Doug Polk has issued a challenge to Phil Hellmuth to play a high-stakes heads-up match, resisting the lure of retirement once again. The 33-year-old American had retreated from the game following his victory again Daniel Negreanu, but looks to have found the motivation to fight one more battle.
Doug Polk Resists Retirement to Battle Phil Hellmuth
Hey @phil_hellmuth
25k hands 200/400 HUNL 2 tables 100 bb
I’ll put up a free 1 million dollars if you win.
My $1,000,000 to your $0
Come get some
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) May 7, 2021
The framework of the match would be the same as played against Negreanu—stakes of $200/$400 over 25,000 hands on two tables.
To make his challenge stand out, Doug Polk offered to throw in a $1 million sweetener for his rival if he can beat him. This is purely a one way side bet with Phil Hellmuth not required to pay anything if he was to lose.
We can assume from this grand offer that Polk doesn’t think Hellmuth stands any chance whatsoever of beating him. The waving of the one million dollars in the air is just to attract his attention, and nothing more.
Phil Hellmuth in Great Form
Phil Hellmuth is currently enjoying a sweet run of form. The Poker Brat is on a hot streak after beating Daniel Negreanu for the second time in a row at High Stakes Duel II, on the back of beating Antonio Esfandiari 3-0 under the same conditions.
Maybe this is why Doug Polk is going the extra mile to try and entice Hellmuth into accepting these terms. Because, let’s face it, the deep stack cash game format is as far away as you can get from the short stack sit & go seen in the High Stakes Duel.
Daniel Negreanu got a rude awakening earlier in the year, and, as much as he improved over the match, he was still some way away from being on Doug Polk’s level, even after he’d been retired for so long.
Will Phil Hellmuth Accept?
Do we think that Phil Hellmuth will accept these conditions from Doug Polk? The answer has to be it’s unlikely, even if still possible.
Hellmuth’s skills are based around sitting in front of his opponent and making extremely exploitative plays. This isn’t going to cut it: splitting his attention between two tables and being forced to learn pure game theory optimal plays just to survive against a true world-class opponent at this exact format is a losing proposition.
So far there hasn’t been any engagement between the pair on the Twitter thread except some cryptic messages in the form of song lyrics.
Polk said:
“Here I go again on my own goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known,”
“I’ve made up my mind, I ain’t wasting no more time”
To which Hellmuth replied:
“Like a drifter I was born to walk alone. An’ I’ve made up my mind, I ain’t wasting no more time,”
Is Phil Hellmuth determined not to waste any time on challenges such as this? We hope that’s not the case and that Polk can reel him in to get a match going.
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