Hellmuth wins 3rd round in Highstakes Duel against Tom Dwan

The third round of the Highstakes Duel between Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan was one of the most highly anticipated poker games this winter. After Dwan was victorious in the preliminary round, both players put 200,000 dollars on the table and played the next round.

The game was simple heads-up no-limit hold’em. Both players started with 200,000 chips each at 300 / 600 blinds. The blinds were slowly and moderately increased and the game was played in best-of-one mode.

After a good four hours, the duel was decided in favour of Phil Hellmuth. This was Hellmuth’s first heads-up win against Tom Dwan and Hellmuth’s 9th win in the 10 heads-up duels played so far in the series.

We have compiled the key hands below.

Dwan misses flush draw and bluff opportunity

The first significant hand of the duel occurred after 90 minutes at blinds of 500 / 1,000 with roughly even stacks:

Hellmuth chose an unusual line on the turn in this hand. He has a pair and a flush draw and decides to min-check-raise. Whatever Hellmuth’s plan was for this move, he succeeded in keeping Dwan from bluffing on the river. With this hand, the pendulum swung out in Hellmuth’s direction.

Lucky trips for Hellmuth

A good hour later, the next remarkable hand occurred and again Hellmuth was the winner:

Again we see an unusual raise from Hellmuth. This time he decided to make an inconveivable play preflop with 7-4-off. On the turn he hits trips and subsequently managed to win over 50,000 more chips from his opponent.

The hand in video:

Wow! @Phil_Hellmuth extends his chip lead and keeps the pressure on @TomDwan!

Watch the $400,000 High Stakes Duel match live right now on PokerGO! pic.twitter.com/pgGb1Kl5TN

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 27, 2022

Winning a flip to end it

Later, another unusually aggressive move was seen by Hellmuth when he made a substantial raise from the big blind with 3 2 after a limp from Dwan. He promptly hit a straight flush on the board to win a medium-sized pot against Dwan, who held a flush draw.

In the final hand – Hellmuth had a lead of about 4:1 at that point – Hellmuth limped on the button with A K . Dwan found 8 8 and raised. Hellmuth in turn shoved all-in and Dwan, who had already invested a considerable part of his stack, called the all-in.

The board fell K 5 2 6 6 and with the king on the flop, this round of the duel went the way of Phil Hellmuth.

Hellmuth played unusually in this match and had some luck on his side several times. Only a few days ago, in the article Hellmuth vs Dwan: A Call on the Verge of Madness, we predicted that Hellmuth would hardly have a chance against Dwan. We were probably wrong. Success proves him right.

Another match Dwan vs. Hellmuth to follow

The duel now goes into the next round. Tom Dwan quickly agreed to fight the next round. For that to happen he has to fork over 400,000 dollars. Hellmuth will play with the winnings from the last round.

PokerGO has already announced that the next round could take place as early as the end of March.

Video: 1st hour of Dwan vs. Hellmuth

The first hour of the duel between Dwan and Hellmuth is available for free:

The rest of the duel can be watched for a fee on PokerGO.

All Highstakes Duel matches so far

There have been three highstakes duels so far. Hellmuth won the first two outright after three matches. The current third Highstakes duel is the first to go into a fourth match.

Match	Result	Prize Money
Duel I – Match 1	Phil Hellmuth wins against Antonio Esfandiari	$100,000
Duel I – Match 2	Phil Hellmuth wins against Antonio Esfandiari	$200,000
Duel I – Match 3	Phil Hellmuth wins against Antonio Esfandiari	$400,000
–	Hellmuth wins Duel I after three victories in a row.	–
Duel II – Match 1	Phil Hellmuth wins against Daniel Negreanu	$100,000
Duel II – Match 2	Phil Hellmuth wins against Daniel Negreanu	$200,000
Duel II – Match 3	Phil Hellmuth wins against Daniel Negreanu	$400,000
–	Hellmuth wins Duel I after three victories in a row.	–
Duel III – Match 1	Phil Hellmuth wins against Nick Wright (Wright waives the re-match)	$100,000
Duel III – Match 2	Tom Dwan wins against Phil Hellmuth	$200,000
Duel III – Match 3	Phil Hellmuth wins against Tom Dwan	$400,000
Duel III – Match 4	Coming Up: Phil Hellmuth vs. Tom Dwan	$800,000

To win the entire duel, a player must win three matches in a row. From the fourth round onwards, two match wins in a row are sufficient. The winner of a match must agree to a re-match. The loser may waive the re-match. In this case, another player may take over the re-match.