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Phil Hellmuth battled through the longest High Stakes Duel yet to clinch his ninth victory from ten matches, defeating Scott Seiver in an $800,000 slugfest.
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Tune in right now on @PokerGO as @scott_seiver and @phil_hellmuth are battling with $800,000 on the line. https://t.co/wh7RlL0DC4 pic.twitter.com/gkP1QqOmTg
Seiver, a late replacement for Tom Dwan who forgot he was scheduled for Triton ambassador duty in Madrid, was looking to do what only Dwan had done since HSD began – topple the white magic of Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth.
With $400k each on the table, round 4 of HSD III was an epic battle, the lead changing hands more than 20 times over the course of a more than 300 hands of heads-up poker.
One of the biggest hands saw the pair clash with big pocket pairs, and Seiver needed to hold to stay in the game...
Seiver: Q♥ Q♦
Hellmuth: J♣ J♠
Flop: 3♠ 6♣ 4♥
Turn: 7♠
River: 9♦
With Seiver doubling up into the lead, a rattled Hellmuth then fell further behind, but he hasn’t scored 8 wins in the SNG format by meekly giving up when the going gets tough.
With few signs of the “Poker Brat” persona that got him into some bother recently, Hellmuth ground his way back into the match, and as the blinds rose, he found himself on the cusp of another big win...
Seiver: 10♦ 6♥
Hellmuth: 3♠ 2♥
When the flop came...
Flop: 2♠ 10♣ 3♠
...Hellmuth check-raised Seiver and called the shove that followed. There was to be no escape for Seiver this time, the board bricking...
Turn: Q♠
River: 5♠
♠ ♣ ♦ ♥
Victory number nine for Hellmuth and he said of his opponent afterwards: “Scott absolutely did not give it to me. He was just tough, and that’s what I was expecting. He’s one of the greatest players in the world and also one of the best of his generation. He’s won a fortune playing at Bellagio, and he’s just a great big-bet player."
Stating that he “...knew it was going to be a tough match,” he had more kind words for Seiver, saying “he has so much class and handles himself so well, and that’s nice.”
Hellmuth, who must now wait to see if Seiver will pony up the $800k for a $1.6million rematch, added: “Some of the guys have been mean to me, some have lied to me, and some have been brutal to me. Sure, I get my digs in too, but Scott handled himself well. I didn’t pull too much ‘Poker Brat’ out on him, and he knows how to handle it.”
