Daniel Negreanu Continues to Cut Doug Polk’s Lead in Ongoing Grudge Match
Daniel Negreanu isn’t giving up just yet in his ongoing heads-up grudge match against Doug Polk. The GGPoker ambassador has managed to win five straight sessions to cut his opponent’s lead down $484,073 to be exact.
While Negreanu still has a long way to go to completely wipe out such a massive deficit, he’s showing some huge improvements, if his latest performances are any indication. But with just under 10,000 hands left to play, can the former all-time money leader turn things around?
The pair’s latest session took place on Monday, January 11, during which Negreanu pulled off a six-figure win ($132,648.63). Since Day 22 of the match, the Canadian poker pro has continuously put a dent to Polk’s lead which sat at nearly $1 million ($957,932.57) after their 18th session.
Doug Polk Poker
Polk, who was initially verbally aggressive on social media has toned things down with Negreanu these past few days. In fact, in a recent tweet, the heads-up legend gave credit where credit’s due, commending his opponent for playing way better than the start of their match back in November.
I gotta say @RealKidPoker is playing just night and day better than at the start of the challenge. I still think I have the edge but I wouldn't be surprised if its pretty low at this point. Gotta give credit where credit is due.
— Doug "Truck Driver" Polk (@DougPolkVids) January 12, 2021
The American poker pro is still pretty confident he’s got the edge, though he also acknowledges that there’s certainly no room for complacency.
Polk Remains a Strong Favorite to Win
Despite losing to Negreanu during five consecutive sessions, Polk still remains the strong favorite to win the match, considering his huge lead. The general sentiment on social media was that Polk would still win the battle after 25,000 hands.
This is backed up by a poll by Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, who asked the views of his followers on Negreanu’s chances of winning given his most recent performances.
Now that @RealKidPoker has won 5 sessions in a row and cut the deficit from 985k to under 482k loser with over 10 k hands left. How much of a chance do you give him of Winning match?
— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) January 12, 2021
Just 9.1% think the six-time WSOP bracelet winner has a better than 40% chance to beat Polk. An overwhelming 68.6% believe the Canadian only has a 10%-25% chance of winning, while 22.4% of the respondents think Negreanu has a 25%-40% chance to ultimately conquer the battle.
Take note that Matusow is betting on Negreanu to win the match and he still remains firm in his stance, even offering 7 to 1 for $2,000 on Negreanu’s victory.
Anything Can Happen
Well, things are still in progress, and if Negreanu pushes on, he could just pull off a massive comeback. Polk must not let this happen, as Negreanu’s ultimate victory in one of poker’s most highly-anticipated heads-up battles would shatter all expectations and would become Polk’s greatest embarrassment considering that he was the aggressor early on.
