Gossip Column: Doug Polk Wins Grudge Match Against Daniel Negreanu; Banks $1.2 Million in Profits! 

It’s all over, folks! The Grudge Match of the century, aka the High Stakes Feud, has finally found a winner. And not surprisingly, it is the NLHE heads-up specialist Doug Polk who came out on top!

On Wednesday, we had reported that the retired poker pro was sitting on a $946,085.32 lead against GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu after a three-session winning spree. With 23,282 hands already played, Kid Poker never had a chance to bounce back. The last session of this epic HU challenge ended a couple of hours ago, with Polk emerging as the expected victory. He banked $1.20 Million in total profits across the 25,000-hand challenge that took 36 sessions to complete.

If you have been keeping tabs on the Grudge Match and the Galfond Challenge, you would have noticed that both Phil Galfond and Doug Polk had started their respective challenges on the backfoot. The lead changed hands quite frequently in both these challenges, but like Galfond, once Polk got the upper hand over Negreanu, he did not let-up till the end.

While Polk deservingly won the Grudge Match, we have to give props to Negreanu for accepting the challenge, fully aware of his disadvantage. Playing online heads-up matches is more of Polk’s specialty, but for a live tournament specialist like Negreanu to take him on with the entire poker community watching takes balls.

The Grudge Match that started in November last year saw a lot of action and controversies. But in the end, it seems to have done the trick as the two former arch-nemesis were able to work through their previous differences on the virtual felts. And to top it all, they seem to have developed a new-found respect for each other. Maybe it’s a stretch, but we’d like to believe that they’ve come out of this challenge as friends.

Let’s take a quick look at how the final session of the Grudge Match went.

Session #36

With just 1,718 hands remaining in the challenge, the duo ran through another marathon session to cross the finish line. Extending his winning streak to a fourth consecutive session, Polk closed out the last session strong with a $255,722 profit.

The final tally after the 25,000 hands had Polk ahead for a convincing $1.20 Million.

Session: +$255,722 over 1718 hands

Total: +$1,200,000 over 25000 hands

We won guys. We did it.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) February 4, 2021

Rough estimate numbers will get exact later

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) February 4, 2021

Shoutouts to all my team members.

Coaches@frabbxd @clickered777

NASA™@PrimordialAA @caleb_banister @ryanzarick

and the Upswing Convoy for the stats!

Could not have won it without you guys ️

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) February 4, 2021

pic.twitter.com/YepqodOSNA

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) February 4, 2021

Watch the highlights of the last session of the Grudge Match below.

With the 25,000 hands now in the books, here is how the Grudge Match progressed.

Rivalry Dissipated

At the very core of this much-awaited Grudge Match was the high-profile rivalry between WSOP bracelet winners Polk and Negreanu. It seems like the Grudge Match may have helped these poker pros in resolving whatever difference they may have had in the past.

We have talked hands and stuff here and there from the get go, but today we really talked about a bunch of different situations and spots from the challenge.

Some really fun stuff. 1 bluff he ran I cannot fucking believe lol.

Glad we buried the hatchet. A worthy opponent https://t.co/mELUfjBFwD

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) February 2, 2021

Polk Says No to Rematch

With the Grudge Match now over, Polk has been approached by a few poker pros and enthusiasts, such as entrepreneur Bill Perkins and Millionaire playboy Dan Bilzerian, for a similar heads-up challenge. But Polk has categorically refused, not just to a rematch against Negreanu, but all other offers.

Polk explained why he will not be taking up any more challenges in the near future in a rather longish tweet.

I am not going to play a rematch. There has been a lot of talk about this, its simply not going to happen.

Im way too burned out from all of the study/prep/play and dont enjoy the game. I also want to have some flexibility to not have to be in Nevada for the next 4-5 months.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

Make no mistake about it I still have an edge. But its much lower than it was at the start. I’m not going to run this back for even less money after winning buyins+sidebts. Not worth the stress of doing something I dont enjoy doing.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

If a scenario arose where Daniel wanted to play someone else, I would potentially be interested in heading the coaching the opposing player. There are some people I dont think it would work though (Imagine trying to explain to Hellmuth he was wrong in a hand. Good luck with that)

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

Additionally Im not going to take on other challengers. As tempting as it is to have to lay 20 million vs Dan Bilzerian or pay Bill 22 bb/100 (Great offers guys), I’m not interested in playing either of them. I dont think id play either of them at even money much less pay vig

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

Finally I have been thinking about what I am going to do with the material from this challenge. At bare minimum I am going to turn it into some content in the @UpswingPoker Lab at the conclusion of this.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

Will definitely be showing some of the more wild hands we played along the way that did not reach showdown, should be some fun times (So Lab members stay tuned!)

Have a few more things to say but will wait for the end of the challenge. Should be wrapped up in the next 1-2 weeks.

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 30, 2021

Galfond Still Looking For Opponents

While Polk may have “yet again” lost his desire to play poker, the Run It Once founder Phil Galfond, on the other hand, is on the lookout for a worthy opponent to embark on a new challenge. The three-time WSOP bracelet winner, who has won all three of his past Galfond Challenges, the latest one being against fellow poker coach Chance Kornuth, has at least three more challengers lined up, namely, Bill Perkins, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, and Luke Schwartz. However, given the shortage of choices in the US to play poker online and travel restrictions in place because of the prevailing pandemic, when these challenges will take place is uncertain.

Currently, Galfond’s choices are limited to players located in or those who can travel to Nevada or New Jersey to play him on WSOP.com, the site that hosted the Polk-Negreanu Grudge Match.

For those who missed it, I told @Joeingram1 I’d play anyone at 200/400plo if they get to NV or NJ to play me on @WSOPcom.

Admittedly, there are a couple guys I hope (& think) won’t take me up on that but I’m a man of my word so ??‍♂️

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) January 28, 2021

We can’t wait to find out who takes on mighty Galfond next!