Doug Polk had to work for his money on Wednesday. He also had to withstand a furious rally by Daniel Negreanu. But after all was said and done, he ended one of the longest sessions of the challenge with yet another six-figure win.
Negreanu was coming off two straight winning sessions in which he profited over $260,000. He was looking to continue his winning ways, but couldn’t shrug off an early massive deficit.
Polk entered Day 21 of the $200/$400 heads-up No-Limit Hold’em competition on WSOP.com with a $696,000 lead. The long-time feuding poker pros had completed 11,318 hands of a 25,000-hand challenge. On Thursday, they nearly hit the midway point, and Negreanu is now down by a margin that will be difficult, but not impossible, to come back from.
Polk Ships MassivePots Early On
Two hours into the session, Polk had already generated nearly a $200,000 lead. He was dominating the match up to that point, and luck wasn’t the only contributing factor. The Upswing Poker founder, who supposedly retired from poker a couple years ago, was simply out-playing his opponent.
Negreanu found the wrong time to bluff in a few spots and made the critical error of five-bet jamming with pocket threes pre-flop against Polk’s jacks, which held up for a $101,000 pot.
Polk also made a brilliant call with nothing but a pair of sevens that he rivered on an 8-Q-2-A-7 board. Negreanu bet $19,000 into a $28,000 pot with J-10, a missed double-gutter.
Negreanu lost another $80,000 pot in which he five-bet jammed pre-flop with A-Q, running into Polk’s A-K. The GGPoker ambassador hit his queen on the flop and appeared destined to take down a huge suck out. But, the turn gave Polk the nut straight and the winning hand. The flop was merely a cruel tease for “DNegs.”
Negreanu would bounce back in a big way. After trailing by nearly $200,000 at one point, he rallied to nearly reach even stacks. He had an opportunity to gain the lead with Q-7 against J-7 on a board that included two sevens, but a river ace forced a chop instead.
Polk then took over the match again and finished with a $114,140 profit in 904 hands, the second-longest session of the challenge. The poker superstars have now completed 12,222 hands. They’re headed for a five-day break for Christmas before returning to the virtual felt on Dec. 28 at 2:30 pm PT.
