Polk vs Negreanu almost got derailed
Phil Galfond had to come to the rescue in the Polk vs Negreanu heads-up match after a dispute about data mining with Bill Perkins.
While things have been surprisingly cordial in the high stakes grudge match between Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk, it almost went off the rails this week.
After the two came to an agreement about preflop charts, it seemed the next big sticking point was the issue of Polk inputting hand histories into a poker tracker software after their matches. HUDs are prohibited on WSOP.com where the match is being played but Polk was doing this only to replay the session afterwards for further study.
Bill Perkins, who has bets with both men on the outcome of the match, appeared to be the driver for the drama.
Match delayed due to disagreement over rules. One party(@DougPolkVids )thinks its ok to manually enter in hand history to software and have frequency analysis done and the other does not (@RealKidPoker) Big disadvantage that Dnegs has not been doing this. @PhilGalfond time #Poker
— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) November 17, 2020
After some back and forth Negreanu and Polk went to third party Phil Galfond to make a ruling on what would be allowed and what would not in terms of data accumulation. It seems that some parties, mostly Perkins, were confused as to what 'data mining' meant in this context. To an online poker outsider reviewing hand histories after a match might seem unfair, but it is perfectly normal and allowed by all the major poker rooms
I cant believe I have to defend opening up the client and looking at a 400 hand session how many times my opponent folded the button.
This is some of the most nit picky bitch shit I have ever been a part of.
— Doug "Truck Driver" Polk (@DougPolkVids) November 17, 2020
The challenge is back on
Galfond clearly ruled that manually inputting hands after a match was fine and the two agreed they were good to go. It looks like neither Polk or Negreanu had a major issue and were just responding Perkins more than anything.
Yup we are good to go. Want to thank Phil for spending the time to help us out. 👠https://t.co/Lw90OyrMwj
— Doug "Truck Driver" Polk (@DougPolkVids) November 18, 2020
Phil's wife Farah Galfond was on hand to offer some comic relief to diffuse the sitiation:
With all due respect, @PhilGalfond has his own challenge, that he is losing, to worry about.
— Farah Galfond (@Farah_Galfond) November 17, 2020
The match resumes and is in full swing, with both men booking solid winning sessions. At the time of writing after 2,374 hands Polk is up $67,625.81 (one and a half buy-ins) with 22,626 hands left to play.
Is hand history review an unfair advantage? Let us know in the comments:
