Matt Berkey Defeats Jared Bleznick In High Stakes Duel 6 Heads-Up Poker Challenge


After 12 hours of $200-$400 heads-up cash game action, Matt Berke emerged victorious in PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel 6. The poker pro and founder of the Solve For Why training site overcame former professional player turned sports card entrepreneur Jared Bleznick, who was riding high after a convincing win against Poker Hall of Famer Patrik Antonius in HSD 5.

The clash was split into two sessions, with the first ending up more or less even after nearly six hours of play. This show was originally founded as a heads-up sit-n-go clash, but this time around, it featured a cash game format with alternating rounds of no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha.

Berkey focuses on no-limit hold’em cash games. Although he famously won $1,000,000 in a heads-up challenge against Nikhil ‘Nik Airball’ Arcot, he has described himself publicly as far from a specialist at the one-on-one version of NLH. The 43-year-old Las Vegas resident apparently has even less experience playing PLO.

The two contenders each started with $100,000 to work with, with both adding to their stacks as the day wore on.

After the final hand of day 1, Bleznick sat with $205,200 for a $22,700 profit, while Berkey was stuck that amount with $194,800 in front of him. While the two were still quite close on the leaderboard, that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of big hands throughout the day.

In one large clash, Berkey kicked off the action with a raise of $1,200 on the button holding KClub Suit3Club Suit. He then called a three-bet to $5,000 from Bleznick, who had picked up 10Heart Suit10Diamond Suit in the big blind. Berkey flopped a flush draw and called when Bleznick continuation bet $6,500 with one overcard to his pair on the JClub Suit7Spade Suit4Club Suit board. The 6Diamond Suit on the turn saw Bleznick check, while Berkey fired $18,000 with his flush draw and newly acquired gutshot. Bleznick called and the river brought the 5Heart Suit, giving Berkey a seven-high straight. Bleznick checked and then went into the tank when Berkey fired $38,000 on the end. Bleznick eventually found the correct fold, but not after taking a sizable hit to his stack.

Day 2 Brings A PLO Buy Out, Pain For Bleznick

While Berkey preferred the NLH rounds, Bleznick would likely have been plenty happy to play the whole match out in the PLO streets. He was formerly a regular on the PLO cash tables and even pops up on the high-stakes online tables for the game these days despite shifting his focus to his sports card business in recent years.

Bleznick has also recorded several high-profile PLO tournament scores, including winning the 2023 S_uper High Roller Bowl Pot-Limit Omaha_ title for $1.3 million and placing third in the $100,000 PLO high roller at last year’s World Series of Poker Paradise for another $1.2 million.

Jared BleznickBerkey got off to a rough start on day 2. After 90 or so minutes of play, he was stuck over $130,000 on the match. Along the way, he began to negotiate a buyout to Bleznick that would see him pay upfront to eliminate the PLO rounds, making the remainder of the day exclusively an NLH affair.

While he first said he would go no higher than $11,500 for the deal, it ultimately ended up costing more to get the change done. Bleznick asked if it would be alright if he could consult a friend on the price. “I think the actual number is like, half that,” said Berkey, after consenting to the consultation.

A big pot went Berkey’s way in the meantime, with his rivered flush besting Bleznick’s kings up on the end. Berkey check-raise shoved for $103,500 over the top of Bleznick’s $35,500 value bet. Bleznick made the right fold in the end, but plenty of damage was done.

Berkey then won another big pot with a rivered straight besting aces up to further narrow the gap between the two. He backed that up by floating a flop lead and three-bet bluff from Bleznick’s king high with queen high, buying the pot on the river after the turn checked through and showing his cards after dragging the pot.

The deal was agreed to soon after that, with Berkey eventually forking over $15,000 to bypass the impending switch to PLO. At first, he joked, “Let’s play PLO.”

“No, I’m kidding. Fucking take my money,” said Berkey as he tossed the chips over. After the fact, he took to social media to post a poll about the buyout. Berkey had $301,000 in front of him at the time, which amounted to an overall loss of $27,000 up to that point across the two sessions. Bleznick was down to $100,300.

Things went Berkey’s way in the aftermath of the deal. He won a healthy pot with two pair against Bleznick’s pocket aces right off the bat, then continued to add to his stack. The next big clash saw him raise to $1,200 on the button with AHeart SuitAClub Suit and Bleznick three-bet to $5,200 with 9Spade Suit9Diamond Suit. Berkey four-bet to $16,000 and Bleznick called. The flop came down KHeart Suit8Club Suit2Heart Suit and it checked through. The 9Heart Suit on the turn gave Bleznick a set. He bet $15,000 and Berkey called with his overpair and the nut flush draw. The river was the 2Club Suit and Bleznick went for a small lead of $22,000 into $62,400, likely looking to induce a raise from his opponent. Instead, he was met with a flat call to limit the damage to Berkey’s stack.

“I had every intention of jamming river. I just don’t think you call worse,” said Berkey as he made the call.

“How good are you?” asked Bleznick. “Wow, that’s so titling.”

With about an hour left in the match, Berkey won a huge pot with jacks full of sixes against a missed flush draw for Bleznick. He checked the river with a boat made on the end after having check-raised the turn with two pair. Bleznick fired $25,000 into the $93,400 pot as a bluff with his busted draw and Berkey check-shoved for value. Bleznick folded to preserve his remaining $48,400 on the table and reached into his bag for an add-on.

Not too long after that, Berkey made a flush with QClub Suit2Club Suit on a 10Club Suit8Club Suit7Spade SuitJSpade Suit7Club Suit to best Bleznick’s AHeart SuitJClub Suit. Bleznick check-called a bet of $33,000 into the already hefty $69,400 pot and was shown the bad news.

With that, Berkey’s stack swelled to $582,000 while Bleznick’s slide continued.

“This is about, what, a half-million-dollar swing from his peak to now? Maybe just shy,” commented two-time bracelet winner Alex Livingston on the PokerGO broadcast.

Berkey ran up the score a bit more before all was said and done, with the final profit clocking in at $314,900 for him. Of course, that meant a proportionate loss for Bleznick.

“I ran very well,” said Berkey as the challenge wound down.

“You ran well, but you outplayed me, too,” said Bleznick.

“Thank you for letting me out of the PLO,” continued Berkey.

“Biggest mistake of my life,” responded Bleznick.

With that, Berkey posed for some photos with the High Stakes Duel 6 champions belt. He later took to social media to say that he doesn’t plan on squaring off against any of the world’s best as the reigning champ.

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

 

 

 





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