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Final Rules Announced for Doug Polk Daniel Negreanu Grudge Match

In a few days, it will finally be over and much of the negativity and bickering will be soon over. That’s right, the Doug Polk – Daniel Negreanu grudge match is almost here. What? You thought I meant the US Presidential election?

On Tuesday, Doug Polk sent an email to his subscribers and man in the media to tell them about the upcoming challenge. He broke down the rules and where you can watch the event.

The Rules of the Match

As we’ve discussed for a few weeks now, Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu will finally take their feud to the poker tables. We will finally see if Negreanu can shut Polk’s mouth or if the rake is too high for Negreanu.

The match will take place at WSOP.com in Nevada. Players will battle it out at $200/$400 heads-up NL Hold’em and play two tables at a time. Both players will use the “Auto Top-Up” feature that will bring their stacks back to 100 big blinds anytime it dips below. If stacks get very deep, the players will open a new table with new $40k stacks.

Both players have deposited $1 million onto WSOP.com for the match. Originally, Negreanu wanted to play the match over on GGPoker using play money stacks. Polk wanted to play the match over on WSOP.com in Nevada.

Hooooollllllddddddd https://t.co/7EGyZrgiP1

— Doug "Truck Driver" Polk (@DougPolkVids) October 14, 2020

Next, the match is scheduled for 25,000 hands. However, at the conclusion of 12,500 hands, the losing player can quit after 12,500 hands. Negreanu wanted to play fewer hands and Polk more hands, so they came to this compromise.

Lastly, neither player will use any form of assistance, Real-Time or otherwise, during their play. That means they cannot use HUDs, pre-flop charts, or any other assistance during their play.

How to Watch the Challenge

WSOP.com is restricted to those physically in Nevada, Delaware, or New Jersey, so you cannot rail the game from the software. That’s OK as there are two ways that you can watch the match.

First, part of the match will be live-streamed by PokerGo. Kane Kalas will commentate on the match. During the PokerGo stream, hole cards will be available. This means that the stream will be on at least a 30-minute delay to comply with regulatory guidelines.

The rest of the challenge will be live-streamed over on Doug Polk’s YouTube channel and on Upswing Poker’s Twitch channel. This will allow fans to watch the game and interact with Polk. Again, these streams will be on a delay to comply with regulatory authorities.

Final Predictions on the Match

If you follow what others are saying on social media, you will see a wide array of opinions regarding who will win this grudge match. Early on, there were a lot of people jumping on Polk and betting him heavily to win the match. As time has shifted, others have put money on Negreanu.

This includes Mike Matusow who is betting $10,000 on Negreanu to win the battle against Polk. Confidence in Polk has waned a bit since he has struggled some in his tune-ups leading up to his match with Negreanu. Some wonder if he has lost a step or his struggles is a lack of motivation.

I actually have a lot of respect for @RealKidPoker. He's a man of his word.

Its one thing to talk about fucking the pros, its another to follow through 👍

— Doug "Truck Driver" Polk (@DougPolkVids) October 17, 2020

I’m looking at this based on what I know about both players. Polk is a heads-up specialist who has won millions over the year. Negreanu has played at some of the highest stakes in the world, but seldom has it been online heads-up. He is not known as a dominant online cash game player. As such, I think he comes into this match at a sizable disadvantage.

Despite the disadvantage, I see Polk playing this more like an extended trolling session rather than a serious grudge match. If that’s the case, it will probably result in Negreanu staying closer in this match than he might if this match was played a few years ago. In the end, I think Polk wins, but it will not be a dominating performance.

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