We recently brought you the news that Matt Berkey and Jared Bleznick would be facing off in the next edition of High Stakes Duel (HSD), but at the time we didn't know the date when it would all take place. As of now, that edition of HSD is now over as well and we got to know the new champion yesterday.
Jared Bleznick just last year won 3 matches against Patrik Antonius to take home $350,000 and the championship belt. Now the rules have been changed a bit. Instead of three days, the game now lasted 2 days of 6 hours each and every hour and a half the NLH and PLO format alternated. The starting stack for both players was $100,000 with blinds of $200/$400 and players could add to their stack whenever they wanted.
During the first day, we witnessed palmost balanced play and a smooth progression. However, at one point Matt Berkey had to add $100,000 to his stack and ended the first day with a loss of $22,700.
The second day of play followed unusually right after the first one, and we already wittnessed more fun. PLO specialist Bleznick pulled his lead to around $50,000, so NLH specialist Berkey suggested giving Jared $11,500 if the next level of play in the PLO format was skipped.
Bleznick asked for $15,000, to which Berkey agreed. This investment by Matt paid off, as luck only turned to his side from that moment on. In the last hour of play, Bleznick got desperate and lost just about everything he could. For example, he lost a set against a full house, top pair against two top pair, or top pair against a flush, and in most cases it was the river that buried Bleznick's chances.
As I'm sure you already know, Jared Bleznick had to buy in more than once as a result, and after twelve hours of play, he ended up with a total loss of $315,000. The High Stakes Duel ended with Matt Berkey taking the championship belt. Whether we will see a rematch of this two or a new duo will come into play has not yet been announced.
Source - pokergo, vip-grinders, pokernews, twitter/X