2017 - the year of the heads-up grudge match

We might look back at 2017 as the year of the heads-up grudge match. This year we will already be treated to Cate Hall vs Mike Dentale, a heads-up match which was born out of a Twitter dispute, and as confirmed last week it looks like William Kassouf will take on Stacy Matuson after the two shared Instagram videos where they goaded each other.

We might even see the return of the durrrr Challenge this year (though I wouldn't hold your breath).

I’ll say right off the bat that the Instagram call outs between Kassouf and Matuson were both cringeworthy and clearly staged. I presume this match was dreamed up to promote the event they will be staging the match in, some of the costs of the match will be paid by a sponsor and have no doubt Kassouf knew this ‘call out’ was coming.

The Hall vs Dentale match, by comparison, looks like genuine beef between two people who dislike each other, and for that reason probably will be the more interesting one to watch.

A modern form of dueling

Whether staged or genuine, I am surprised we haven’t already seen more matches like this. Social media is a wonderful tool but by now we all know how readily it is used to be rude to each other. Poker is no exception and in particular poker players are guilty of passively aggressively mocking their opponents on Twitter while they are playing, seemingly unaware those players might well be following them on their social accounts.

Given how quick we can resort to childish name calling online it’s shocking we don’t see ‘heads-up for rolls’ challenges every week at the tables. It is a modern version of a duel, to challenge somebody for their net worth. However, despite what movie folklore tells you, duels to the death rarely happened when it was legal to have them. Whether it’s a gunslinger in the old west or a poker player talking smack on Twitter, few people are willing to risk it all.

It’s interesting to note that we are perhaps more likely to see two poker players have an actual physical fight with each other than we are to see them play heads-up for a big chunk of their net worth. Although closer to an actual life or death battle, these boxing type prop bets usually take place in controlled conditions where one can safely give up if they have had too much punishment.

But just as duels have a dramatic allure in fiction, a great deal of modern poker folklore is built around the ‘heads-up grudge match’. Whether that is the ‘durrrr Challenge’, the legendary Isildur1 battles, Andy Beal vs the Corporation, Johnny Moss vs Nick the Greek, or even just the final scene in Rounders. The heads-up grudge match is one of the more exciting storytelling devices poker has.

Poker meets the WWE

The Kassouf vs Matuson videos looked a lot like the interview segments we see on the WWE. Before you roll your eyes at that prospect, professional wrestling does hook a lot of people (myself included) and poker has already successfully utilised its example of creating larger-than-life characters. Just look at some of the early broadcasts of the World Poker Tour with the ‘Unabomber’, the ‘Magician’ and the ‘Poker Brat’ - we have clearly borrowed some of the more theatrical elements of wrestling.

Another example of this ‘heads-up grudge match’ taking place right now is the AI matches between four professionals and Libratus. The mainstream media has already picked up on this as a ‘Man vs Machine’ battle and with Artificial Intelligence (and it’s potential dangers) starting to come into our view, this is another story poker tells very well.

Once you understand the rules and the hand rankings, poker is quite a visceral and easy-to-follow story. The money always means something to the players and the audience, because we all know how we would feel if we won or lost x amount. I’m not saying for one second that I wish these players would risk their entire net worth for the benefit of the game. That would be a terrible advert for poker. It is good bankroll management, after all, that protects good players from ruin and allows us to prove the skill element of the game.

My point is simply that, however cringeworthy to those of us who have been around poker a long time, these heads-up matches could actually prove one of the better marketing gimmicks we have going forward.

Do you think these matches will be entertaining? Let us know in the comments:

Barry Carter

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2.