Jan 26th: Hellmuth vs. Dwan $400k Heads-Up Battle

Jan 26th: Hellmuth vs. Dwan $400k Heads-Up Battle
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Arved Klöhn Content Writer
Fact Checked: PokerListings
  • Updated: January 23, 2026
  • Read time: 2 min

On January 26th the second round of the Highstakes Duel between Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan will take place in Las Vegas in the PokerGO Studio.

In the heads-up cash game series, which is broadcast live on PokerGO and in which this time $400,000 is at stake, Phil Hellmuth was undefeated in the first seven matches against various opponents until he met Tom Dwan, who was the first opponent to beat him.

Now the re-match against Dwan is coming up and it will start on January 26th at 8pm ET. It will be broadcast live on PokerGO. The first hour can be watched for free on the PokerGO Youtube channel.

Victories against Negreanu and Esfandiari

Hellmuth has faced Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu each three times in heads-up duels in the past. He beat both players in all three duels. Afterwards he played once against the sports commentator Nick Wright, whom he also beat clearly. Wright promptly waived the right to a re-match.

Enter Tom Dwan.

The first time the two met was in 2008 at the NBC Heads-Up Championship. A very young Tom Dwan won a with some luck against Hellmuth back then, whereupon Hellmuth got upset about Dwan’s game and called him a “sucker”. A visibly annoyed Dwan immediately challenged him to a heads-up duel for rolls.

That was the deciding hand of the game at the time:

Highstakes Duel

13 years later, the first revenge heads-up between Dwan and Hellmuth took place when they played their first PokerGO Highstakes Duel. Tom Dwan won that Duel in August last year. Now the next round is coming up and the stakes have been doubled to $200,000 per player. The winner will take home $400,000.

The winner of this $400,000 match will either rematch with their opponent or face a new challenger with double the stakes. According to PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel rules, the stakes double with each round and the duel can be played until the eighth round. In this last round, a prize money of $12,800,000 would then be played out. A player is considered the winner of the overall duel if he wins three consecutive games before Round 4 or two consecutive games from Round 4 onwards. This means that no matter who wins on January 26th, there will be at least one more duel – then with a stake of $400k per player.

Highlights of the first Highstakes Duel between Dwan and Hellmuth

The Highstakes Duel will be broadcast live on PokerGO.com. For a payment of $99.99, you can watch all broadcast events live for 12 months. Alternatively, you can watch all events for one month for $14.99.