Two high-stakes poker legends, Matt Berkey and Jared Bleznick, went head-to-head this week on PokerGO’s iconic High Stakes Duel show.
The 6th iteration of High Stakes Duel was the first to be played as a cash game, as the two agreed to play 12 hours of $200/400 NLH/PLO mix.
Bleznick, who came into the match after three consecutive wins against Finnish poker pro Patrik Antonius, was looking to continue his good run and exploit his advantage in the PLO portion of the match.
Berkey, on the other hand, was confident he would crush “The Backer” in the NLH half of the match if he could only somehow survive the PLO hands.
Berkey’s preference for NLH showed in the second half of the match when he agreed to pay a hefty fee to his opponent to get him to keep playing his favorite game instead of switching back to PLO.
In the end, it was Berkey who came out the big winner, taking home a profit of $315,000, and continuing his incredible run in heads up matches after beating Nik Airball for a cool million dollars a couple of years back.
A Close Battle on Day 1
The 12-hour match was split by PokerGO into two halves, with six hours of play in each. The two switched back and forth between PLO and NLH, with each player’s advantage in one of the games showing quite clearly.
Both players came into the game with $100,000 to start with, but plenty of extra money would make it onto the table over the 12 hours of play.
The PLO specialist used his advantage in PLO to get a head start in the first part of the match, wining a couple of significant pots to gain an advantage of almost $50,000.
Yet, Berkey was able to come back and even get a small chip lead before the first PLO section was over, and “The Blez” was not able to take full advantage of his favorite game.
As the pair switched over to NLH, Berkey showed his dominance in the game, but would suffer a fairly big cooler when his two pair went up against Bleznick’s turned straight.
The first day ended with Bleznick holding a $22k lead and Berkey adding another $100k to his stack to play with a total of $200k for the remainder of the match.
Berkey Dominates the Second Half
The entire match was played as one long 12-hour session, but PokerGO split it into two for the sake of the fans.
On Wednesday, the match resumed on PokerGO, and this time around NLH was the first game on the docket.
Things started reasonably well for Bleznick, who was able to pick up some early chips. A well-timed bluff with ace-high and the nut flush blocker was enough to take down a significant pot and get Berkey to fold one pair early into the game.
Yet, Berkey remained composed and continued playing his game. He started making the right bluffs at the right time, and got Jared to fold the best hand in a few key spots.
Berkey would suffer some losses and would have to add another $100k before things turned around completely, as he was down over $150k in one moment.
The key hand of the match that saw Berkey make the big comeback saw Bleznick fire a 4-bet worth $16,500 with K♥6♥, which Berkey called with his 8♣7♣.
With $33k in the pot, the stakes were getting high, and the dealer put out a flop of 7♠K♣Q♦. Both players picked up a piece, but Bleznick was in the lead.
“The Blez” fired out a $16k c-bet after Berkey checked, and the two went to a turn of 6♣, which gave Matt a flush draw to go with his pair.
Jared was in the commanding lead with his two pair, but decided to disguise the strength of his hand by checking back.
The river brought the ultimate action card, the J♣, which completed Berkey’s flush. Yet, he decided to check once again, giving his opponent enough rope to hang himself.
The WSOP champion fired out a bet of $35,500, and was met with the all-in for just over $100k more. Holding a strong two pair hand, he made the call, despite knowing he could be losing to quite a few hands in his opponent’s range.
Jared would realize just how good his opponent was at NLH minutes later, when he turned a set and tried to induce a river raise by betting small. Matt just called with pocket Aces, prompting a reaction from Jared.
“God, how good do you play? How good are you at poker?” – These were the words of the High Stakes Duel 5 champion as he failed to get full value in this massive cooler spot.
Matt Berkey is Named High Stakes Duel Champion
Jared Bleznick was never able to recover after losing the huge pot with two pair, and his stack continued to dip down as the day went on.
He ended up borrowing $100k to keep playing and would eventually drop $315,000, just slightly less than the amount he won by defeating Patrik Antonius in three consecutive games on High Stakes Duel.
The Solve for Why founder once again demonstrated that, despite not being a heads up expert, he has what it takes to hold his own against players like Nik Airball and Jared Bleznick.
“The Blez” will undoubtedly look for further challengers and contenders in the near future, after suffering a rare loss in his gambling career.
