The stakes were relatively low for the competitors, but Doug Polk and Ethan “Rampage” Yau played a heads-up match live-streamed at The Lodge Poker Card Club, with the latter pro dominating the match.
On Thursday, the two high-profile poker players battled for nearly six hours at the Texas card room co-owned by Polk for some $10/$20 stakes no-limit hold’em. Early on, the match was competitive and both players traded the chip lead multiple times. But it became a one-sided affair a few hours into the session.
Dominating the G.O.A.T.
Rampage doesn’t have much heads-up experience, but the poker vlogger wanted to test his skills against one of the best heads-up no-limit hold’em players ever. He did more than just compete.
Both players showed up with $2,000, but those stacks would drastically increase throughout the session. In the early stages, the popular poker players traded jabs. Polk jammed all in for $690 on the river with queen-high and was snap-called by a straight, forcing the Upswing Poker founder to rebuy.
Shortly after, on a board of 3♣7♠6♠10♦9♦, Rampage bet out $140 on a bluff with Q♥J♦, but his opponent raised to $400 with K♣8♣ for a straight. That wasn’t the end of the hand, however, as Yau went for a three-bet raise to $2,000.
https://twitter.com/LodgePokerClub/status/1712566117095375019
The bluff didn’t get through on this occasion, and Polk moved into the lead for the session. But Rampage’s aggression would lead to numerous bluffs getting through over the entire match and also getting paid off on his monster hands. And he hit more than his fair share of monsters.
Take, for example, a hand in which the poker vlogger caught a set of jacks on the turn to crack Polk’s flopped pair of aces. He also picked up pocket kings against ace-king to win a sizable pot, among many other big hands.
In one of the biggest pots of the night, with the board showing 3♣8♦2♠9♠7♥ and $2,600 in the pot, Rampage moved all in for $3,000 with a set of deuces and was able to extract maximum value when the card room’s co-owner called it off with 9♦5♦.
But it wasn’t just good fortune that went Yau’s way as he also found a number of well-timed bluffs and was able to avoid paying Polk off on most of his monster hands.
At the end of the session, Rampage booked a $15,540 profit against the heads-up poker legend. Polk, however, will have an opportunity to get that money back in a much higher stakes ring game at The Lodge on Saturday night (live-streamed on YouTube).