After all the trashtalking/drama/different videos recently between several parties (Berkey, Polk, Airball), it seems like maybe this match is gonna take place after all. Its gonna be very fun/interesting to watch, i sure hope its gonna be public/filmed.

Berkey tweeted that the terms is set. Only the venue is yet to be decided.

What do we think about this match? Who is gonna get it done between these two?

Screenshot of Twitter post

Airball isn't a "whale". Heads up isn't 6/8max. The narrative that Berkey should be salavating at a chance to play someone super aggro with a bigger bankroll than him is kinda weak. I don't think Berkey has ever played heads up. They couldn't even train Landon to beat Perkins at an astronomical rate.

There was a book written about this exact scenario and if anyone remembers it wasn't exactly the smoothest of sailing.

I don't think this is going to be filmed so we can look forward to a bunch of dumb tweets throughout.

I agree that Airball isnt a classic whale. He is extremely aggressive and not afraid to just fire big shells putting you in some really nasty spots especially playing superdeep.

However i do think that its the correct decision by Berkey to play him. I mean, he have been the leading face of a well known coaching business for years, and seems to be taking every chance he gets to talk **** about different people on his podcast/plattform.

Its gonna be a real bad look for him if he doesent accept a challenge like this, because then he basically is just another man who uses his mouth to talk **** and dont man up when somebody puts their money where their mouth is.

Where's the poll OP!?

#teamairball

That said, they're probably both scrubs at HUNL. Can't wait to hear about all the punts.

Noob mistake by me! Poll is now up.

Berkey wins and Nik Air Ball quits/loses and cries that Berkey is staked and doesn’t feel it when he loses pots

Doug "Coinflex" Polk can stake him.

Berkey will tap out when down $1.15M, thinking that he just ran bad / had bad card distribution for the first million of losses

S4Y's Poker Out Loud course will be on a 75% discount the following day.

6 weeks later Landon Tice will defect to Doug Polk's stable, Christian Soto will leave S4Y and join the full time staff of Hustler Casino Live.

9 months later the S4Y house will suffer foreclosure for missed mortgage payments and later be sold to a developer who turns it into a retirement community home.

Berkey will move down to being a mid stakes cash game grinder and coach little league baseball.

You offering odds?

what is the consenus betting line? Nik Airball -120 feels about right.

Feels like this is a missed opportunity that none of this will be streamed.

Would it be too much trouble to do some of it online like other HU matches like DNegs/Polk for instance?

your gonna bet on the amateur vs the poker pro whos probably playing with 20% of his own action?

are we sure this is not going to be streamed? this would all be a huge waste of time for the fans if not streamed. even at public casinos like aria and bellagio, they could set up a safe, secure stream for everyone to watch. not to mention the advertising they could do for themselves. heck, why not berkey's academy studio? don't they already have the equipment and cameras and whatnot?? just let nik airball bring in a third party to overlay security, and there ya go, we all get a show.

i'm not a fan of doing it online. might as well play chess or checkers- boring. live is, and always will be, where poker is at its best. at least in terms of a viewing audience enjoying the show and bringing the game to the masses.

Fair, if they have the ability to do it live then yes I would be for that over online. I just didn't know if Bellagio would have the capacity to stream this grudge match live.

Hopefully it gets streamed but I'm pretty sure I read/saw Berkey say he wouldn't do it streamed.

I agree with most of your post but don't think size of bankroll is a relevant factor here. How much money is Berkey going to risk here, assuming he would quit when he's down >1mm?

People always think about those Andy Beal stories where he's putting all that pressure on other players bankrolls. I have no idea if that stuff was true back then but it certainly doesn't apply to most of those "challenges" today. Outside of total degens and spots that are too good to pass up, nobody risks any kind of money that would truly hurt them. Does it really change that much for Berkey whether he has 100% of himself playing 20/40 or 10% of himself playing 200/400? (or whatever he's comfortable playing for).

naive take

I suspect Berkey is going to smoke him. More experience, more statistical knowledge, more earthworm jim resemblance (only slightly though).

For real though Nik can play poker but keep in mind the caliber of opponent he's been playing against. We were overjoyed to see players like Ryusuke simply because they didn't constantly make the giant blunders players like Tiger and double M and others do. That knob Dylan became a phenomenon simply because he was willing to stick in large sums of money against Garrett who'd been bullying players playing HCL like it was a sitngo. The bar is set low.

I think Airball +130 is more the correct line here to balance money. I don't purport to know exactly who'll win but if you open -120 -120 you're going to likely see exposure on Berkey's side.

Which part exactly?

Personally, I've never had >20% of my own action in any game that could hurt my roll.

well berkey says hes never had more then 10 or 20 buyins for highstakes lol. but he sells and hes gonna sell. it wont be hard to sell

berkey said on his podcast that airbeast tried to negotiate to play 6 hours a day for 30 days straight. this guy would not have made a fool of himself as djingis kahn if he was born a thousand years ago

I'd have to go with Nik for the simple fact that Berkey sucks at poker.

not here to spell it out for you

Yeah Berkey sucks and I really hope he loses 1.5 million.