Polk Crushes Negreanu in First Online Session

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu locked horns in the first online session of their heads-up challenge and Polk crushed. A deadly combination of playing well and running hot saw Polk beat Negreanu out of $218,292.

The long-time feuding superstars played 200 live hands last week. This relatively short session took place at the Poker Central studio in Las Vegas. Negreanu drew first blood, finishing that session $117,000 to the good. The six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner specializes in live poker so his victory was hardly surprising.

Online poker is Polk’s domain, however, so fans of both men were fixated on the first online session. Polk is one of the best heads-up no-limit hold’em players to have ever played the game. Combining that fact with running hotter than the sun is a deadly combination. There was only ever going to be one winner in this scenario.

First Online Session of Many Goes Polk’s Way

At least 25,000 hands are scheduled between the two superstars. Blinds are $200/$400 and each player sits down with a $40,000 stack. Other rules include always topping up their stacks to 100 big blinds.

Polk and Negreanu’s first online session took place at WSOP.com with both players situated in Nevada. They sat down at two $200/$400 tables and logged 424 hands in almost exactly two hours. That is all it took for Polk to emerge as a $218,292 victor.

Negreanu isn’t known for his online poker prowess and it showed. The Canadian made some less-than-optimal plays as he got a feel for Polk’s online game. Losing such a massive sum wasn’t Negreanu’s fault, he ran badly in a couple of key spots.

Polk Runs Hot in Key Hands

One hand saw Negreanu make a set of nines on an 8-9-10 flop. It’s safe to assume Negreanu expected to win a big pot in this first online session. A set is a powerful hand even on this board. Polk, however, had other ideas because he held J-7 and flopped a straight. Negreanu handed over a $40,000 stack instead of winning a substantial pot.

Another big pot saw Negreanu get his chips in with a flush draw against Polk’s two pair. Negreanu didn’t hit any of his outs and a large pot slid Polk’s way.

Two pair was no good for Negreanu later in the session because Polk hit running cards for a larger two pair. The first online session was rapidly becoming a nightmare for Negreanu.

He did manage to get away from a full house against Polk’s larger full house, however.

Polk Winning $17,000 Per Hour

The two poker Goliaths have logged 624 hands in total and battled for six hours. Polk’s $101,792 lead equates to $16,965 per hour, which is great work if you can get it.

Polk took to Twitter shortly after the first online session concluded.

“Felt good today. Obviously ran hot in some important spots. Much happier to be back on the online felt.”

Polk added: “I won 200k but I still feel bad because I made more misclicks in my session than a man 2 tabling in a recliner”

Negreanu responded to that last tweet by claiming he made four misclicks during the session. He was poking fun at the four massive pots he lost to Polk.

The pair have taken the weekend off from the grind, but play resumes at 14:30 PT on November 9. Negreanu has plenty of work ahead but Polk can’t run as hot as he did on the first online session.

PokerShares, a poker-related betting company founded by Mike “Timex” McDonald, widened Negreanu’s odds. He is now 7.00 (+600) to win the match, longer than the 5.85 (+485) before the firs online session. Polk’s odds shortened from 1.15 (-666) to 1.11 (-909).

Who do you think will win overall?

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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