Gossip Column: Kornuth Takes Commanding Lead in Galfond Challenge, Hellmuth Cleans Out Esfandiari in High Stakes Duel & More

We’ve been bringing you regular updates on the Phil Galfond vs. Chance Kornuth heads-up challenge. For the majority of the high-stakes PLO match taking place on WSOP.com, Kornuth has been the underdog. He had won the 11th session for $84K but still had to catch up. The equation has changed entirely recently as the duo has played two more sessions, and Kornuth has been giving Galfond a run for his money. Kornuth went on to win both the sessions to take over a commanding $190,000 lead over Galfond, with almost a fifth, i.e., 6,850 hands of their 35,000-hand challenge, done and dusted.

Talking about high-stakes heads-up challenges, poker superstars Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari played Round 3 of their High Stakes Duel on PokerGO. Like the last two rounds, Hellmuth emerged the winner, raking in a hefty $400K. Hellmuth has decided to call it quits on his ongoing challenge against Esfandiari, so this was likely the last round in the duo’s challenge.

The week was also the harbinger of some sad news with the untimely passing of long-time poker pro Sam Grizzle. The 68-year-old poker legend suffered a massive stroke and went into a coma on October 18. After he was pronounced brain dead by doctors, Grizzle’s family decided to let him go and took him off life support.

Chance Kornuth Takes Commanding Lead in Galfond Challenge

Our previous update on the ongoing heads-up challenge between Run It Once Poker (RIOP) founder Phil Galfond and Chance Kornuth last week was after the duo had played 11 sessions. Kornuth was on a two-session winning streak – winning $79,000 in the 10th session and $84,000 in the 11th and was fast closing in on Galfond, who had taken an early lead.

Two more sessions have played out since, and Kornuth has come out on top in both of them to finally ride past the deficit and take over the lead. And what a comeback! Kornuth is now a significant $190,000 ahead of Galfond, with 6,850 hands of the 35K hand-challenge already done!

Session 12 saw the duo play 549 hands, and Kornuth came out ahead for $150,000. This was his first six-figure winning session in the challenge and one that not only saw him catch up to Galfond but also ride past him with a $33,000 profit.

RIOP tweeted updates of the match

Another tough session for our hero last night, as @ChancesCards, booked his first six-figure winning session, catapulting him into the overall lead. Will @PhilGalfond bounce back tonight? ? Find out on https://t.co/DfHdKTsDfk starting at 17:30 UTC. #GalfondChallenge pic.twitter.com/hErjG3rJGP

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) October 21, 2020

You can watch the Day 12 action replay below.

Session 13 took place on October 22, and Kornuth was in no mood to give up on his new-found form. Galfond suffered a crushing defeat over the 500 hands they played, ending his day in the red for $157,000. This gave Kornuth a whopping $190,000 lead overall!

The tables have turned quickly in this match, as @ChancesCards booked another six-figure win last night. Join @henry_kilbane and @Surfbum4life tonight for another night of massive high-stakes swings on https://t.co/mljFFKnc8Q. #GalfondChallenge pic.twitter.com/aUPpcLztvm

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) October 22, 2020

This is a significant distance for Galfond to cover. The poker pro tweeted that he was optimistic about turning things around soon.

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Hoping to turn things around before I need to start posting my thoughts!#GalfondChallenge

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) October 22, 2020

Knowing the PLO legend who has suffered even more significant setbacks in his previous heads-up matches, Galfond is more than capable of mounting a comeback. But like we said before, Kornuth is not one to be taken lightly. At this time, all that we know for sure is that the next few sessions promise to be intense.

You can watch the Day 13 action replay below.

Phil Hellmuth Clean Sweeps Antonio Esfandiari in High Stakes Duel, Wins Round 3 For $400K

Poker brat Phil Hellmuth had gathered a lot of stardust after his two heads-up matches against Antonio Esfandiari! The two have been pitted against each other at the High Stakes Duel played live at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.

Hellmuth, who had won the first two rounds in the challenge, has defeated Esfandiari in the third round as well, this time for a massive $400K!

The High Stakes Duel is the latest original series by PokerGO and entails the winner to progress through different rounds where the stakes double after every match, and the winner has the chance to back off. Esfandiari lost $100K to Hellmuth in Round 1 and $200K in Round 2. He could have withdrawn but chose to go ahead and play Round 3.

He even told Hellmuth before Round 3 took off – “You win the first two, and it’s huge. But if I win the third one, I’m actually up more money. So, at the end of the day, I really used to care about the glory. These days I care way more about the money.”

However, things clearly didn’t go as planned for Esfandiari, who lost the third straight high stakes match to Hellmuth. Hellmuth has decided to opt-out of a Round 4 match against Esfandiari but is willing to play someone else in Season 2.

Unlike the last two rounds that were available to watch for free on YouTube, you need to subscribe to PokerGo to watch the Round 3 replay.

Round 3 – Hellmuth Cleans House

Round 3 saw the duo battle amid friendly banter, and Hellmuth was dominant from the get-go. Esfandiari did spin his way back into the lead at one point, but it was short-lived; Hellmuth came out on top and took it all!

He dealt Esfandiari with the most significant blow of the match at the start of Level 5 when he won a massive pot to surge into a three-to-one advantage. All of Esfandiari’s attempts to stage a comeback were foiled by Hellmuth, who convincingly won the match.

After winning the match, Hellmuth reminisced, “The first time I beat Antonio was 2005 NBC Heads-Up Championship. That was big because I went on to win it. But he’s just a great player, and he’s beat me lots of times in lots of tournaments. I don’t really consider that I have the edge. It feels more like I’ve evened it out between us. Maybe I’m ahead a little bit.”

Will there be another round between them? Seems not since Hellmuth himself has decided not to continue his challenge against Esfandiari. He admitted – “I’m just glad it’s over because Antonio is just a great player. I’m ready to hang it up.”

Nonetheless, he’s open to someone else challenging him so that he can be part of Season 2, “I hope that somebody else challenges me for $50,000, and I’ll try to win another three-in-a-row. There are some great players out there that want a shot. I hope I can open Season 2. But we’ll see. It depends on what Mori says. But I’m ready to open Season 2 in a month, or a couple of weeks, whenever.”

Poker Pro Sam Grizzle Passes Away

The poker fraternity has lost a few gems this year. Last month, WPT Commentator and Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton lost his life to cancer. The community lost another big name this week after legendary poker player Sam Grizzle passed away after suffering a massive stroke. Grizzle’s condition deteriorated, and he fell into a coma. Looking to his status, Grizzle’s family took the tough decision to turn off life support and let the player go. He was only a few days shy of his 68th birthday.

Poker pro Mike Matusow shared the sad news of Grizzle’s passing on Twitter.

I just got a text that Sam Grizzle had a massive brain hemorrhage last night and is in critical condition at hospital here in Vegas! No matter your feelings on Sam I ask everyone to pray for him as he’s been a huge part of poker history over the years! Ty all! #pray4Sam

— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) October 19, 2020

Confirming the news, Todd Brunson said, “He had a massive stroke and brain aneurysm. He is in a coma, and they are going to pull the plug. Doctor says no hope. So sad. Shutting off life support tomorrow. Love him or hate him there’s no denying Sam Grizzle was one of the most colorful characters in the poker world. A stark contrast to many of the ‘robots’ of today’s game. We are worse off without his sometimes annoying but usually hilarious witty lines.”

Len Ashby also paid his tribute to Grizzle.

Heard Sam Grizzle passed. Playing 25 50 PLO game at Rio, pot like 1200 in all green chips, it was checked to river. Board was AK3QJ. Sam walked up to the table. I turned over 10368 and said “I got the 3!” 2 players mucked. Sam looked at me, said “And I’m on the fucking rail” RIP

— Len Ashby (@ZENofLEN) October 19, 2020

A Long Legacy

Grizzle was among the early breed of poker players who came to the tables with their wit and wisecracks. He was first noticed during the televised 2003 WSOP Main Event when after Phil Hellmuth and TJ Cloutier introduced themselves, Grizzle challenged the duo with his characteristic upfront demeanor by claiming, “In the meantime, ya’ll keep talkin…I’ ma bust all of ya.”

In fact, for a long time, Grizzle’s rivalry with Hellmuth was the stuff of gossip mills. Even though they had a massive dispute at the table and ended up agreeing to a fistfight out of the casino, Hellmuth had mad respect for Grizzle and later admitted – “Sam has always been one of the funniest guys in the poker world: huge personality!”

Hellmuth recollected the incident when Grizzle got Stu Ungar upset, emphasizing that “Sam was quite clever, and 80% of the time, he was the funniest guy in the room. He had a super dry sense of humor and went at the other players with all of his considerable full force! I appreciated the cleverness. When you played poker with Sam, you ended up doing a lot of laughing!”

His sense of humor apart, Grizzle had an accomplished scorecard with over $1.3 Million in live cashes. He had picked up his biggest lifetime score only a month ago at the WSOP Online series when he placed third in Event #10: $600 NLHE MonsterStack for $77,725. Grizzle cashed six more times at the series.

The poker fraternity has indeed lost one of its most magnetic personalities.