Fedor Holz won $37,000 against Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski in heads-up challenge opening session, but Doug Polk questioned the integrity and legitimacy of the match.
Malinowski and Holz are competing in a lengthy heads-up battle at $100/$200 stakes on GGPoker, the site Holz represents. Polk trashed the heads-up game of both players prior to the start of the match.
He claimed on Twitter that both players are mediocre at heads-up no-limit hold’em. The Upswing Poker founder referred to Holz as “extremely weak” and said “Limitless” has an edge in this match even though he’s “overrated.”
The insulting comments from Polk are no surprise. He has a history of letting the poker world know which players he thinks are overrated or suck at poker, as he’s done in the past with Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, and others. But it was a bit strange he made the comments just before serving as a commentator on the Upswing Poker YouTube channel for the Holz/Malinowski match.
He joined Mike Brady, VP of Upswing Poker, in the booth during the first session. Throughout the match, Polk was highly critical of Malinowski’s play, although he said he felt Holz “played well.” And he questioned if “Limitless” is actually as bad as he showed, or if some funny business was going on.
While commentating on the match, Polk concocted an interesting conspiracy theory. He suggested that Malinowski can’t possibly be as poor as he’s shown during that session. So, he contemplated the idea that, perhaps “Limitless” was intentionally playing like a donkey to drum up some higher stakes action against other pros.
Is Doug Polk Crazy or is there Something to It?
The old rope-a-dope strategy might work in this instance. But Polk’s accusations haven’t been proven. Perhaps, they were just feeling each other out during the first session and weren’t trying to show too much. Polk asked his Twitter followers if they thought the match was fixed.
Is @Iimitless2 actually this bad or is he playing badly on purpose?
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) March 5, 2021
With over 9,000 votes compiled, 21 percent claim that Malinowski was playing badly on purpose, 46.3% are unsure, and 32.7% just think he’s mediocre at heads-up no-limit hold’em.
“I don’t think this can be for real money, Mike,” Doug Polk told his live-stream partner about Malinowski’s play midway through the session. “These decisions are just horrific. This feels completely staged to me. Is it possible they have something where GG’s covering the loser’s losses, so you’re just incentivized to play spewy and win as much as possible? There is something weird here.”
Holz and Malinowski will return to action on Monday, whether the match is legit or otherwise.
