Phil Hellmuth recently clashed with Jason Koon in PokerGO's High Stakes Duel show. Yet, he lost the $1.6 million round after his opponent outplayed him. The first battle between the two poker pros ended in less than three hours on Wednesday evening.
It was Koon's maiden heads-up poker show. Yet, he dominated and proved to be a worthy Poker Hall of Fame inductee. Some ardent poker fans claimed that he was Hellmuth's toughest opponent in the duel.
Koon paid $800,000 to play in Round 5 of High Stakes Duel III as Scott Seiver's replacement. The latter lost in Round 4 to Hellmuth and withdrew from the rematch in august.
The Tough Battle
Hellmuth tried to show aggression once the match kicked off. Both of them had 800,000 chips, while the 30-minute blind levels started at 1,000-2,000. Hellmuth won several small pots early in the battle before the odds turned against him.
A few early breaks didn't help Hellmuth. He went runner-runner for a straight several times to win small pots and made a costly mistake when he used {q-}{6-} to get creative and made a 260,000 five-bet. Koon used {a-}{a-} to go all in.
He prompted the "Poker Brat" to fold and drop to an almost 2:1 stack disadvantage. He later rivered the nut flush and win a vital 270,000 chip pot to improve his position. Hellmuth almost pulled even after 20 minutes.
Koon got his second pocket aces more than an hour since the match began. He hit 8-10 premium preflop hands, and Hellmuth missed a premium. Koon used {q-Hearts}{j-Spades} to make a 10,000 preflop raise in the next hand before Hellmuth used {7-Spades}{4-Hearts} to three-bet 32,000.
The flop turned {8-Clubs}{j-Diamonds}{10-Spades}, and each player sought the {q-Spades} on the turn. Koon got the top two pair that Hellmuth bet for 14,000. The latter called, and the river revealed {5-Spades}.
They checked again and Koon extended his lead after winning a 92,000-chip pot. Hellmuth used {q-Hearts}{j-Spades} to three-bet after a few minutes and ran into {a-Diamonds}{q-Diamonds}. Unfortunately, he lost a huge pot after missing a bluff into the turn's ace-high.
Hellmuth missed a fold on a four-to-a-straight board against a 56,000-chip wager despite having rivered second pair. Koon flopped the middle pair before rivering the straight and reducing Hellmuth's stack to 300,000 chips.
Koon used pocket deuces to make a classic play on a {q-}{9-}{10-}{6-}{7-} board after wagering 60,000 and forcing Hellmuth to muck a 7's pair and win a 160,000 pot. The latter's stack later reduced to less than 50 big blinds and prevented him from building momentum.
Luckily, Hellmuth used queen-high to go through a solid bluff on a {10-}{a-}{4-}{6-} board and placed a 50,000 bet. He forced Koon off pocket 9's. But, Hellmuth later had bad timing after using {9-Diamonds}{8-Hearts} to call a preflop raise and make a 60,000 check-raise turn on the {5-Hearts}{q-Clubs}{5-Clubs}{6-Clubs} board.
Koon used {a-Hearts}{5-Spades} to bet out for trips and got an almost 10:1 chip lead. His opponent won a few chips and used {k-}{2-} to call a bet on the {j-}{j-}{j-} flop.
Both of them checked the turn before the {4-} appeared on the river and paired Koon's {6-}{4-}. He wagered 36,000 and a king-high called him. Koon used {q-Clubs}{8-Diamonds} to make a 12,000 raise and Hellmuth used {a-Diamonds}{k-Clubs} to make a 35,000 three-bet.
The former decided to jam all-in and the latter made a 103,000 snap-call. The board ran {q-Spades}{10-Clubs}{4-Spades}{10-Diamonds}{3-Spades} earning Koon the best hand and top pair thus ending the poker match.
