One of the most anticipated poker events of August has been canceled. Four-time bracelet winner, Scott Seiver has rescinded his offer to rematch Phil Hellmuth for the next round of High Stakes Duel.
According to PokerGo, Seiver cited "personal reasons" for his last-minute exit.
Anyone who wants to take his place will need to have the $800,000 buy-in to hand. They will also need to contact PokerGo by 15:00 Vegas time on August 15, 2022. So the clock is running down fast.
"Due to personal reasons, Scott Seiver has withdrawn from his upcoming HSD 3 Round 5 match with Phil Hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth)," wrote the @PokerGO Twitter account. "Who wants to step up and challenge Phil Hellmuth? You need $800K and to let us know by Monday, Aug 15 at 3 PM PT."
Daniel Cates has put his name forward on Twitter, but it is not clear if PokerGO is taking his tweets as binding.
High Stakes Duel III round 5
Phil Hellmuth has had a remarkable run on High Stakes Duel. Over the course of ten heads-up matches, Hellmuth has won 9 (including HSDIII round 4 against Seiver). So far he has been challenged by five other players: Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Nick Wright, Tom Dwan, and Scott Seiver.
Tom Dwan is the only player to have beaten Hellmuth on High Stakes Poker so far.
Each "season" of High Stakes Duel is made up of a series of rounds. Round 1 costs each player $50,000 to buy-in and every following round is double-or-nothing. Whoever is up cannot quit until they have three wins in a row (or two in a row after Round 4). After that, the winner can bank their winnings and quit.
A player can quit if they are down, as has happened in this case with Seiver. When that happens, the call goes out to the poker world for a replacement. If no replacement can be found, Hellmuth will be allowed to retire with the $800,000 purse.
Hellmuth is not much of a gambler and is most likely crossing his fingers for no one to answer the call. He probably would rather send his profit to the bank, put a full stop after his HSDIII victory, and start prepping for HSDIV.
Featured image source: PokerGO
