If the “Hellmuth Wins” headline sounds familiar, that is because we’ve written in so many times with regard to High Stakes Duel. Phil Hellmuth remains undefeated and just finished taking down Daniel Negreanu in the second iteration of the HSD series.
The first High Stakes Duel pitted Hellmuth against Antonio Esfandiari. Hellmuth fairly handily won all three matches against Esfandiari, putting to bed a long-standing war of words between the two poker pros.
When Hellmuth declared that he was ready for another competitor, Negreanu stepped up to the plate. He had just lost a $1.2M heads-up match against Doug Polk but felt that he learned a lot through the experience. Filled with new strategies and skills, Negreanu accepted Hellmuth’s challenge.
Shoulders on the Mat for One, Two…
The first round of play between Hellmuth and Negreanu started with some big Twitter talk in February and resulted in play on March 31. Each player put $50K on the table and played a back-and-forth match. Negreanu started strong, but Hellmuth played a long game, eventually evening the stacks and then taking the lead.
After 327 hands, Hellmuth won $100K. And Negreanu immediately guaranteed a rematch.
On May 5, the two poker heavyweights met at the PokerGO Studio again, this time with $100K from each player in the pot. Round 2 started with Hellmuth in control, but Negreanu took the lead and forced Hellmuth to play cautiously again. Hellmuth finally mounted a comeback after more than four hours. That lead took Hellmuth on to victory…again. It only took 234 hands.
Negreanu was quick to indicate his readiness to go at it again.
And the Final Count of Three
On June 23, Hellmuth and Negreanu met at the PokerGO Studio on the Las Vegas Strip again. They each showed up with $200K and a dream.
The Hype Show prior to the match found Maria Ho and Ali Nejad both picking Negreanu to win. They figured that all of his study and experience would finally pay off. The preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQyAFpV2uXg
The two began their duel with 200K in chips each and Hellmuth advertising for his sponsors. Hellmuth took the first hand, but the proceeded with fairly small, cautious pots. Hellmuth got involved in fairly solid pot with pocket sevens, but Negreanu’s A-Q hit the flop to take the 15K pot. Negreanu controlled the game for a short while, but Hellmuth took control back within the first hour.
Another hour into it, Negreanu had the lead again, but Hellmuth moved all-in with Q-3 on a 3-3-2-5 board, and Negreanu called with two nines. That put Hellmuth up to 325K, where he stayed for quite a long time. After the four-hour mark, Negreanu pushed with two red kings, but Hellmuth called with two black kings. The flop was all diamonds, and he rivered a diamond to double back to his starting stack.
Hellmuth mounted his comeback, taking down a big pot with J-6 suited by flopping a six and rivering a jack, besting Negreanu’s K-J hand. That put Hellmuth back to a 2-to-1 lead. Negreanu took some back a while later, but he never regained the lead again. More than five hours in, an innocent-enough hand began with Hellmuth holding 10-6 of diamonds and Negreanu with 6-5 of spades. The 2-7-9 on the flop was interesting, but the 8 on the turn gave each player a straight. Negreanu bet 12K, Hellmuth made it 30K, and Negreanu moved all-in. Hellmuth quickly called, and Negreanu conceded.
Hellmuth was gracious in victory, telling Negreanu that he’s one of the all-time great players of the game. Negreanu complimented Hellmuth on his matches.
Per the rules of High Stakes Duel, the third loss prevented Negreanu from challenging Hellmuth to yet another rematch. Hellmuth had the opportunity to cash out, which he did. He claimed his second High Stakes Duel championship belt and profited $350K from the match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dVJLopLDrk
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