With Tom Dwan backing out of his scheduled rematch with Phil Hellmuth on PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel, a new challenger has come in three-time WSOP bracelet winner and high-stakes pro Scott Seiver, who specializes in cash game poker but has an outstanding tournament poker resume.
Each player will buy-in for $400,000 and the winner will walk away with the entire $800,000.
“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 to PokerGO.
Seiver has many years of experience playing high stakes though, it is not going to be easy for him to face Hellmuth who has been on the top of his game in high-stakes heads-ups. Hellmuth began in style by beating Antonio Esfandiari in three matches and then did the same to Daniel Negreanu.
For High Stakes Duel III, Hellmuth defeated Nick Wright in Round 1, before Dwan stepped in and ended his winning streak by dominating in Round 2. Hellmuth took revenge in the very next match (Round 3). Unfortunately for poker fans, Dwan could not play the Round 4 (originally scheduled for May 12) due to a scheduling conflict and Seiver stepped in to replace Dwan and face Hellmuth.
“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,” Seiver said of Hellmuth. “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 has more than $24.5 million in tournament earnings and is ranked 24th on poker’s all-time money list. On the other hand, Hellmuth is slightly ahead on 22nd spot with over $24.65 million.
No matter who wins the match between Seiver and Hellmuth, the High Stakes Duel will continue until one player takes down two consecutive matches. Only then, they will be able to ‘cash out.’
You can watch the match between Seiver and Hellmuth on PokerGO today, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET.