Daniel Negreanu lost a second session in a row and now trails Doug Polk by $268,031 after three rounds of their High Stakes Feud and grudge match. The two slugged it out at WSOP.com and played two tables of $200/$400 NL. Polk banked $166,239 over 382 hands as the challenge reached 1,006. Only 24K more hands to go at $200/$400 NL. Action resumes Wednesday.
Ship Round 3 to Doug Polk. Hey, it's still early and poker is full of swings, so the fact that Kid Poker finds himself stuck $268K is not that big of a deal, especially at $200/$400 stakes in which they begin with $40K stacks. Besides, look what happened with the Galfond Challenge earlier in the year when Phil Galfond stormed back after being stuck seven figures and still rallied for a win. Poker is a long and windy road, but this journey has just begun. Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu both know that 1,000 hands is still a small sample size and just the beginning of their 25,000-hand marathon joust that will spill into the new year.
So far, Negreanu has only secured a win during their live heads-up grudge match to settle all their beefs. The first session, or Round 1, consisted of 200 hands, which were played out at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas last Wednesday. Negreanu snagged the early lead with a $116K score after 200 hands.
Since the match shifted online at WSOP.com, Polk surged ahead. During Round 2 action last Friday, Polk banked $218K and erased the early deficit.
During Round 3, the two battled for 382 hands. Doug Polk walked away as the victor once again after he snagged a $166K profit in two hours. Negreanu now trails by $268K.
"Got my hand caught in the cookie jar early, but we rallied back for another strong session," tweeted Polk.
During Round 3, Polk got paid off with big hands. His pocket Queens held up against Negreanu's Mrs. Slick. Polk also had 
hold up against Negreanu, who whiffed on a straight draw, but backdoored a smaller full house on a board with three eights.
- Total Hands: 1006
- Current Leader: Polk +$268,031.82
- Round 3 Hands: 382
- Round 3 Results: Polk +$166,239.03
Despite the early hole by Kid Poker, Mike Matusow still wants to back Negreanu. He offered up his action via Twitter and asked for 10/1 odds on Negreanu.
"I'll take 10 to 1 on @RealKidPoker since all you trolls think he can't win after 1k hands! DM me with cash if interested!" tweeted Mike the Mouth.
Just a reminder, whomever trails at the 12,500-hand mark of the High Stakes Duel has the chance to opt out midway, or they can raise the stakes. I'd love to see some bigger action in the second half! But let's not get too carried away just yet. Still a ton of poker to be played with only 4% of the match complete.
Shaun Deeb and Ryan Fee will be commentating Round 4 of the High Stakes Duel action on Wednesday. The fourth session begins at 2:30pm PT. Head over to GGPoker.tv to catch the stream, especially a post-match interview after the conclusion of Round 4.
For a replay of the second online session at WSOP.com, which is officially Round 3, watch the video below...
