Phil Hellmuth doesn’t think the younger GTO-minded pros are all that great compared to him, and Daniel Negreanu is fed up with the disrespect. The two poker superstars will soon face each other heads-up on PokerGo’s show, High Stakes Duel. And it appears there is some bad blood boiling between the competitors leading up to the match.

Daniel Negreanu would like to teach a Masterclass in heads-up poker to Phil Hellmuth. (Image: masterclass.com)

The Poker Hall of Famers have a lengthy relationship, one that has been mostly cordial. Hellmuth even attended Negreanu’s wedding in 2019, but occasionally they feud publicly, mostly over Hellmuth’s ego.

On the felt, they’ve competed against each other hundreds of times in high-stakes cash games and tournaments. They’ve both appeared numerous times on the popular televised shows such as Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker. But they’ve never faced off in a heads-up only format. So, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out victorious. We can all make our predictions, and we’ll find out who is right once the match takes place, although a date hasn’t yet been set.

Phil Hellmuth vs. Daniel Negreanu is finally going to happen on PokerGo’s show, High Stakes Feud. Both players want to win. Only one can. But one player, at least from a public perception standpoint, needs this victory more than the other.

Phil Hellmuth vs. Daniel Negreanu, the match poker has always wanted, is officially on. (Image YouTube)

Following Negreanu’s $1.2 million loss in a 25,000-hand heads-up challenge to Doug Polk, Hellmuth piled on his pal, claiming “DNegs” played poorly. Of course, Negreanu wasn’t just going to sit back and take it from the self-proclaimed best no-limit hold’em player ever. So, he offered up a heads-up challenge to the “Poker Brat.”

On the Poker Central podcast, No Gamble No Future, the GGPoker ambassador announced the match is on. But this one, unlike Polk vs. Negreanu, won’t take place on the internet. Instead, it will be played at the PokerGo Studio in Las Vegas. And, yes, hole cards will be up, so you’ll get to see all the tight laydowns Hellmuth makes.

Long-time Atlantic City gambler Frank Nagy won a $1.1 million progressive poker jackpot at The Tropicana on February 13.

Long-time gambler Frank Nagy has won a record-setting progressive jackpot worth $1.1 million. (Image: Twitter/Tropicana AC)

Nagy made the necessary $5 side bet in order to qualify for the progressive jackpot which broke the $1 million mark earlier this month.

With his bet locked in at the four card poker table, he was duly dealt a royal flush. Within a matter of seconds, he’d won Caesars Entertainment’s biggest ever poker jackpot.

Phil Hellmuth challenging Doug Polk to a heads-up match sparked a chain reaction of potential heads-up competitions, although we may never get to see any of them.

There’s virtually no way Phil Hellmuth and Doug Polk will actually play. (Image: YouTube)

Polk recently finished off a beatdown of Daniel Negreanu in a 25,000-hand heads-up match. He won $1.2 million at $200/$400 stakes, completely obliterating his rival. Afterwards, the “Poker Brat” popped off, criticizing Negreanu’s play. The 15-time bracelet champion, in the same interview with PokerGo, said he challenged Polk to some heads-up poker.

Polk, however, claimed in a tweet that the offer was unreasonable, so he turned it down. He also has said numerous times recently that he has no interest in playing new challenges, even if Negreanu asked for a rematch, although he hasn’t officially said he’d for sure turn down the offer. Just don’t expect him to play as he’s made it clear he no longer enjoys poker.

Caesars Entertainment started a sweepstakes offering a lucky winner airfare, a hotel stay and a seat in the 2021 Main Event, a good sign the company intends to hold a live World Series of Poker this year.

This could be the first positive sign of a 2021 WSOP: Caesars is offering a promotion on the WSOP.com website giving one winner a prize package that includes a Main Event seat. (Image: WSOP.com)

The Ultimate Poker Champion Experience sweepstakes, available to enter for free here, began Monday and runs through April 30. U.S. residents aged 21 years and up can participate. Caesars will draw a winner on May 6.

Restrictions Reduced as COVID Cases Decline

Most of us are familiar with the risks of losing: discouragement, depletion of our bankroll, and tilt come to mind. We might be less familiar with the risks of winning.

Sometimes in poker it’s all too easy to win a battle while losing the war. (Image: Business Insider)

Yes, winning carries its own set of perils that are perhaps even more dangerous than the risks of losing because they are less visible and, thereby, more pernicious.

Risk of Winning #1: Complacency

Aditya Wadhwani, one of India’s top poker commentators, players, and TV producers is the subject of a new Netflix show about weddings.

Indian poker player Aditya Wadhwani and his wife Gayeti Singh are the subjects of a new Netflix show called The Big Day. (Image: Sunil Jagdish)

Although he doesn’t have the same profile as broadcasters such as the WSOP’s Lon McEachern, Wadhwani is well-known to poker players in India.

As such, his appearance on The Big Day has got people talking about more than his wedding.

The World Poker Tour’s (WPT) first ever mobile-only tournament series is drawing to a close but not before the game’s elite assemble for the main event.

Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan will be among the players taking part in the WPT Spring Festival main event on Poker King. (Image: Poker King)

In conjunction with Asian mobile operator Poker King, the WPT will host its $300 main event from tomorrow.

As well as a $1.5 million guarantee, those anteing up can try to take $230 bounties from Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and NBA legend Allen Iverson.

PokerStars is looking to reassert its dominance in the Southern European poker market a month after Winamax made waves with a record-setting series.

PokerStars is aiming to reassert its dominance in the Southern European poker market with a €15 million Carnaval series. (Image: Ecotrans)

Liquidity sharing pacts between France, Spain, and Portugal have made Southern Europe a lucrative market in recent years. PokerStars has been the dominant force since connecting the three regions in 2018.

However, Winamax applied some pressure to its local rival when it hosted a €20 million MTT series in January. In response, PokerStars has hit back with a multi-million-Euro event of its own.

Tony G wants a piece of Phil Hellmuth. Just four weeks after ending his political career, G is back in the game and taking aim at one of his old sparring partners.

Tony G is the latest player to call out Phil Hellmuth as heads-up fever takes hold. (Image: YouTube/WPT)

With everyone taking potshots at Hellmuth right now, including Daniel Negreanu, the loudmouth Lithuanian wants to dance.

Tony’s tweet comes at a time when high-profile heads-up battles are becoming the norm. However, for a match between two of the game’s best talkers to happen, it has to take place on TV.

Many poker players are heavily invested in more than just their poker games. Take Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, for example. Doug Polk, among others, made some bold takes recently on Twitter in regards to Bitcoin, which is now hovering around $50,000.

What does the future hold for Bitcoin? (Image: Forbes)

Polk, who previously ran a crypto YouTube channel, is in it for the long-haul. He believes Bitcoin is the way of the future and considers the investment profitable long-term. He certainly isn’t the only one in the poker community. Mike McDonald, Haralabos Voulgaris, and Chris Moneymaker are among those who are all-in on the cryptocurrency.

Thats also not to say I think you should sell now… I think you shouldnt. This ride could get way crazier. But what is important to take away is that when the upswing ends there could be a sharp drop, dont let that trick you into thinking its the same as the last crash.

Everybody loves big tournaments and big prize pools. But exciting poker takes place at all levels, all around the world, live and online. Here’s a smattering of big victories, hand selected by our CardsChat News team, for the week ending Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021:

(Image: GGPoker)

Justin Bonomo

$10K Super MILLION$

Phil Hellmuth is the early favorite in what could be an epic heads-up poker match against Daniel Negreanu, assuming they actually play. But neither player has yet to agree to the match.

Will Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu actually play heads-up? (Image: assopoker.com)

Negreanu recently finished off a losing heads-up battle against Doug Polk in which he dumped $1.2 million to his long-time rival. But he showed off some surprising heads-up skills against arguably the best heads-up player ever. He was more competitive than many expected.

Hellmuth, however, wasn’t so impressed with the GGPoker ambassador’s game. He criticized the strategy implemented by Negreanu’s coaches. After hearing the critical comments, Negreanu offered up a challenge to the 15-time WSOP bracelet winner.

Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Phil Hellmuth were all seated at the table on the latest episode of High Stakes Poker on the PokerGo app. The episode — #9 of Season 8 — was released on Wednesday and gave younger viewers a glimpse of what the show was like during the poker boom era when it aired on Game Show Network.

Tom Dwan always seems to run hot on High Stakes Poker. (Image: Poker Central)

High Stakes Poker first launched in 2006 with Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza handling the commentary duties. The show ran on Game Show Network  until 2011, just after Black Friday. Poker Central, via its PokerGo app, rebooted the show in December 2020 for the first time in nearly a decade.

Thus far, PokerGo has released nine episodes and the most recent one was the most intriguing, at least for the old-school poker fans. Three of the biggest poker boom era stars — Ivey, Dwan, and Hellmuth — appeared. Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist worth more than $1 billion, also took a seat at the table, as did high-stakes regular Brandon Adams, an economics professor from Harvard.

Landon Tice admitted he’ll be selling action for his upcoming heads-up no-limit hold’em match against hedge fund manager Bill Perkins. But he also told his Twitter followers that he’ll still have plenty of skin in the game.

Landon Tice is taking a big risk against Bill Perkins. But he certainly doesn’t lack the confidence to win. (Image: seminolehardrockpokeropen.com)

The proposed match, which both parties have tentatively agreed to, calls for 20,000 hands at $200/$400 stakes. Those are the same stakes played in the recently completed Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk match. In that competition, which spanned 25,000 hands, Polk won $1.2 million.

During that challenge, Negreanu lost an average of $48 per hand dealt. In the proposed Perkins vs. Tice match, if the losing player loses at the same rate, that individual would end up down $960,000. With that said, these are two different players and we won’t know the win/loss rates in the match until they actually play. But Tice, who is just 21 years old, doesn’t have the bankroll to risk losing that much of his money.

Dutch poker players are due rebates worth millions thanks to a recent decision by the national Tax and Customs Administration.

Dutch poker pros like Lex Veldhuis have caught a lucky tax break thanks to a recent ruling. (Image: Twitter/Lex Veldhuis)

Dutch news site CasinoNieuws broke the story last week that a long-running battle between players and the tax authority has come to an end.

Local pros have been fighting to overturn tax demands on money won on PokerStars.eu. With the help of lawyer and poker enthusiast Pepijn Le Heux, the players have triumphed.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak is permitting Las Vegas poker rooms and other businesses to soon significantly increase capacity, up from 25 percent. But seating remains well below the maximum capacity allowed by fire code at each business.

Plexiglass dividers will remain at the poker tables in Las Vegas for quite some time likely. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Sisolak, a Democratic politician, dropped room capacity in restaurants, casinos, and other establishments to 25 percent a few months back. This forced the card rooms to limit seating significantly, causing lengthy wait lists for cash games at certain properties.

The governor spoke on Thursday afternoon, and gave some good news to certain Nevada businesses. That includes Las Vegas poker rooms, of which there are 20 currently open (31 prior to the global health pandemic). Per the governor’s new restrictions, gaming floors can operate at 50 percent of the maximum allowable capacity, beginning next Monday.

GGPoker may be on its way to the US thanks to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). In a meeting on February 10, the poker site’s parent company was awarded state license.

GGPoker Pennsylvania moved a step closer to becoming a reality after its parent company received a state license. (Image: Facebook/Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)

However, despite the excitement, GGPoker Pennsylvania is still a way off. In a statement to CardsChat, press officer Paul Burke said the company isn’t ready to show its cards just yet.

As per PGCB the meeting, NSUS Ltd, the company that owns GGPoker, was granted a license. This license allows it to provide poker and casino technology in the Keystone State.

Larry Flynt, the owner of two Los Angeles poker rooms, a nudie mag, and Las Vegas strip clubs, passed away on Wednesday at age 78. The founder of “Hustler” magazine’s exact cause of death was not disclosed publicly. He passed away at his Hollywood Hills home in Southern California.

Larry Flynt led quite a controversial life, but always stood behind his beliefs. (Image: New York Post)

Flynt is most known around the world as a free speech loving porn peddler who survived a murder attempt in 1978, but was paralyzed from the neck down for life. He was shot in Lawrenceville, Georgia as he walked down the street with his lawyer following a court case.

The incident not only left him partially paralyzed, he suffered excruciating pain for the rest of his life. That caused to become addicted to painkillers. Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist, admitted to the shooting years later. His issue, he claims, was Flynt displaying an interracial couple in “Hustler,” an adult magazine.

Daniel Negreanu already appears to have his next heads-up poker opponent in mind, and it’s none other than Phil Hellmuth, who was critical of “DNegs’” play against Doug Polk.

Will Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth face off on the felt in a winner-take-all heads-up match? Don’t bet on it. (Image: pokerscout.com)

Negreanu lost $1.2 million to Polk over 25,000 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em on WSOP.com. He wasn’t expected to win, so it didn’t come as a surprise to many. The GGPoker ambassador entered the match as more than a 4-1 underdog.

Despite virtually every poker expert expecting a Polk victory, Hellmuth ripped into his fellow Poker Hall of Famer’s play on the new PokerGo show, No Gamble No Future.