With just a fortnight to go until Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu get down to their heads-up match on PokerGO, there’s no chance that either man is going to go quietly into the night. Doug Polk has ramped up the aggro pre-game by going ‘all-in’ on charts, leading to a huge row on Twitter this week.
Is the smack-talk part of the hype or an annoying distraction before the actual poker takes place? We’ll let you be the judge.
Polk’s latest quarrel with Negreanu has been a bit more of the other way around, in reality. Negreanu took issue with charts or ‘cheat sheets’ being used during the game, which will be screened on PokerGO and for a portion of the action will feature hole cards.
While many players have used ‘push-fold’ pre-flop sheets in the past (or at the very least, haeve taken a look at a spreadsheet or two), the notion that a multi-million dollar player would need to use one in a heads-up battle against his bitter enemy is a slightly amusing one. It’s rather like discovering that a baddie in a Bond film has an off-colour weakness for Neapolitan ice cream – it doesn’t make sense and it’s not building character in any way.
When Polk posted his latest one-man war of words against Negreanu, he got some pretty choice feedback.
A week ago you didnt care about using preflop ranges or not , now you are completely up in arms that they are cheating.
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) October 12, 2020
You are such a little bitch, I cannot wait to clean you out. https://t.co/dDPBpdWM24
Polk seems determined to cast himself as the end boss in this heads-up game. It’s a bizarre tactic, but he’s probably looked at previous responses and realized that the ‘underdog’ tag is one he can’t wear when he’s a 5/1 on favourite to win on Poker Shares.
Negreanu wasn’t biting whatever it was on the hook.
“Now, now Dougie, stay classy.” Negreanu said, with what one can only imagine was a fairly sizeable smirk. “Match is on as long as you agree to:
1) Absolutely no charts or assistance DURING play. You can look at them before and after sessions.
2) I will agree to showing hole cards for a portion of the match live [at the] PokerGO studio.”
Cover blown, it’s on with the eye patch and ready for the fight, but Polk, who said ‘Yes’ in response, stuck around a bit to bat back a few asides from members of the poker-watching public.
“Not a good look this Doug.” Said Luke Dempsey, but Polk’s response wasn’t just dismissive, but revealed what he truly sees this heads-up match as.
“You think I care?” he responded. “This is my last hurrah. [I’ve] done everything I want to in poker. The only thing left is to take out the fucking trash.”
Strong words, and while another poker fan suggested a boxing match might be a better idea, Polk swiped: “Not happening. You think I can weight cut down to Flyweight?”
While the in-fighting may have caused controversy and hijacked headlines for the pair, Negreanu stating: “Excellent. Now let’s put on a good show” suggests that all the details really are now finalized.
With the game No Limit Hold’em and two tables of $200-$400 heads-up the stakes, Negreanu has already declared that he’s deposited a million dollars onto WSOP.com. With the 100 big-blind stacks automatically refilling should a played dip below that level, Kane Kalas will commentate on the game on the World Series of Poker’s official site.
Cleaned out? Or will Kid Poker clean up? The big kick-off is just a fortnight away.
