Matt Berkey entered the second day of High Stakes Duel 6 with a $22,700 deficit from Day 1, and Day 2 didn’t start off much better for him against defending champion Jared 'The Backer' Bleznick.
The two men were squaring off for the High Stakes Duel belt across two days of $200/$400 play, with six hours split between No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha on each day.
Before anyone could settle in for Day 2 at the PokerGO Studio, Berkey had already bluff-folded some chips away and he ran into a flush that forced him to add another $100K with more than half of his stack gone. He quickly dropped another half buy-in and topped up again with another $100K. After the flurry of early action, Bleznick pocketed some profit and the two players were each sitting with $200K in their stack.
The action continued and Berkey prayed to the poker gods: “Please let the distribution even out.”
An offer he can't refuse
It was a rough start for Berkey, who needed to make hay against Bleznick in no-limit before the daunting task of beating the champ at his favorite game, PLO.
“You just hope to run reasonably well and yesterday I did but today I’m not,” Berkey told us on a break after the horrible start.
Desperate times led to desperate measures and Berkey offered Bleznick a unique deal. A few more losses followed and a desperation move was considered. Berkey offered the champ money to give up PLO and finish out the evening with two more 90-minute rounds of no-limit.
“If you pay me the right number, I’ll consider it,” Bleznick said. “If it makes sense, I’ll just say yes.”
Berkey’s “best offer” was $11,500 and Bleznick sent a few messages on his phone for advice while play continued.
New life for Berkey
In the midst of negotiations and with Berkey down well over $100K, the champ picked up 
and raised to $1,500. Berkey fired back with $6,500, holding 
, and Bleznick responded with a four-bet to $16,500.
Berkey tossed in a call and checked when the flop was 
. Bleznick bet $16,000 and Berkey called to pick up some outs with a 
on the turn. Both players checked and the river was Berkey’s money card — a 
. Berkey checked once more and Bleznick fired $35,000, only to see Berkey fire back with a shove for $139,000. Bleznick sighed and got rid of it to give the challenger some life and a chip advantage with a shrinking deficit.
The gap closed a bit more and the two players stepped away for halftime without a deal in place to skip PLO. Berkey was within $50K.
The art of the deal
Negotiations continued after the break and Bleznick spat out a number: “I need $15,000.”
“Do you know how arrogant I’d have to be to accept this?” Berkey laughed.
“I don’t know how win rates work but I need $15,000,” Bleznick declared once again.
Berkey tossed over the money and the second half continued without PLO. Bleznick reset his stack to $100K and Berkey kept playing what was now $300K.
Berkey's gamble paid off and Bleznick felt the burn in NLH. The gambit worked and it was all bad feelings from there for Bleznick, who quickly lost two pots that moved Berkey into the green for the two-day tally. Berkey was even feeling it in the pots he lost, folding 
on the river after Bleznick had turned a set of nines.
"I was trying to get you to jam. God, how good are you?” Bleznick said after that hand.
The bad got worse for The Backer after that with two ill-timed bluffs that left him with around $50K. He cleaned out his account — all $127,000 of it — and tried to keep his title.
Bad gets worse for Blez
No matter what Bleznick tried, it didn't work. Berkey took another big pot with the better trip kings — one that moved him over $500K — and then he found a flush that put him near $600K. An all-in clash with Bleznick’s ace-ten against Berkey’s ace-queen lost the champ the rest of it and he borrowed $100K just to finish the night. The two jostled to the end and Bleznick ended with just enough to pay back what he borrowed.
Berkey — now the High Stakes Duel champion — reveled in the twist ending with a victory score to the tune of $315,000.
“You ran better in the bigger pots,” Bleznick said, to which Berkey agreed. “But you outplayed me too. Good game.”
"Down goes Bleznick! Down goes Bleznick!" — Matt Berkey is the new High Stakes Duel champion. Photos courtesy of PokerGO/Antonio Abrego
