Hansen vs. Negreanu Taunt Turns Into $300k PokerStars Full Tilt Poker Challenge
Dublin, Ireland – What started as a light-hearted twitter rant between long-term rivals Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu has escalated into a full-blown $300,000 heads-up battle between Full Tilt Poker‘s “The Professionals” and members of PokerStars elite “Team Pros” - to be played out live during EPT London next weekend.
The jibes began last week when Hansen, who is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker, teased Team PokerStars Pro Negreanu on twitter about how he took $575,000 off him in one of poker’s most famous hands during the High Stakes Poker TV show in 2006.
Hansen’s tweet read: “Hey @RealKidPoker remember this hand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ufZ-DHVCBQ … - Wonder if I ever get another chance to take your money ;-) “
After a few more twitter exchanges, Negreanu released a video on YouTube challenging Hansen – and his fellow “Professionals’ Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan - to a live battleship-style heads-up tourney, to be played out on Full Tilt during EPT London. Isaac Haxton and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier complete Negreanu’s three-man PokerStars team. Haxton and Blom are already long-standing rivals after battling each other in two SuperStar ShowDowns last year. Haxton eventually lost $500,000 to Blom in the $1 Million Challenge on PokerStars.
In the EPT London challenge each heads-up match will take place on three simultaneous freezeout tables, with the player who wins two out of the three tables taking the individual match. The winning team will be the one that wins two of the three games.
The challenge kicks off on Sunday, March 10th at 10:00 ET (3pm in London) and will be hosted online by Full Tilt Poker, allowing everyone to log in and rail the match.
The event is certain to attract a huge amount of attention. Six of the best players in the world, all with a long history of rivalry, will be going heads-up against each other during one the biggest live poker events on the planet – and Full Tilt Poker players will have the chance to watch the whole thing live online.
The winner of each clash will collect $50,000 from his opponent and each member of the overall winning team will receive $10,000 in tournament buy-ins from the rival poker room.
Full Tilt Poker players can get their piece of the action and earn up to $100 – as well as entry to three $10,000 freerolls – by making a real-money deposit or transfer of at least $10 between Friday, March 1st at 10:00 ET and Friday, March 8th at 23:59 ET and choosing who they think will come out on top in each heads-up game.
