On Sunday, the second installment of the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown between Daniel Negreanu and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom played out across four $50/$100 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em tables. Last week, it was a bloodbath, as Negreanu went broke in just 1,439 hands out of the 2,500 required for completion, the first time that the challenge had ended prematurely.
This week, Negreanu righted the ship, profiting $26,500 to offset last week’s losses partially. However, Blom jumped out to a monstrous lead once again, claiming all but $30,000 of Negreanu’s $150,000 stake after just 1,300 hands. It seemed like we might be writing the same story this week, but Negreanu surged ahead and avoided another complete meltdown.
There were double-ups aplenty for Negreanu in his quest to stave off elimination and avoid his second straight $150,000 loss to Blom. One occurred after “Kid Poker” made a better two pair than Blom and another came when an ace on the river helped Negreanu draw out on pocket nines with A-8. Then, pocket queens withstood Blom’s J-10 and, suddenly, Blom’s lead had been sliced by half.
Negreanu’s kings withstood Blom’s 9-7 of hearts when the money went in on a 10-9-4 flop to shrink Blom’s edge to $55,000. In a similar hand, Blom was all-in on a jack-high flop with Q-J, but Negreanu had him trumped with aces. The Canadian was hitting the deck hard and often and pulled within $8,000 just a half-hour after he was down over $100,000.
Negreanu ultimately recorded a lead and then coolered his Swedish opponent in a $36,000 pot. Blom got his money in on a flop of 10-9-4 with pocket fours for bottom set only to see Negreanu table pocket tens for top set. The better hand held and Negreanu went up by $15,000. Another $10,000 in profit later, the second SuperStar Showdown featuring “Kid Poker” and “Isildur1” was over.
Near the end of the battle, Negreanu commented on his dramatic turnaround in a PokerStars chat box: “I was stuck like $120K at one point I think. I broke lots of stuff in my room btw lol, smashed everything.” Negreanu later told the PokerStars Blog, “Isildur1 is incredible. I hope to do a training lesson with him one day. He’s the best.”
Posters on TwoPlusTwo marveled at the “old versus new” match with Negreanu and Blom. One member of the poker forum wrote, “Negreanu’s loss last week pretty much proved exactly the point he has been trying to make – he has been drawing attention to how good the new generation is, not trying to diminish their skills or prove that they’re beatable. And his win yesterday just proves the point even more.”
Another player cheered, “Congrats DN. I’m impressed you came back in Week 2 for the victory – I was rooting for you in both matches. This just goes to show that hard work does pay off!”
Fans of the SuperStar Showdown won’t have to wait long for another encounter, as Scott “urnotindangr” Palmer will face off against Blom this Sunday, April 3rd, on PokerStars. Visit PokerStars for more information.
