Gossip Column: Negreanu & Galfond Both Staring at a Significant Deficit in Their HU Challenges 

The battle of the high stakes’ pros has continued with two of the most proficient pros of the game trailing their equally adept rivals. Both the high-stakes challenges are taking place on WSOP.com.

Starting off with the Grudge Match of the century, the Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk High Stakes Feud, the GGPoker Ambassador, played well to make a comeback against Polk in session #4. However, the latter is still leading for $181,365.

Simultaneously, the battle of the poker coaches in the Galfond Challenge has the PLO legend Phil Galfond staring at a $289,500 deficit against Chance Kornuth after 23 sessions.

Grudge Match: Daniel Negreanu Trails Doug Polk By $181K After 1,372 Hands

Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu finally booked a winning day against Polk on WSOP.com. The GGPoker Ambassador had entered Day 4 of the Grudge Match trailing Doug Polk by $268,000. But a fantastic session on Negreanu’s part has reduced the loss to $181,365, as he made a profit of $87,166 in the last session.

The duo’s much-awaited Grudge Match went underway on November 4, and Negreanu was the first to draw blood. After the first 200 hands that were played live at the PokerGO studio at the Aria, Las Vegas, Negreanu had booked a lead of $116,000.

However, Polk quickly ate into Negreanu’s lead as the match moved to the online felts. The second session saw Polk decimate Negreanu as he booked a profit of $218,292 after playing 424 hands on WSOP.com.

Day 3 Recap

The third session took place on November 10 and Polk extended his lead further, taking his profit margin to $268,000 after 806 hands had been played.

Got my hand caught in the cookie jar early, but we rallied back for another strong session (+$166,239.03 over 382 hands)

This brings the total up to +$268,031.82 over 1006 hands. So far so good!

— Doug “Truck Driver” Polk (@DougPolkVids) November 10, 2020

Day 3 saw Polk get aggressive right from the get-go but ended up losing a bluff to Negreanu. From there on, things seemed to be going well for the latter, so much so that at one-point Polk was in the red for $55,000. But the three-time WSOP bracelet winner managed to bounce back, and in the last half hour of the session, Polk won a massive pot. The 382-hand session ended with Polk booking another six-figure profit of $166,239, taking his overall winnings to $268,000.

Day 4 Recap

The fourth session took place on November 11 and was an important one for Negreanu. Already down $268,000 after three sessions of play, Negreanu needed to make some headway towards the green zone, and that’s precisely what he did. Although a brutal bad beat on the last hand of the day put a bit of a dampener on an otherwise fantastic session for the Canadian pro.

Day 2 started out with Polk crushing it as usual, but quickly after that, Negreanu won a monstrous $95,000 pot with pocket kings to turn the tide in his favor. It was the first time in the entire challenge Negreanu won a big pot on a cooler.

Luck continued to favor Negreanu, and at one point, Polk was down almost $170,000 for the day with just a few hands remaining. That is when the bad beat happened. Negreanu four-bet pre-flop with pocket jacks, and both players saw a flop 6-5-2 with two hearts. Both of them moved all-in, creating a pot of $81,812. Polk revealed pocket tens with a heart, while Negreanu tabled pocket jacks. The turn was the three of hearts, and river the seven of hearts, giving Polk a runner-runner flush to scoop the final hand of the two-hour session.

Nice to book a win today of about 2 buyins. Lost that pesky JJ vs TT hand on the river or it would have been 4 buy ins, but a win is a win.

1372 hands played of 25,000 and currently down about 4.5 buy ins.

Back at it Friday 2:30pm PST.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 12, 2020

Nevertheless, Negreanu came out $87,166 in profit for the day to bring his overall deficit down to $181,365.

The next session plays out on November 13.

Galfond Challenge: Phil Galfond Down $289K to Kornuth After Session 23

Things don’t seem to be going Run It Once founder Phil Galfond’s way in his ongoing heads-up challenge against Chance Kornuth. Now that 23 sessions have been completed, Galfond is trailing Kornuth by a significant $289,500 margin.

In our previous update, at the end of session 19, Kornuth had taken a commanding lead of $277K over Galfond. Let’s do a quick recap of how the last three sessions went.

Session 20

The 20th session played out on November 10, with Kornuth maintaining his edge as he increased his profit to $276,500.

The high stakes heads-up challenges are taking the poker world by storm! @PhilGalfond and @ChancesCards jump back into the ring tonight. Chance has had the edge lately, but we aren’t doubting Phil’s comeback abilities! #GalfondChallenge pic.twitter.com/aNGXQYbDUN

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) November 10, 2020

Catch the highlights of the session here.

Session 21

The 21st session saw Galfond fight back a bit to reduce the loss to $240,500.

Last night, @PhilGalfond continued to claw away at @ChancesCards overall lead by booking a $36,000 win. It’s still an upward battle, but we are believers! #GalfondChallenge pic.twitter.com/UcHaOHpAMj

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) November 11, 2020

After the session, Kornuth tweeted.

Lost 37k today. Played some fun hands tho ?. @PhilGalfond and I will be playing the next 4 days!

— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) November 11, 2020

Catch the highlights of the session below.

Session 23

Needless to say, the 23rd session was not a good one for Galfond. Just when it looked like Galfond was starting to claw his way back in the challenge, Kornuth added another $49,000 to his commanding lead.

With 11,800 hands now completed, Kornuth is firmly in the driver’s seat with a profit of $289,500.

Last night’s back and forth exchange ended with @ChancesCards adding another $49,000 to his overall lead. These two will be back at it tonight for more high-stakes swings. You can catch the action on https://t.co/VpZbQ5nUae! pic.twitter.com/9RP5FxK7uW

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) November 12, 2020

Session 24 is slated for tomorrow.