Generally one must know when to wave the white flag. Or, on this case, when to throw it in.
For Poker Corridor of Famer Patrik Antonius, that second got here after he misplaced his third consecutive heads-up no-limit maintain’em and pot-limit Omaha match towards Jared Bleznick on PokerGO’s Excessive Stakes Duel 5.
The present pitted the 2 towards one another in escalating one-on-one showdowns, with Bleznick popping out on high in every of them. He made comparatively fast work of Antonius in spherical 1, which sported a $50,000 buy-in. Spherical 2, which price $100,000 from every contender, additionally went to Bleznick after simply a few hours.
The third spherical, at $200,000 a bit, was a for much longer affair. It finally took Bleznick, a sports activities card enterprise proprietor and longtime high-stakes poker participant, over 5 hours to shut out this victory this time. Bleznick, who has a World Collection of Poker bracelet and final yr’s Tremendous Excessive Curler Bowl Pot-Restrict Omaha ring in his trophy assortment, may want more room to accommodate the hefty Excessive Stakes Duel champions belt.
Whereas Antonius is out $350,000 after his losses, the 43-year-old Finnish poker legend will doubtless have the ability to take consolation in the truth that he’s having certainly one of his finest yr’s ever on the dwell event circuit. He has cashed for greater than $12.1 million to this point in 2024 throughout 19 in-the-money finishes, together with taking down the latest Triton Monte Carlo $200,000 invitational for a career-best $5,130,000 payday. The previous tennis professional and mannequin now has greater than $29.2 million in lifetime cashes to his identify.
Spherical 3 Motion
The gamers took a seat with $200,000 in chips every, with preliminary blinds of $300-$600 for a gap spherical of PLO. The sport switched each ten arms between PLO and NLH. After gradual begins within the first two rounds, Antonius managed to hop out to a fast lead this time round. On the finish of the primary hour, Bleznick (listed as ‘The Backer’ on the outlet card graphics through the match) managed to even the enjoying discipline when his pocket fives rivered a full home to finest the turned aces up of Antonius.
Hour two additionally concluded with a bigger pot, with Antonius turning the nut flush towards Bleznick’s smaller flush (with straight flush redraw) and a set of fives. The river paired the board to present Bleznick fives full and the pot. His small river guess of $6,000 right into a pot of $24,400 was referred to as by Antonius to present Bleznick roughly an 11:9 benefit heading into the third hour of motion.
Not lengthy after that, the 2 squared off in a large no-limit maintain’em conflict. With blinds of $800-$1,600, Antonius raised to $4,000 from the button with A
6 and Bleznick referred to as with Q8
from the massive blind. The flop got here down Ok109 and Bleznick led out for $3,000. Antonius referred to as and the flip introduced the A to present Antonius high pair to go together with his nut flush draw. Bleznick checked and Antonius guess $10,000. Bleznick check-raised to $28,000 and Antonius referred to as. The river introduced the 5 to present Antonius the nuts with $70,000 already within the center. Bleznick mulled over his choices earlier than deciding to fireside a large bluff of $58,000. Antonius moved all-in for $125,000 and Bleznick rapidly folded to present the Finn roughly a 5:3 chip lead.
Flush-over-flush in PLO noticed Bleznick edge again in entrance, along with his nut flush topping Antonius’ second-nuts. Bleznick then prolonged his benefit due to a wheel besting Antonius’ set of fives. Each platers had flush redraws, however these ended up not coming in on the river. Bleznick’s five-high straight was the nuts on the top. He guess the pot for $107,000. Antonius went into the tank earlier than making the right laydown, preserving his remaining $117,500 whereas Bleznick’s stack soared to $282,500.
Antonius briefly evened issues up with a set of deuces towards high two for Bleznick, who was in a position to ultimately get away on the flip. Quickly after, his stack started to slip. After a failed bluff try into jacks full for Bleznick, Antonius was left with fewer than 25 massive blinds.
The ultimate hour of play was motion packed, with a number of dramatic all-ins. Antonius’s stack was all however dedicated with OkJ109 towards Bleznick’s AA
J2. Antonius flopped jacks up and an open-ended straight draw on J98 and the final $8,000 went into the pot. Bleznick opted to make use of his one ‘run it twice’ choice. He was behind in the meanwhile, however had the nut flush draw and several other different methods to win the pot. Within the first runout the three
and 5 stored Antonius forward. The second time round noticed the ten flip full Bleznick’s diamond draw to present him the lead, however Antonius made three pair to present him a number of outs to a full home. The river was the Q, although, and the 2 chopped the pot.
Antonius was all the way down to $65,000 when the following massive all-in arose. He bought all-in from the button with A7 and was in bother towards OkOk for Bleznick. Antonius had only a 29 % probability of profitable the pot preflop. The JJ5 flop left him with a 16 % shot at doubling. It got here in with the A on the flip. Bleznick was down to 2 outs heading into the river to finish the match there, however the 8 rolled off as an alternative.
O U C H
Spherical 3 of Excessive Stakes Duel 5 is LIVE now!
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In spite of everything of this, the 2 had been basically again to beginning stacks early within the fifth hour of motion. Bleznick then received a wholesome pot with center pair towards a flop bluff from Antonius in NLH to leap again out to a lead forward of the ultimate hand of the event. With $4,000-$8,000 blinds, Antonius appeared down at Ok4 on the button and open-shoved for $123,000. Bleznick picked up A5 and requested for a depend. He made the decision and noticed that he was forward. Antonius requested Bleznick if he would like to run it a few times, as Antonius nonetheless had his one choice to run it twice in his pocket.
“I’m going to let you know, win or lose, okay, I’m going to let you know this proper now, I’m being sincere… win or lose, I utterly outplayed you. You may choose, I don’t care,” stated Bleznick.
Antonius opted for one time and the 2 shook arms. The board got here down 742 and Antonius jumped forward.
“Because of this I don’t play poker anymore,” lamented Bleznick. “Give me a 3, I deserve a 3.”
The three rolled off on the flip. “Thanks,” stated Bleznick, who had his opponent drawing useless.
Antonius started to depart the studio, earlier than returning to seize and toss within the white flag.
Bleznick sat along with his arms on his head for a second earlier than commenting to any individual off display screen that, “I performed so good…. Wait til you see the movie, I bluffed him so many instances.”
With this win, Bleznick grew to become the second participant to win Excessive Stakes Duel in a sweep, following within the footsteps of 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who went 3-0 towards Antonio Esfandiari on this present’s debut after which did the identical within the subsequent spherical towards Daniel Negreanu.
Picture credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.
