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Jason Koon Beats Phil Hellmuth In High Stakes Duel 3 Round 5

High-stakes poker pro Jason Koon, on Wednesday, beat Phil Hellmuth in the $1,600,000 High Stakes Duel 3 Round 5 match, and Phil Hellmuth was denied his third consecutive High Stakes Duel Championship Belt in the process. Koon winning means that High Stakes Duel 3 will advance to Round 6 where a $3,200,000 match will be played. Hellmuth has first right to rematch Koon in Round 6, but if he passes on a rematch, then another competitor will need to pony up $1,600,000 to compete against Koon. 

“I had great hands,” Koon told PokerGO after the match. “Even the hands that I bluffed, almost all of them kind of presented themselves in a natural way, so it was just one of those days where almost anybody in my seat is going to win.”

Koon continued, “Like I said coming in, I was ready to lose this thing quite often because of the structure. I could have been on the other end of that, where Phil just had huge hands all of the time, and that’s just the nature of poker. You shouldn’t feel bad the days that you run good, and you shouldn’t feel bad the days that you run bad. It’s just the process of it all. Today, I got to be the winner, and it’s nice to do that for gigantic stakes.”

High Stakes Duel is a PokerGO original series that begins with each player posting the $50,000 buy-in. The winner progresses through to the next round where the loser has the first option to challenge for a rematch. If the loser declines, the challenger seat is open for 30 days. The stakes will double each round and a potential $12,800,000 prize pool would be reached by Round 8.

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ALSO READ: Phil Hellmuth And Jason Koon To Lock Horns For $1,600,000

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The $1,600,000 match began with Hellmuth and Koon exchanging the lead often. Both players began with 800,000 in chips and the blinds at 1,500/2,500. For about 45 minutes, the two hovered around the starting chip stack amount before the first big hand came up, and it was one that Hellmuth picked at the wrong time to bluff.

Although Hellmuth did lose this High Stakes Duel match, which was the largest High Stakes Duel match to date, his record in the competition stands at 9-2 and he previously won two High Stakes Duel championship belts.

For Koon, he now awaits a challenger for High Stakes Duel 3 Round 6, which will be a $3,200,000 match that each player puts up $1,600,000 for. Hellmuth has first right to a rematch against Koon, and if he passes on that rematch, it will open up the door for another opponent to step into the ring.

Give max credit to @Jasonkoon, he played great poker in our “High Stakes Duel.” Congrats on the win Jason, you are a class act and a great player and everyone knows it. I enjoyed playing the first 11 matches of HSD, finished 9-2 #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/DuTIj9GDG0

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) December 8, 2022

“My preparation for this match was not only Phil-specific but it was also – I assumed it was going to go two ways,” Koon said. “One, there’s going to be some very rich recreational player who wants a sweat, which is great. Or there’s going to be some super alpha person who comes from Russia or somewhere who wants to play me, but I doubt it. I just can’t really see anyone that will play me. I’m not trying to be arrogant, it’s just that it’s a lot of money to move for a one-percent or two-percent edge that you’re going to have at most against me, but my preparation was to be ready to play an optimal player. I did not play an optimal strategy today. I played a very Phil-specific strategy. But if I play another player, I will be ready to play them if they play the way that a solver would play.”

When Koon does face his next challenger in a High Stakes Duel, whether it’s Hellmuth or someone else, he’ll need to win that match in order to become the High Stakes Duel 3 champion and take home the championship belt. Per the rules of High Stakes Duel, a player must win two consecutive matches in order to win the championship belt once the competition reaches Round 4.

For more news and updates, keep reading Gutshot Magazine. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram.

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