The poker community was full of praise for Phil Hellmuth following his impressive comeback win over Daniel Negreanu on PokerGO's "High Stakes Duel" heads-up poker show. It was the "Poker Brat's" fourth consecutive win on the show. He previously beat Antonio Esfandiari in three straight matches.
The poker legends will do it again with a rematch later this month on "High Stakes Duel." The stakes will be raised from a $100,000 prize pool to $200,000, although Negreanu is the only one who must buy-in, since he lost the previous match. Perhaps, he'd better brush up on our poker strategy articles here at Poker.org before he tests his skills against the 15-time WSOP bracelet winner again.
Hellmuth rallied from a massive deficit — he trailed 97,000 to 3,000 in chips at one point — before coming from behind the win. Afterwards, the poker community showered the Poker Hall of Famer with praises for pulling off that impressive comeback.
"@phil_hellmuth went from having a 19 to 1 chip deficit to making one of the best comebacks we’ve seen in the heads up no limit streets. Good win champ," poker fan Joey Tyner wrote on Twitter.
"This is fascinating for a lotta reasons and not just bc @phil_hellmuth came back to beat @RealKidPoker. Phil is old school and relies on reads. Daniel went all in on game theory (think math & bots). Also #poker is dominated by young folks and old man Phil just won again. Awesome," Anthony G. Manolatos responded.
'DNegs' comments following loss
As for Negreanu, he talked some trash before the match. And he'll soon have an opportunity at a rematch or two, at the very least. But he was gracious following Wednesday's tough defeat, and is ready to bet that he'll win the war.
"That was a lot of fun! Looking forward to getting back in the ring for round 2 vs @phil_hellmuth For those people that I know get at me if you want action at -1.50. Congrats Phil. Quite a comeback from 97-3 or something like that," Negreanu tweeted.
Negreanu's play was critiqued by some on poker Twitter. Not everyone seemed to think he played his best game.
"U played passive in many spots. I say that based on your play against Polk. And I watched every session of the Polk fued. I think you will review your play today & agree. I know it’s not the same structure but u didn’t finish him when u should with max pressure. I want u to win," Twitter user @tomaxlu wrote.
"Seems quite clear he picked up on when you were weak when he was down to 5bb (a mix of when you checked and when you bet) will you go back and watch the video to see what it was? Do you think he did pick something up?" Alex Reibling said.
Negreanu is a six-time WSOP bracelet winner, Poker Hall of Famer, and has over $42 million in live tournament cashes. Perhaps he knows what he's doing and doesn't need to learn poker strategy from Twitter.
Featured image courtesy of PokerGO.com (Phil Hellmuth from High Stakes Duel II on PokerGO)
