High Stakes Duel pits some of the strongest poker players against each other
The digital video subscription services for poker, PokerGO, made two important announcements this past week that poker fans will enjoy. First, it seems that a new brand is coming to the direct-to-consumer OTT subscription video service and the second announcement involves a new deal in which premier mainstream tournaments can come to mainstream masses. The show is called "High Stakes Duel," and its first episode will be aired on Thursday, July 30 at 9 PM ET. As part of the debut of the first episode, a heads-up match between Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari versus Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth will be featured.
This show will feature great heads-up poker matches among the best poker players out there. The first one will be this one between Hellmuth and Esfandiari, and it will be played at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. It presents a very unique format that includes several rounds to be played. In Round 1, both players have to buy in for $50,000, and only the winner moves forward to Round 2. Before the winner moves on to the next round, though, the loser has one opportunity to call for a rematch. Other episodes will welcome other pro players facing each other in heads-up matches as well. Since each stake doubles on each round, the total prize pool can be as high as $12,800,000 by Round 8.
"For 10 years I’ve been challenging Phil to a heads-up match where the winner shoots the loser with a taser gun - so going head-to-head in ‘High Stakes Duel’ has been a long time coming," Esfandiari said in a press release. "The idea that the winner has to go double-or-nothing at least two more times after the first match is brilliant; it will be interesting to see who will go for the challenge and who will turn it down when it gets to a certain point."
