The news of who is playing Phil Hellmuth broke a little early. PokerGO announced today that Hellmuth's opponent on High Stakes Duel III Round 4 will be Scott Seiver. Seiver replaces Tom Dwan on the show.
Seiver has over $24 million in live tournament cashes on his Hendon Mob page with $100,000 of that coming from a third-place finish in the 2014 NBC Heads Up Championship. He is a strong all-round contender. So, it will be interesting to see him square off against Hellmuth, the NLH specialist.
Seiver was generous in his assessment of his opponent. Seiver told the press that “it is impossible to not respect Phil Hellmuth’s poker game because the results speak for themselves.
"However, where his talent lies is probably most misunderstood by the general public as opposed to those with a more nuanced view. His game is speech play, but he is one of the best in the world at it.”
“There will be trash talk before and during 100%,” Seiver added.
Seiver's appointment to the role of Hellmuthian punching bag came after Tom Dwan opted out of the event. Dwan was due to play an $800,000 rematch against Hellmuth after winning the $200,000 round and losing the $400,000 round.
Dwan ended up pulling out one week before the match due to scheduling conflicts, opening up an opportunity for Seiver.
“This program has been a must-watch event each episode so far and I wanted an opportunity to be a part of the action and hopefully add my own mark on it,” Seiver said. “I’m not really thinking about losing, but I expect to rematch if it happens. You would have to ask him if he would rematch, not me.”
The weigh in is scheduled for this Monday with the game playing out on PokerGO the day after.
PokerGO tweeted about the announcement asking: "Does @scott_seiver have what it takes to silence @phil_hellmuth on High Stakes Duel? The stage is set for an epic $800,000 showdown."
Featured image source: PokerGO
