Matt Berkey, on Thursday’s Only Friends podcast, informed his audience that he’ll be taking on a new heads-up opponent, and it’s none other than sports card shop owner Jared Bleznick.

Both players have previously competed in heavily publicized high-stakes battles. Bleznick recently defeated Patrik Antonius, the 2024 Poker Hall of Fame inductee, three consecutive times for a $350,000 profit on PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel.

Berkey demolished the trash-talking Nik Airball at Las Vegas’ Resorts World in 2023 for $1 million, and it took him just 60 hours of play to win. The Solve for Why founder will step into the ring on HSD and serve as Bleznick’s next opponent.

Heads-Up Poker Contest Details

The date hasn’t been set for when the show will air on PokerGO, and the specifics format is also partially unknown at this time. But the traditional High Stakes Duel structure is for both players to buy-in for $50,000 in Round 1, and then the losing player, if they opt for a rematch, must pay $100,000 to add to the Round 2 prize pool. The pot doubles each round up to as high as $12.8 million (Round 8) if the players are willing to go that far.

Berkey and Bleznick will battle at $200/$400 stakes with a minimum buy-in of $100,000 in “straight cash, homie,” according to the podcast host. They’ll play a mix of no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha, much like Bleznick did in his competition against Antonius.

The match should be intriguing as it pits a NLH specialist (Berkey) against a PLO crusher (Bleznick). But anything can happen in a small sample size match as was the case when Bleznick outplayed Antonius in no-limit hold’em, a key to his victory.

“If I can just hold my own in PLO, run somewhat okay, then I’m just gonna bury his a** in hold’em,” Berkey said on the Only Friends podcast. “He knows it, too.”

Berkey said there’s “no real bad blood” between him and his upcoming opponent like there was when he faced Nik Airball, his hated rival. He also mentioned that he has an extensive history of facing Bleznick heads-up, but only online.

“I really like Jared, and I enjoy playing with him and he gives me a ton of action. So, it kind of felt right, you know, to just give a little back,” Berkey said of agreeing to play some PLO, a game he doesn’t typically play.

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