Poker Pro Tom Dwan Snaps Phil Hellmuth's Heads-Up Winning Streak At SevenDwan Defeated Hellmuth In The Second Round Of High Stakes Duel III, Netting $100,000 In The Process |
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Phil Hellmuth’s seven-match winning streak was finally snapped Wednesday night as Tom Dwan defeated the 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner in the second round of PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel III.
With the second round matchup featuring a $100,000 buy-in, Dwan scooped the entire $200,000 prize pool and is forced to play in the third round, which will double the buy-in to $200,000. Hellmuth gets first crack at a rematch if he wants it, but Hellmuth seemed reluctant to take it immediately afterward.
“I don’t know if I’m going to rematch now,” said Hellmuth following the conclusion of the match.
Hellmuth swept the first two editions of High Stakes Duel, winning three straight matches against Antonio Esfandiari in the first go-around and Daniel Negreanu in the second. He profited $350,000 from each series, netting a tidy profit of $700,000.
It was announced that he would square off against sports broadcaster Nick Wright in the first round of High Stakes Duel III. And Hellmuth once again was victorious, winning the $50,000 buy-in round. Wright declined the rematch, which opened the door for Dwan to step into fray for the second round.
With the loss against Dwan, Hellmuth ends up a net loser of $50,000 for the third series, but is still up $650,000 over the course of his eight matches.
Wednesday night was a rematch of the infamous first round battle of the 2008 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Dwan, who at the time was building quite a reputation for himself beating the biggest games online playing under the screen name ‘Durrrr,’ was matched up with the most successful player in WSOP history.
Dwan ended up victorious after the two got all in preflop with Dwan’s pocket 10s up against Hellmuth’s pocket aces. Dwan spiked a 10 on the flop to win the match, sending Hellmuth into one of the more memorable rants of his career.
“You’re the sucker. You just put 20,000 in with two 10s,” said Hellmuth in 2008. “We’ll see if you’re even around in five years.”
Wednesday’s match held a similar fate for the 2007 Poker Hall of Fame inductee. It was the first televised match between the two since 2008.
“We’ve played some since, but it’s probably been two years or something since we played a few days ago,” said Dwan in the pre-match interview, referencing a high-stakes cash game he and Hellmuth played with YouTuber Mr. Beast.
Dwan went on to say that he and Hellmuth have gotten along much better since their first match 13 years ago.
“When we went on that USO tour, that’s when I think I got to know Phil,” said Dwan. “Because he was the same person with no cameras on with the troops. I remember him getting sucked out on or something in a tournament that was effectively a charity tournament for the troops. One of the troops sucked out on Phil and he got so upset.”
Unfortunately for the Wisconsin native, the second matchup went eerily similar to the first with Dwan cracking Hellmuth’s aces for all the chips.
Hellmuth got out to a quick start, chipping up to 125,000 from the 100,000-chip starting stack. But over the course of the six-hour match, it was mostly down hill from there.
Dwan took the chip lead when he flopped top two pair against Hellmuth’s combo draw on a Q
10
5 flop. Hellmuth bet with K9 and called Dwan’s raise. He bricked his draws, however, and ended up check-calling the turn bet and check-folding the river.
Hellmuth fell into a deeper hole when he tried to bluff with ace-high on a 998J
board, but Dwan moved all in with 107
. Hellmuth was forced to fold and was facing a 3-to-1 chip disadvantage.
Dwan grinded him down even further until he was left with just 20,000 of the 200,000 chips in play. With blinds of 2,000-4,000, Hellmuth limped in on the button with AA and Dwan checked his option with 93.
On a flop of 532, Dwan led out for 5,000 and Hellmuth shoved for his last 16,000. Dwan called and needed help but got it when the 9 came on the turn. The 6 river didn’t improve Hellmuth and secured the match for Dwan.
Hellmuth has another few days to make a concrete decision on whether he wants to play Dwan for a $200,000 buy-in. If he declines the rematch, Dwan is required to play someone else in the third round.
Photos courtesy of PokerGO
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