Retired high-stakes poker pro Doug Polk has reignited his feud with six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu by challenging him to a heads-up battle.
A couple days after Negreanu’s outburst at a viewer in a recent WSOP Twitch stream, Polk released a video trolling Negreanu’s now infamous tirade and a few of their past disagreements. The video has since been removed by YouTube.
On Monday, poker personality Joe Ingram tweeted that the duo should “settle this” by playing heads-up. Polk quote tweeted Ingram and said that if the tweet got 1,000 retweets, then he would “come back to poker” for one final heads-up match.
If this tweet gets 1k retweets I will come back to poker for a No Limit Hold'em heads up for rolls grudge match against Daniel Negreanu.
He wont do it though, cause he knows he has no chance to win. https://t.co/L8P2CkJNrH— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) July 28, 2020
The tweet got the required amount of retweets and Polk officially offered a match Tuesday afternoon. He offered to play four tables of heads-up no-limit hold’em for 25,000 hands. There would likely be a side bet on whoever won the match, as has been the case with every other similar heads-up challenge, but it was never stipulated in the original offer.
In the years leading up to and shortly after Black Friday in 2011, Polk was arguably the best heads-up player on the internet. He played the highest stakes available before stepping back from the grind and spending more time on his YouTube channel and other business ventures.
As someone that came through the ranks decade ago, Negreanu is less of a hold’em specialist and scoffed at the idea of taking on Polk in a game he spent countless years studying and mastering.
Ok so I’m clear:
You want to play the format you studied the most and I haven’t.
You want it to be played online.
And you want me to play 4 tables at the same time?
Anything else? You want me to stream it too so you can see my hole cards? https://t.co/3k1wuRwBd2— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 28, 2020
Polk then offered a middle ground where they each pick a game and the match is split between two different disciplines.
How about this, we each pick a game. Challenge is split between both formats.
I want to do this online so we can actually play some reasonable volume, but I am willing to move it down to 2 tables.
Also I have never used a solver in my life and havent studied in years. https://t.co/PAVOc6Ibmt— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) July 28, 2020
Negreanu responded to the tweet asking if he wanted the entire match played online and indicated that the virtual arena would give Polk a massive edge. The two have yet to agree to terms.
Polk and Negreanu have disliked each other for several years, dating back to Negreanu’s time as a PokerStars ambassador. When PokerStars announced that it would be making drastic changes to its VIP rewards system late in 2015, after allowing its players to spend all years accruing player points, it brought blowback from a big chunk of the online poker community.
As a high-profile sponsored pro, Negreanu defended the move made by PokerStars. A few years later, Stars announced that it would be increasing the rake structure of their cash games.
Negreanu defended that move as well. In several interviews, he made the argument that if pros are more likely to stay away from high-raked games, recreational players will perform better in those games. Despite the high rake, recreational players will lose less when the pros simply aren’t playing.
This led Polk to begin a “More Rake Is Better” campaign to troll Negreanu and a poker rivalry was born. During the 2017 WSOP $111,111 One Drop event, Polk was seated directly on Negreanu’s right and wore a t-shirt donning the phrase. He did the same thing at the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl when he was seated to Negreanu’s direct left.
Just a month after the Super High Roller Bowl troll, Polk unveiled a billboard ad he purchased just outside the Rio advertising his website MoreRakeIsBetter.com. The website is no longer functional.
During the back-and-forth on Twitter, Negreanu addressed the years of needling with a needle of his own.
I get it. He looked up to me growing up. I was his favorite player. Then he starting making some click bait videos attacking people and I didn’t think they were appropriate.
Had to hurt his feelings which turned into a multi year obsession. https://t.co/drOFZr1DQG— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 28, 2020
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