Doug Polk vs Daniel Negreanu

Doug Polk vs Daniel Negreanu

After beefing for years, Doug and Daniel squared off at $200/$400 on WSOP.com for 25,000 hands.

The challenge was streamed live session on Doug's YouTube channel and Upswing Poker's Twitch channel. Replays are available on YouTube (links are below).

Check out the graph and recaps below for a recap of the challenge.

Doug's Graph vs Daniel

doug polk vs daniel negreanu grudge match

Doug is currently +$1,201,807

Hands Played: 25,000

Note: Doug just released an in-depth analysis video going over hands from the challenge with hole cards shown. Click below to sign up for free access.

Day #36 - Doug Closes It Out Strong, Crosses A Million Again

2/3/2021

A swingy session saw Daniel lead by nearly $200k, but Doug bounced back to win over a quarter million, bringing him well over the million dollar mark for the challenge. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 25,000

Overall hands: 1,694

Result: Doug +$255,722

Overall: Doug +$1,201,807

Day #35 - 7 Hours

2/1/2021

Doug and Daniel settled in for a long session in this one. Doug alternated between being +$200k and ~even for the bulk of the session, and he joined the stream mid-session to commentate while playing. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 2,000

Overall hands: 23,306

Result: Doug +$209,281.23

Overall: Doug +$946,085.32

Day #34 - Big Swings, Small Win for Doug

1/29/2021

Doug hopped out to a big 200k lead in the first few hours of this session, but Daniel made a nice comeback, briefly retaking the lead. But Doug retook the lead with a big pot in the last few minutes to book a win of a little less than 1 buy-in. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 1,384

Overall hands: 21,306

Result: Doug +$34,855

Overall: Doug +$736,804

Day #33 - Doug Books a Solid Win Through D-R-A-M-A

1/27/2021

In response to Doug's decision to limp some hands preflop, Daniel decided to tank as much as possible for each decision during session #33, even trivial ones. Doug was not happy about this and sat out to discuss the situation with the agreed upon arbiter of the match (Phil Galfond). Play resumed after 20 or 30 minutes, and Doug ran up a couple of stacks to book a solid win. No official ruling was made, but Doug stopped limping to pacify Daniel and speed up the pace of play, which had slowed to a crawl in the first part of the session.

Hands played: 560

Overall hands: 19,922

Result: Doug +$136,239

Overall: Doug +$701,948

Day #32 - Daniel Wins Small

1/25/2021

The shortest session in weeks saw Daniel pick up a little over a buy-in. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 438

Overall hands: 19,362

Result: Daniel +$46,854

Overall: Doug +$565,708

Day #31 - Daniel Books The Biggest Win Yet

1/22/2021

This was the antithesis of the last session, with everything going Daniel's way on both tables. Daniel flirted with a half a million dollar win, but will have to settle for a monster 8.5 buy-in win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 1,046

Overall hands: 18,924

Result: Daniel +$390,032

Overall: Doug +$617,000

Day #30 - Doug Crushes, Crosses A Million

1/20/2021

Doug had his luckiest day of the challenge (his words) as he hit big hands and ran huge bluffs. Despite losing the biggest pot of the challenge yet -- a $187k monster in which Doug bluffed into the nuts -- he was able to book a 7.5 buy-in victory. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 770

Overall hands: 17,878

Result: Doug +$298,984

Overall: Doug +$1,002,595

Day #29 - Doug Books a Solid Win

1/18/2021

The wildest session yet saw huge stacks and massive bets, including a $100,000+ overbet on the river from Doug that did not go to showdown. If you watch one session from the challenge, this is it. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 608 (approx)

Overall hands: 17,108 (approx)

Result: Doug +$73,728

Overall: Doug +$703,610

Day #28 - Swingy Day, Doug Wins Small

1/15/2021

A super swingy match (with guest commentator Mike "Timex" McDonald) resulted in a small win for Doug. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 650

Overall hands: 16,500

Result: Doug +$26,198

Overall: Doug +$629,882

Day #27 - Doug Breaks Daniel's Streak

1/13/2020

Daniel was going for his sixth straight win, but this session came up all Doug who quickly ran up big stacks. Daniel brought it back to roughly even briefly, but Doug ran it up again to book a 3 buy-in win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 600 (approx)

Overall hands: 15,850

Result: Doug +$119,609

Overall: Doug +$603,683

Day #26 - Big Win, Five Straight Wins for DNegs

1/11/2021

Everything went Daniel's way in this session and he booked a juicy win (his 5th in a row). Watch the session here.

Hands played: 750 (approx)

Overall hands: 15,350

Result: Daniel +$132,648

Overall: Doug +$484,073

Day #25 - Four Straight Wins for Daniel

1/8/2021

Daniel picked up his fourth straight win, bringing his win-loss on the challenge to 14-11. That’s despite being down a little over 15 buy-ins overall — interesting stuff! Watch the session here.

Hands played: 750

Overall hands: 14,750

Result: Daniel +$27,945

Overall: Doug +$616,722

Day #24 - Daniel Chips Away

1/6/2021

In a solid-length session, Daniel took an early lead and expanded it to nearly $200,000 in the first couple of hours. But Doug battled back in the last hour or so to lose "only" a two and a half buy-ins. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 750

Overall hands: 13,750

Result: Daniel +$98,579

Overall: Doug +$644,668

Day #23 - Another Small Win for Daniel

1/4/2021

In an action-packed ~3 hour session, Doug and Daniel traded big blows fairly evenly. A crucial AA vs KK cooler in Daniel's favor toward the end of the day put him just enough in the black. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 500

Overall hands: 13,050

Result: Daniel +$27,005

Overall: Doug +$743,248

Day #22 - Daniel Takes Back, Halfway Point Reached

12/28/2020

In the shortest session yet, Doug and Daniel played the final 279 hands needed to reach the 12,500 hand mark. Doug held a six-figure lead for a large portion of the session, but Daniel picked off a few huge bluffs in the last couple dozen hands to book a small win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 279

Overall hands: 12,500

Result: Daniel +$35,000

Overall: Doug +$775,468

Day #21 - Marathon Before the Holiday

12/23/2020

Doug and Daniel traded blows in a marathon 5 hour session. Doug held a solid lead for the majority of the day with his win settling at just under 3 buy-ins. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 904

Overall hands: 12,221

Result: Doug +$114,140

Overall: Doug +$810,468

Day #20 - Daniel Takes Back More

12/21/2020

After a week-long break, Daniel ran hot and played well to pick up around 3 buy-ins. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 600 (approx)

Overall hands: 11,317

Result: Daniel +$120,000

Overall: Doug +$694,290

Day #19 - Daniel Takes Back Going Into Break

12/12/2020

A wild session with loads of coolers and big bluffs concluded with Daniel booking a solid win. The players will be taking next week off (next session: December 21st). Watch the session here.

Hands played: 834

Overall hands: 10,784

Result: Daniel +$143,642

Overall: Doug +$814,290

Day #18 - A Beautiful Day

12/10/2020

Doug was the beneficiary of big pots and 5-bet misclicks, booking a third solid win in a row. Watch the session here.

(The following numbers are approximations.)

Hands played: 700

Overall hands: 8,500

Result: Doug +$175,000

Overall: Doug +$957,932

Day #17 - Over Three-Quarters of a Million

12/9/2020

Doug booked another nice win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 662 

Overall hands: 8,800 (approx)

Result: Doug +$101,713

Overall: Doug +$784,560

Day #16 - All Doug

12/7/2020

This session was all Doug as the heads-up specialist took a big lead early. He gave back about a third of his winnings from peak, but still booked a solid win on the day. Watch the session here.

(The following numbers are approximations.)

Hands played: 824

Overall hands: 7,921

Result: Doug +$160,348.99

Overall: Doug +$674,417

Day #15 - Doug Streams a Buy-In Loss

12/4/2020

Doug streamed for the first time in the match with hole cards (mostly) covered. The session included myriad big pots and when the dust settled, Daniel had booked a win of about one $40,000 buy-in. Watch the session with Doug here.

(The following numbers are close approximations.)

Hands played: 452

Overall hands: 7,469

Result: Daniel +$46,581.88

Overall: Doug +$514,417

Day #14 - Huge Swings, Little Blood

12/2/2020

A roller coaster session saw both players hold solid leads, with Doug peaking around +$120k. But the biggest pot of the challenge yet ($180k) went Daniel's way in a flush over flush situation and he booked a small win. Watch the session here.

(The following numbers are close approximations.)

Hands played: 788

Overall hands: 7,015

Result: Daniel +$13,000

Overall: Doug +$565,417 

Day #13 - Daniel Gets a Bit Back

11/30/2020

Another fairly uneventful session saw Daniel pick up about half of a buy-in. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 476

Overall hands: 6,227

Result: Daniel +$17,780

Overall: Doug +$578,417

Day #12 - Doug Demolishes

11/28/2020

Everything went Doug's way in this one. The heads-up juggernaut ran hot and demonstrated his mastery of the game, winning over 8 buy-ins in a roughly 3 and a half hour session. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 684

Overall hands: 5,751

Result: Doug +$332,178

Overall: Doug +$596,197

Day #11 - Doug Wins With Zero All-Ins

11/25/2020

Doug and Daniel played a short pre-Thanksgiving session. Somehow, some way, they played zero all-in pots, with the biggest being just over $53k and going in Doug’s direction. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 386

Overall hands: 5,067

Result: Doug +$120,023

Overall: Doug +$264,019

 

Day #10 - Long Session, Doug Extends

11/23/2020

Doug and Daniel logged their longest online session yet at just over 4 hours. Doug booked a resounding win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 852

Overall hands: 4,651

Result: Doug +$117,624.38

Overall: Doug +$143,996

Day #9 - Doug Backs It Up...Into The Lead

11/20/2020

Doug backed up the truck to take Daniel for more than 5 buy-ins. With that, he's back in the lead by less than 1 buy-in. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 377

Overall hands: 3,799

Result: Doug +$205,521.74

Overall: Doug +$26,371.78

Day #8 - Big Pots, But Not Much Blood

11/19/2020

Doug and Daniel had a back and forth session with several big pots, but the results looked more like a stagnant session. Watch it here.

Hands played: 457

Overall hands: 3,422

Result: Daniel +$24,156

Overall: Daniel +$179,363

Day #7 - Daniel Dominates

11/18/2020

Daniel Negreanu booked the biggest win yet with a crushing victory over Doug. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 591

Overall hands: 2,965

Result: Daniel +$222,832

Overall: Daniel +$155,206

Day #6 - Doug Retakes

11/16/2020

Doug fired back with a solid win in the first longer session (~3.5 hours) of the online portion of the challenge. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 637

Overall hands: 2,374

Result: Doug +$93,542

Overall: Doug +$67,625

Day #5 - Big Win for Negreanu

11/13/2020

Negreanu more than doubled his previous win to take the overall lead by a bit under one buy-in. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 365

Overall hands: 1,737

Result: Daniel +$206,994

Overall: Daniel +$25,916

Day #4 - Dnegs Roars Back

11/11/2020

Negreanu booked his first online win of the match, which could have been more if his jacks held up against Doug's tens after getting all-in late in the match. He'll have to settle for the two buy-in win. Watch the session here.

Hands played: 366 hands

Overall hands: 1,372

Result: Daniel +$87,166

Overall: Doug +$180,865

Day #3 - Doug Extends

11/9/2020

Doug got his hand caught in the cookie jar to go down around $40,000 early, but roared back with some huge pots to extend his lead to over a quarter million bucks. Watch the match here.

Hands played: 382

Overall hands: 1,006

Result: Doug +$166,239

Overall: Doug +$268,031

Day #2 - Doug Roars Back

11/6/2020

Doug backed the truck up in the first online session. The match is available to watch here.

Hands played: 424

Overall hands: 624

Result: Doug +$218,292

Overall: Doug +$101,792

Day #1 - Dnegs Takes The Early Lead Live

11/4/2020

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu squared off for the first time in a surprisingly cordial match in the PokerGO studio. The match is available to watch here.

Hands played: 200

Result: Negreanu +$116,500

Overall: Negreanu +$116,500

Day #0 - Ramping Up

The most-anticipated heads-up challenge in recent memory will begin in early November.