PokerGO's High Stakes Duel 4 kicked off yesterday with an Undercard bout between Mike Matusow and Shaun Deeb. The match between Matusow and Deeb serves as a pre-cursor to Round 1 of Daniel Negreanu vs. Eric Persson.
Matusow and Deeb each put up $10,000 and battled it out in a Sit 'n Go style format with 50,000 chips each and increasing blind levels. Deeb took the lead early, taking down the first nine pots. Matusow proved his short stack mastery, however, and battled back quickly to take the lead away from Deeb.
History repeats itself as Deeb slow-rolls Matusow
Deeb, never one to shy away from the opportunity to slow-roll, decided to dredge up some history between himself and Matusow. In a famous pot from Poker Night in America, Deeb flopped quads up against Matusow's over-pair and took his time calling on the turn when Matusow jammed. Matusow was, well, not too happy.
In Friday's match, it was Deeb who got dealt the pocket jacks, with Matusow holding queen-seven in the big blind. On the river, Matusow called a substantial bet from Deeb and tabled a pair of sevens. Deeb, once again, took his time before tabling the jacks and taking the pot.
With Deeb back in the lead, Matusow attempted a slow-roll of his own after rivering trip deuces against Deeb's queen-high. Matusow showed an ace, but that was enough to beat Deeb on its own and the attempted slow-roll fell flat.
'The Mouth' wins it with King-high
Matusow took a comfortable two-to-one chip advantage and immediately dialed up the pressure. With Deeb down to his last thirteen big blinds, it was only a matter of time. The first pre-flop all-in of the match saw Deeb put the rest of his chips in with queen-ten. Matusow called with king-jack and won the pot on a board runout that saw neither player improve.
Next up for High Stakes Duel 4
On Monday, Daniel Negreanu and Eric Persson will face off at 5PM PT in a $100,000 match. These two have played together before, but never before in a heads-up format. Regardless of who wins Round 1, both players have agreed to a $200,000 rematch in Round 2. The second battle will air on PokerGO Wednesday, May 10 at 5PM PT.