Doug Polk lost around 2/3 of his stack early, dwindling down to 120k early in the second level. Meanwhile, Daniel Negreanu saw early success, building his stack to around 400k.
The biggest pot between the two occurred when Polk bet a busted straight draw on the river and Negreanu called down with Ace King high. Negreanu was visibly elated with his call, and triumphantly slammed his cards down on the table.
Negreanu and Polk clashed again later in the level, after Polk chipped up to around 300k. Both players held over‐pairs to the board, but Negreanu’s QQ got a river call from Polk’s TT. Polk was left with just 89k after the hand.
Polk was able to chip back up to 140k after Negreanu fired a 35k river bet into his runnerrunner trip 6’s. Polk moved all‐in and Negreanu quickly mucked his queen‐high bluff.
Shortly after this hand new seating assignments were drawn and Negreanu and Polk were forced to postpone their battle for the time being. Unfortunately Doug Polk didn’t survive day 1, but Daniel Negreanu is the chip‐leader going into day 2.
It is too bad that we won’t be seeing any more of this rivalry during the Super High Roller Bowl, but Poker is always entertaining to watch, and Negreanu and Polk clashing on the featured table made day 1 of the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl that much more fun.