hellmuth began to criticize Dwan’s play, of course, to which Dwan replied that he’d play Hellmuth heads-up for any stakes at any time.

“We’ll see if you’ll even be around in five years,” Hellmuth said amidst his criticism of Dwan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-X1kJ7n9v0&list=PLf2fwpntUEKb9G2WtE_FNcpmtG8bM7l9V

The two players met again in the Poker After Dark cash game of Season 5, which filmed in Las Vegas in December 2008 but aired in May 2009. Remko Rinkema examined the episode this week on Run It Back with Remko, but the Hellmuth and Dwan didn’t tangle in any big pots.

Rinkema will examine more of the Poker After Dark action featuring Hellmuth and Dwan in next week’s episode.

The public seems to be fairly split thus far in predictions of the August 25 game, though Dwan seems to have the edge in polls.

It's official – @phil_hellmuth will battle @TomDwan on High Stakes Duel later this month on @PokerGO – so, who wins round 1?
— CardsChat (@CardsChat) August 4, 2021