Landon Tice on pace for a slim heads-up challenge win against Bill Perkins

Landon Tice on pace for a slim heads-up challenge win against Bill Perkins
Poker writer Geoff Fisk profile photo
Geoff Fisk
Posted on: June 11, 2021 07:21 PDT

Tice would clear the $720,000 spread if the current pace keeps up through 20,000 hands

The first week of action in the Landon Tice vs. Bill Perkins heads-up challenge hasn’t yielded many dull moments. The 22-year-old poker pro Tice and the billionaire businessman Perkins certainly aren’t playing scared, with poker’s latest high-profile heads-up match completing five sessions since starting on June 2.

Perkins and Tice completed 2,045 hands through those five sessions, putting the challenge about 10 percent of the way to the planned 20,000-hand finish line. Tice has to beat Perkins and a 9bb/100 spot, and so far the young poker professional is on pace to clear that spread by a thin margin.

Through 2,045 hands, Tice holds an $83,702.30 lead on Perkins, according to Tice’s calculations:

If that pace keeps up through the rest of the scheduled 20,000 hands, Tice would win by $818,604.40 at the end of the challenge. The 9bb/100 spot equates to $720,000, which Tice would clear by $98,604.40.

Tice and Perkins are scheduled to play at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em stakes throughout the challenge, using standard 100 big blind buy-ins. Tice’s current pace would see him win the challenge by about 20.5 buy-ins outright, and clear the spread by around 2.5 buy-ins.

Up and down match so far

News of the Tice vs. Perkins heads-up challenge reached the poker community in February, and the long-awaited match began on June 2. The two players hit the online felt at Americas Cardroom for five sessions in the first eight days of the challenge.

Five sessions complete in the challenge so far

After a relatively even opening match on June 2, Perkins pulled into the lead straight up in the following session. Perkins took Day 2 by a nearly $80,000 margin, putting Tice in a $61,000 hole straight up and $781,000 deficit against the spot.

Tice rebounded on Day 3, posting a $159,751.69 win. That figure represents the biggest margin for any single session of the challenge so far.

Day 4 and Day 5 saw Tice and Perkins trade small session wins. Day 6 of the challenge begins at 2:30 pm EDT/11:30 am PDT today, and you can catch live stream action on multiple media channels.

The Americas Cardroom Twitch channel will provide live coverage throughout the challenge, including commentary by the ACR Team Pros.

Are you looking to brush up on your poker knowledge? Check out Poker.org’s guides on poker hand rankings, Texas Hold’em, and Omaha.

Featured image source: Twitch