Patrik Antonius Surrenders to Jared Bleznick After Three Straight HSD Defeats
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It's over. Three matches, three defeats, and a $350,000 overall loss on High Stakes Duel 5 is enough for Patrik Antonius.
The Poker Hall of Famer dropped Tuesday's Round 3 contest, a $400,000 pot, to sports cards hobbyist Jared Bleznick in a battle of attrition, and then promptly waved the white flag. Round 4, an $800,000 prize pool, will not take place.
Poker Stars Fight for Early Pots
Bleznick defeated Antonius in Round 1, a $50,000-per-person buy-in, two weeks ago. He then defended his title last week — Antonius paid $100,000 to get back in the game — and then swept the series of games on PokerGO in Round 3. Antonius paid $200,000 to enter the third match.
Round 3 was quite a battle — a five-hour marathon, the longest match between these two poker giants. The mixed no-limit hold'em/pot-limit Omaha game began with each player having a stack of $200,000 chips. Increasing blind levels started at $300/$600, big enough to ensure there would be a sizable amount of monster pots before the contest ended.
Antonius started things off by flopping two pair in PLO and getting a bit of action from a drawing hand before taking down a $21,000 pot on the turn. Things got even better for the Finnish poker legend when, moments later, Bleznick, holding A♣6♥5♠4♦ on a board of 9♣K♣9♠5♣3♥, used the A♣ as a blocker to bluff with a $13,000 river bet. But he was up against the Q♣2♣ for a flush, and Antonius made the call to take down the pot, which brought his stack up to $224,000.
Chip stacks mostly remained about the same for the next hour, each player taking their turn to win small pots here and there. Antonius would then begin to slowly eat away at Bleznick's stack, in one hand three-betting pocket queens and taking it down on a six-high flop, and in another hand, turning a flush to crack top pair.
Bleznick would then fight back and, after an hour of grinding to even up the score, would take a slight lead. Antonius then came back with a skilled bluff in PLO when he wagered $20,000 on the river with just a pair to force his opponent off the nut straight, likely fearing he was up against a flush.
Back Comes Antonius
There still weren't any significant chip disparities three hours into the match, but Bleznick had begun to take over the game. That would all change moments later on a board of 9♠K♣10♠A♣5♠ with $70,000 already in the pot. Bleznick, who had queen-high, bet $58,000 only for his opponent, holding the nuts with A♠6♠, to move all in. Antonius had finally, for the first time in three matches, taken a huge lead and was up to $252,000.
The match took another turn in the opposite direction when "The Blez" rivered a king-high flush in PLO against a queen-high flush to take down a crucial $92,000 pot. Antonius would again run into a rough situation in pot-limit Omaha on a board of 2♠5♥A♦7♦ with 5♠5♦4♥2♦ in the hole for a set and flush draw.
Bleznick, who had the nut straight and a superior flush draw to boot, bet $4,000. Antonius made it $17,000 before the three-bet — and call — to $48,000 occurred. The K♠ on the river didn't pair the board. Bleznick went for blood, betting pot ($107,000). Antonius would have essentially been done had he called, but he wisely folded, leaving $118,000 behind.
This match, however, was far from over. Saving that river call was a wise decision as Antonius would scoop a huge pot back into the chip lead shortly after when he flopped a set and nearly got maximum value out of two pair.
Bleznick Takes Over
Antonius had his moments in this match. He pulled off a couple of solid bluffs, won a couple of coolers, and continually fought back from sizable deficits. But, in the end, Bleznick made the right moves when it mattered most. He took little time to dust off the cooler hand and, before long, would open up a 3-1 chip advantage.
Antonius didn't just throw in the towel. He continued to battle, but would lose a $100,000 pot in PLO against a runner runner flush that was a killer.
The back-and-forth marathon match would come to an end at the $4,000/$8,000 blind level when Antonius jammed all in for $119,000 in NLH with K♣4♣ preflop on the button. Bleznick, who looked down at A♥5♠, made the call. Antonius then asked his opponent if he wanted to run the board once or twice.
"Patrik, listen, I'm going to tell you, win or lose, okay, I'm going to tell you this right now, I'm being honest — win or lose, I've completely outplayed you," the confident Bleznick responded. "It's your decision. I don't care."
"The world gets to see every hand, you pick, my friend," he continued.
Antonius, trailing in the 60/40 hand, decided to run it once. The flop came out 4♦7♦2♠, putting the Poker Hall of Famer out in front. But the 3♠ on the turn gave Bleznick a straight to lock up the hand and the tournament.
No rematch will happen as Antonius tossed in the white flag. Bleznick is the second player in High Stakes Duel history to win three straight matches against the same opponent. Phil Hellmuth, in HSD I, did it versus Antonio Esfandiari, and then the "Poker Brat" repeated his performance in HSD II against Daniel Negreanu with three straight wins.
*Images courtesy of PokerGO.
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