In this column we deliver you the latest and most interesting news and gossip from our favourite poker people.
Negreanu vs Hellmuth Match Details
It looks like the High Roller bet between Daniel “DNegs” Negreanu and Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth, where Hellmuth would have to come out in the black after playing 50 $25k tourneys in Vegas, is likely not going to happen. What is going to happen, however, is the heads-up duel between the two.
This heads-up duel was discussed after Hellmuth criticised Negreanu’s play against Doug Polk in their “High Stakes Feud” heads-up battle. Apparently, Phil Hellmuth had not even watched any of the played hands and all this just fuelled Daniel’s general criticism of Hellmuth’s arrogance when it comes to his poker knowledge and skillset.
I also said, in the same breath/same interview, that you are a great poker player, that I bet on you! I didn’t like how you played in one match? Yep. So you attack my legacy, my lifetime achievements, w lies? Because I criticized you in one match? Not cool. Get over it. I’m done https://t.co/YG3wM8bMEE
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) March 12, 2021
Details have now been confirmed for the $50,000 High Stakes Duel to run on 16th March at 5pm local time and will be broadcast on PokerGo.
The format of this Duel is the same as it was when Hellmuth played and won against Antonio Esfandiari a few months back. It is a sit & go and the loser has the chance to rechallenge the winner with doubled stakes.
Poker Ambassador “musical chairs”
The poker ambassador “musical chairs” continues. It seems like sponsored pros are leaving and being signed by poker sites every week
Many had been wondering where the popular streamer Hristivoje “ALLinPav” Pavlovic would re-emerge after the announcement of him leaving partypoker. Many suspected that he would be signed by GGPoker and voilá – he has been.
GGPoker also announced the signing of Mikhail “Innerpsy” Shalamov who had recently left PokerStars Team Online and Sasha Liu. The latter is the first female to be signed by the poker operator for their Team Pro and she is a specialist in Omaha.
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And while GGPoker wins a female Team Pro, 888poker loses one. After almost 3 years in service, Spanish pro Ana Marquez is leaving 888poker. And the guesswork in the poker community is starting once more: Where will she re-emerge?
Fedor Holz vs. Wiktor Malinowski Update
The “Face-off” challenge between Fedor “CownUpGuy” Holz and Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski is going into the 4th and final round this Saturday.
Wiktor had been the challenger, saying he would play anyone for any stakes. And he singled out Fedor Holz in this universal challenge, saying that he would even play him drunk.
It took a while for this to be accepted by Fedor, but once it was, the challenge went ahead pretty fast. Four sessions of $100/$200 were agreed upon, Wiktor did play the first one while drinking a bottle of wine and so far Fedor, who was considered the underdog, has finished all sessions in the black.
Wiktor is now behind with $160k with only one match remaining. And if this is not drama enough, Doug Polk started commenting on this match, saying that it was all a publicity stunt and that “there’s something weird going on behind the scenes”.
He eventually backtracked this statement, saying both players were obviously intoxicated and so made mistakes that really should not be made by two players of this caliber.
You can watch the conclusion of this challenge on Saturday, 13th March, at 17:45 GMT on the GGPoker YouTube channel.
A prop bet in court
Two old-school poker stars from the poker group “The Crew” just finished an argument over a longstanding prop bet in court. Back in 2006, Dutch Boyd and Joe Bartholdi apparently agreed on a $10,000 bet about who would win more World Series of Poker bracelets over a 10-year period.
Boyd managed to claim three bracelets during that time, while Bartholdi gained zero. It seems Bartholdi was not willing to pay up and Boyd tried to take this bet to court, having it treated as a legal agreement.
Unfortunately for Boyd, Nevada Revised Statutes require that agreements like this need to be made in writing. That wasn’t the case and so Boyd had nothing to work with other than Bartholdi’s honour.
Luckily Bartholdi possesses this as it seems as he has stated that he will pay Dutch Boyd and that he had planned to do so anyway, Dutch was just faster in suing.
Everybody has learned their lessons here, hopefully. Bartholdi to be faster in paying his debts, Boyd to have more patience and the whole poker community to get any kind of agreement, may it be a prop bet or a staking deal, in writing.
