Tice and Perkins play 623 hands on Day 1 of their heads-up challenge
The long-awaited Landon Tice vs. Bill Perkins heads-up challenge finally kicked off Wednesday, with Tice taking the early lead in the heavily hyped match.
Tice and Perkins played 623 of a scheduled 20,000 hands Wednesday, with Tice finishing Day 1 with just around an $18,000 advantage. The opening round of the match played out on Americas Cardroom, which will host the Tice vs. Perkins match through its completion.
Per the stipulations of the match, Perkins starts with a 9bb/100 handicap over the 20,000 hands. That amounts to a $720,000 spread that Tice has to cover in order to profit from the match.
Covering the $720,000 spot carries financial ramifications far beyond that, however. Tice took to Twitter earlier this week asking for side bet action, with Tice and Perkins almost certainly playing with an unknown collection of side bets against each other.
Tice got the early jump on Perkins in the straight-up money tally. If the Day 1 pace were to keep up throughout 20,000 hands, however, Tice would come up short of clearing the $720,000 spot.
At $18,000 profit per 623 hands, Tice would end the challenge with just under $578,000 in profit by the end of 20,000 hands. Tice appeared poised to end Day 1 with a much bigger advantage, but Perkins reduced the lead to the final $18,000 loss by the end of the session.
Perkins closes the gap at the end of Day 1
ACR Team Pros Chris Moneymaker and Robert Kuhn called the action on live stream on the Americas Cardroom Twitch channel. Spectators were treated to the opening round of action between Landon ‘AbsoluteGO’ Tice and Bill ‘gastrader’ Perkins.
Through 591 hands, Tice held a $91,000 lead. Much of that lead evaporated in a massive pot that developed near the end of the session.
Playing at $200/$400 stakes, Perkins opened to $960 to begin the hand, Tice three-bet to $3,800, and Perkins called. The flop came 6❤️2♣6♣, Tice continuation-bet for $5,016, and Perkins called.
The 2❤️ fell on the turn, Tice checked, Perkins bet $7052.80, and Tice called. The river came the 9♠, Tice checked, and Perkins pushed $60,000 in the middle for a 2x overbet.
Tice thought it over for a few moments, then called. Perkins turned over 9♣9♦️ for a full house, and Tice tabled A♠K❤️. The hand sent a $141,594.59 pot to Perkins, which took more than $70k off Tice’s lead.
Day 2 of the heads-up challenge begins at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT, with live stream coverage available on the Americas Cardroom Twitch channel.
Featured image source: Twitch
