Hobbyist, high limit player, and full-time sports card trader Jared Bleznik has won the first two rounds of the return of High Stakes Duel.
Bleznik beat high limit legend and Poker Hall of Famer Patrik Antonius in a $100K buy-in, heads-up game on Tuesday, after also soundly beating him the previous week.
High Stakes Duel 5 is the return of the PokerGO-run show, which last ran in May 2023. It sees various well-known high limit poker players, from pros to hobbyists to online players, face-off in a heads-up one-on-one battles.
The first round starts with $50,000 in chips for each player, and the buy-in doubles each following round. A player must win three consecutive matchups, or simply win at such high stakes that no one wants to challenge them to another round, to win the belt.
The past winners of the tournament are Daniel Negreanu, Jason Koon, and Phil Hellmuth.
High Stakes Duel 5
The first round of the return of the show happened on Tuesday, November 12. It saw Bleznick take on Antonius in the PokerGO studio in Los Angeles, with $50,000 apiece on the table.
For the first time in High Stakes Duel pot-limit, Omaha poker is included in the tournament structure, with the game swapping between that and the standard No-Limit Hold’em each round.
When the matchups were announced, consensus was that the veteran Finn Antonius should have a big advantage in no-limit Hold ‘em, in which he is one of the world’s biggest winning players.
However, it did not pan out like that, with Antonius hitting some coolers on the way to losing in both game types across the two sessions.
If Antonius wants to challenge Bleznick again, possibly handing over the title if he loses, he will have to put up $200,000 for just the buy-in.
Past Duels
The first two High Stakes Duels were won by the poker Greatest of All Time candidate Phil Hellmuth. Both times, it only went to round three, with Hellmuth twice defeating his initial opponent three times in a row to claim the belts.
The third season was won by Jason Koon. Hellmuth’s quest for his third consecutive Duel title started out with a victory over sports host Nick Wright. But he then lost to poker pro Tom Dwan in round 2.
Hellmuth rechallenged Dwan and beat him, putting the stakes up to $200,000 for round four. Poker Hall of Famer Scott Seiver stepped up but was defeated by Hellmuth in short order, bringing the duel to round 5 for the first time.
After Dwan and Siever backed out of the $800,000 buy-in matchup, 4th all-time money list player Koon stepped in. Koon took a big lead against Hellmuth after winning a coin flip big pot early on in their heads-up, and never let off the gas from there to take the victory.
Hellmuth declined the $1.6 million buy-in rematch. No-one else was willing to challenge Koon for that amount before the end of the month, and he was declared the High Stakes Duel 3 winner.
High Stakes Duel 4 was won by Daniel Negreanu, who beat Eric Persson and Doug Polk in rounds one, two and three before bowing out with the belt.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
