Good idea! I just saw this after posting in another thread. I loved it and I adore them both, but hey, everyone loves a comeback story! I was feeling sorry for Phil the first half when Negs was really going at him verbally and winning hand after hand. Then the poker Gods seemed to punish Negs for not closing it out when he had the opportunity (I don't want to say the hand in case people still want to watch it) and then the cards seemed to turn from favoring Negs to favoring Phil.
I was really surprised by the lack of aggression generally in their game - there was a lot of calling preflop & checking (did anyone else think so?), but then I play the micros where there's not a lot of small ball, lol, and usually stacks are short once you get to heads up.
I have been somewhat excited to watch these various duels since they kicked off with Galfond vs Venividi. Then of course the next big hitter was Polk Negreanu.
However, at times, I asked myself was the play always high level - I didn't really think it was- and further were the formats that entertaining? To be honest, I started to realize that the entertainment value was limited. Even Best Bet back in Nov 20 was asking were the Galfond Challenges running out of steam?
Then there was the much ballyhooed duel between Holz and Malinowski which was presented well (cards up and video feed of both players) but the play was frankly substandard as they were distracted.
It was at this point Dara O'Kearney, the Irish pro, stated he really thought it was a mediocre format. Further, he thought there was no chance this was drawing people to poker (before PokerGo then tucked proceedings behind its pay wall). I think he is correct. This is only of interest to those interested in poker already.
So it has had to date some popularity, it has drawn eyes - but there is precious little else regrading poker to watch. I think to be honest it's all a little overhyped but does not hold up to serious scrutiny.
I enjoyed Helmuth whipping Esfandieri's butt, simply because of Esfandieri's smug arrogance. But that did not extend to Helmuth Negreanu match, because the play could hardly be called riveting. Helmuth played like Helmuth and Negreanu (for all his claims of GTO wizardry) played just like Negreanu - and it was mediocre stuff.
Personally I am waiting for some full ring EPT, WPT and
wsop live streams to come back on line and I think once they do, these heads up duels will fade fairly quickly.
