The long-running bad blood between Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk appears to be heading to a livestream heads-up for rolls match in the fall. (WPT photo)

The long-running feud between Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu is apparently be coming to a livestream near you. After two days of back and forth on Twitter, the pair are now on a collision course for a high stakes heads-up poker match sometime in the fall.

The animosity between the two was reignited earlier this week after Polk posted a video on his YouTube channel which featured footage from Negreanu’s livestreamed threat that caused the six-time WSOP bracelet to have his Twitch channel suspended. Polk’s video, which was subsequently removed from YouTube, also included clips from Negreanu’s MasterClass commercial and footage of Negreanu wearing blackface.

The pair have feuded over the last several years dating back to 2016 when Polk produced a video titled Daniel Negreanu Says More Rake Is BETTER?!. Those four words, “More Rake is Better”, became a mantra used by Polk and many of his supporters to voice their displeasure with PokerStars, the poker site Negreanu was a Team Pro for at the time, and Negreanu himself. Polk went as far as to wear a t-with the slogan on it during the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl where he was serendipitously seated next to Negreanu and rented a billboard outside of the Rio Hotel & Casino a week later during the World Series of Poker with the four-word saying emblazoned on it.

The idea of the two playing a high stakes poker match to try and settle the feud came from podcaster Joey Ingram.

Polk was more than happy to take the bait and publicly challenged Negreanu to a “heads up for rolls grudge match”. After some sniping from each player over the other’s disagreement with possible terms and format, Negreanu took to his Twitter account to tell Polk he accepted the challenge from the Upswing Poker founder and three-time bracelet winner.

At the very least, it does appear that the two sides have agreed to a framework built around the following conditions:

  • Between 10,000 – 25,000 hands of No Limit Hold’em
  • Stakes of $200/$400
  • Online, two tables at a time

A time and a date has not been officially agreed upon yet, but both players indicated that late-September or early-October fit their schedule. Details on the potential streaming of the match – including a contentious point on whether or not hole cards will be shown to the viewing audience – are also still being finalized.

The actual match may still be months away, but both players continued the verbal sparring on Twitter on Thursday after Negreanu wrote a blog post detailing his reasons for agreeing to the match.

“So in the end, why am I doing this? To give the people what they want. For many years now this man has made a living off of trashing me on a regular basis, well past an unhealthy obsession, regurgitating the same attack lines over and over. Not because he truly believes I’m an evil monster, but purely for personal gain disguised as standing for some noble cause,” Negreanu wrote.