Sports card shop owner Jared Bleznick showed some aggression during Tuesday's High Stakes Duel 5opening round while defeating poker legend Patrik Antonius for $100,000 in a four-hour battle.
The no-limit hold'em/pot-limit Omaha mix game on PokerGO cost $50,000 per player to enter. Each player received $50,000 in chips, and the increasing blinds started at $100/$200.
High Stakes Duelis a heads-up competition that began in 2020 with Phil Hellmuth defeating Antonio Esfandiari three consecutive times for a $350,000 profit. The "Poker Brat" then dropped Daniel Negreanu in three straight matches and finished his run 9-2 overall on the show.
Negreanu returned to action last year and defeated Eric Persson in a one-off match on High Stakes Duel 4. The heads-up poker show returned on Tuesday for what turned out to be a competitive battle between two high-profile players.
All 12 previous High Stakes Duelmatches featured no-limit hold'em exclusively. Pot-limit Omaha was incorporated into the newest edition, with the game played changing every 10 hands. Each player has the ability to run it twice on an all-in bet once per round.
Round 1 was quite the back-and-forth battle between two players unwilling to give in and spazz off chips. It wasn't until the final hand flop betting action before a clear-cut favorite had been determined.
The game began with Bleznick raising in no-limit hold'em on the button with a mediocre hand, being called by an even weaker hand, and then the preflop raiser taking it down on the flop after hitting bottom pair.
The first bit of fireworks occurred when, on a board of A♦J♣J♦3♠, Antonius led for $400 with A♠4♦and Bleznick, holding 8♦7♦semi-bluff raised his flush draw to $1,200. Antonius called to see the 2♥on the river. He checked and then faced a bet of $5,500, more than the size of the pot. But it's tough to get trips to fold in a heads-up game, and the player with the best hand made the call.
That hand put the Poker Hall of Famer up to over $56,000 chips, the first significant lead for either player an hour into the match. Antonius would slowly but surely put a bit more of a dent into Bleznick's stack, and would eventually get to a little over $60,000. But the chip lead never became insurmountable, and the Las Vegas sports card shop owner would quickly battle back to take a slim lead.
Bleznick, who played aggressive throughout much of the session, then picked the wrong spot to bluff. Antonius, with the blinds at $100/$200, limped on the button with Ax3xbefore calling a raise from the big blind and hitting an ace on the flop. Bleznick, who had nothing but 10-high, bet flop, turn, and river only to lose a sizable pot to fall back into a 3:2 hole.
The aggression would again fail Bleznick moments later when he three-bet with Q♠8♦only for his opponent to force him to fold with an all in bet. But he'd pick a better spot to bluff later on, and it turned out to be one of the key hands of the match. The board showed K♠Q♥K♣J♦7♦in pot-limit Omaha. Bleznick made a pot-sized bet of $13,500 with 6♠6♦4♠4♣, an awful hand for that board.
Antonius had the 10♦9♥for a straight but would fold on the paired board. Had he made the call, his stack would have reached nearly $75,000, and the outcome very well could have been different.
Bleznick, a PLO specialist who won an NLH bracelet this year, made another strong play with K♥5♠4♠4♣on a flop of 2♣5♣A♥when he bet $1,200, and then after facing a raise to $4,000, came back over the top and took down the pot. He technically had the best hand with middle pair as his opponent only had bottom pair and an inside straight draw.
Antonius was beginning to fall back and his stack had dwindled to around $30,000 when he hit a superior two pair on the river to crack Bleznick's flopped two pair in pot-limit Omaha. The $17,000 pot changed things back in the other direction a bit.
The stacks would again get close to even, but only briefly, and then the match came to an abrupt end. Bleznick raised on the button to $2,500 with Q♠8♠in no-limit hold'em. Antonius just called with K♠Q♥before the flop came out 6♣8♣Q♦, a bit of a cooler.
Antonius checked and then faced a bet of $2,000. He'd go for a check-raise to $6,500 with top pair. But he was up against top two pair, and the player with the best hand came back over the top to $14,000.
The poker legend then decided to just move all in for $39,900 and received a snap-call. Antonius had the option to run the turn and river twice, but he opted to play it out the standard way, and neither the 8♥on the turn or A♠on the river changed anything.
Bleznick finished off the victory to secure the $100,000 Round 1 match of High Stakes Duel 5. Antonius then immediately tossed the red flag on the table to indicate he's challenging his opponent to a rematch. As such, he'll be on the hook for adding $100,000 to the pot to create a $200,000 Round 2 prize pool. A date for the match has been set for Nov. 19 on PokerGO.
Antonius, despite the loss, is having a huge week with a career-best $5.1 million score on Sunday for winning the $200k Triton Invitational in Monte Carlo.
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*Images courtesy of PokerGO.