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Isildur1 beats Daniel Negreanu in SuperStar Showdown

There was quite a bit of buildup before the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown between Daniel Negreanu and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. The majority of the poker community considered Blom to be the favorite since he's a heads-up specialist, who is also used to multi-tabling against the world's top online high stakes poker players.

However, Negreanu was still given a chance by many people due to his experience playing high stakes cash games, as well as his decades of poker experience in general. Unfortunately for Negreanu, his experience didn't mean a whole lot when it came to handling the SuperStar Showdown format.

The Showdown takes place on four simultaneous tables of $50/$100 No-Limit Hold'em, with the matchup lasting either 2,500 hands, or when one of the players loses their $150,000 bankroll.

It was clear from the beginning that Negreanu had trouble handling decisions on four tables at once. Just nine hands into the match, Negreanu hit a two-pair while holding K-Q on a board of K-4-4; however, his minimum raises encouraged calls from Isildur1 on both the turn (10) and river (6). Negreanu raised $3,100 on the river, only to see Blom go all-in, which brought a call from Negreanu. Blom showed pocket sixes for a full house, which earned him $20,000 from Negreanu.

Less than 200 hands later, on a board of 9-3-2, both players went all-in on another table. Blom (A-9) had top pair with an ace kicker, while Negreanu (Q-9) was left hoping for a queen. A queen didn't come, but two more aces did, and Blom added another $20k to his stack.

The rest of the match seemed to go Blom's way as he had Negreanu covered on nearly every big hand. After 700 hands of play, half of Negreanu's stack was gone, and it was looking like he wouldn't last the entire game. As play wound down to one table, Negreanu put up more of a fight, but Blom was able to end the match after just 1,439 hands of play.

Even after losing $150k, Negreanu is set for a rematch with Blom this weekend. If you'd like to see these two play, and get a 100% up to $600 bonus, you should download PokerStars and use the bonus code "STARS600".

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