The fifth installment of High Stakes Duel is in the books, and Jared Bleznick won three straight matches against Patrik Antonius in Las Vegas to win $700,000 in heads-up battles featuring both NLH and PLO. Bleznick won Round 1 for $100,000, and won again in Round 2 for $200,000 stakes, and completed a sweep in Round 3 worth $400,000. Antonious declined a rematch, so Bleznick was declared the ultimate winner of High Stakes Duel 5.
It's been a wild couple of weeks at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas with American Jared Bleznick taking on Finnish pro Patrik Antonius. The two took part in the latest High Stakes Duel series for HSD 5. The previous HSD battles were exclusively no-limit hold'em but the two PLO enthusiasts agreed to play both PLO and HLE in the latest installment
Round 1 had a buy-in of $50,000, and Bleznick walked away with $100,000 after defeating Antonious. In Round 2, the stakes were doubled for $100,000 each and Bleznick defeated Antonius in another quick bout to win $200,000. The stakes were bumped up to $200,000 buy-ins in Round 3. Antonious and Bleznick went back and forth for over five hours before Bleznick felted Antonius to ship $400,000 for the victory.
In Round 3, the final hand occurred during hold'em. Antonius bombed it all-in for 123K with 
and Bleznick mumbled that he thought Antonius probably had King-Nine so he called with called with 
. Bleznick was close... Antonius tabled the King-Four suited and the two were ready to joust with Bleznick ahead in a 60/40 spot. Antonius decided to just run it once in a pot worth 246K.
The flop was 
. Antonius took the lead with a pair of fours, but Bleznick flopped a gutshot Wheel draw.
"I deserve a three!" declared Bleznick, who cajoled the poker gods to fill in his gutshot.
The turn was the 
and Bleznick seized the lead with the five-high straight. The meaningless 9c fell on the river, and Bleznick dragged the pot. Antonius went busto for a third time, and he tossed in the white flag. There would not be a rematch after Antonious decline. Bleznick won Round 3 and snatched up $400,000. His total winnings in HSD 5 was $700,000 and he had a profit of $350,000.
Bleznick now reached $8 million in career earnings. He had a good summer with 11 cashes at the 2024 WSOP and won his first bracelet in the $50K High Roller for a score worth $2 million. He survived a final table that included Erik Seidel, Isai Scheinberg, Jesse Lonis, Nacho Barbero, and Christoph Vogelsang.
Last year, Bleznick won a $100K Super High Roller Bowl PLO event fr almost $1.3 million. At the 2022 WSOP, he took fifth place at the$50K PLO High Roller. The year before he final tabled another WSOP$50K PLO High Roller.
His first memorable performance was advancing to the final two tables of the 2016 WSOP Main Event, but had some notable deep runs at the Rio with a runner-up finish at the $10K PLO at the 2013 WSOP and a fourth-place finish in the $10K HORSE at the 2015 WSOP.
Antonius was on a nice heater entering High Stakes Duel 5. He most recently cashed in three events at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Monte Carlo. He took down the $200K buy-in Special Triton Invitational for $5.13 million, which marked the largest single cash of his Hall of Fame career.
So far this year, he cashed in 19 major events and counting and for over $12 million. He had over $17 million in career earnings according to Hendon Mob before 2024 began, so this was clearly the most successful tournament run in his career as he approaches $30 million in career winnings.
After some down time in the mid-2010s, Antonius returned to the felt in 2018 with over $5 million in winnings by playing mostly high roller events in Europe. He eased off the pedal for a couple of years and began ramping up again in 2022. He won $3.4 million in 2023, but he embarked on a sensational 2024 which began with a four cashes at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, South Korea including $1.7 million score in the $100K Main Event. He banked $2.1 million by winning the EPT Super High Roller in Monte Carlo in April. In May, he cashed in eight events at the Triton Montenegro. At the end of the summer, he final tabled a trio of High Rollers at the EPT Barcelona in August.
