Category Archives: Gambling

Polk vs. Negreanu: The Rivalry Poker Always Needed; Will it Continue? (Op-Ed)

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu’s heads-up challenge is finished, but it would be great if this rivalry would continue in some fashion. The poker world hasn’t ever seen a rivalry this exciting, and it would be a shame if we never get to see these fierce competitors square off again.

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu have long been bitter rivals, and that’s good for poker. (Image: Poker Central)

Polk and Negreanu competed three times a week for three months straight. Despite playing so frequently, it’s clear the poker community never became bored of the challenge. Joey Ingram, Polk’s channel, and GGPoker each ran separate streams for all 36 sessions. They each had over 3,000 viewers almost every day. And then you throw in Matt Berkey’s stream and a few others, and there were more than 10,000 poker fans at all times watching.

The Galfond Challenge between Phil Galfond and Chance Kornuth, in comparison, only had a few hundred viewers during any given session. That isn’t a knock on the Galfond Challenge, and it’s a shame more poker fans didn’t follow the exciting back-and-forth match. But the battle between these two extremely talented pros lacked the drama that attracted so many, including myself, to the Polk-Negreanu match.