Fedor vs. Limitless - Holz Crowned Winner

It didn't take long for GGPoker to jump in and organize the heads-up match between Fedor Holz and Wiktor 'Iimitless' Malinowski after the German Pokercode founder replied to Malinowski's challenge, which he issued back in August 2020. The stage was set and the two would play 4 sessions where they would play approximately 4-500 hands while having a video call.

ICYMI: How it all started between Fedor & 'Iimitless.

The First Half

The first two matches were played on March 5th and March 8th and Holz managed to create a comfortable lead. In the first 459 hands Holz created a lead of $37,420 and he extended on that lead after the second session. The counter stopped after 472 hands in the second session and another $14,652 was won by Holz and was up $52,073 after the second session.

With all still left to play for and blinds at $100/$200 it was far from a lock-up for Holz and Malinowski had plenty of opportunities to stage a comeback.

Read all about the first half of the GG Face-Off Challenge here.

Match 3

Cards were in the air for the 3rd match on March 10th and Malinowski immediately washed away the profit that was made by Holz in Match 2. Only 10 minutes into the match Malinowski was ahead by about $14,000. Suddenly Holz was ahead by less than 2 buy-ins overall in the match but it swung his way again when he won Malinowski's full stack.

Malinowski raised to $500 from the button with J8 suited and Holz 3-bet to $2,050 out of position with AQ off. A quick call followed by 'Iimitless' and the flop fell K-T-2 with 2 spades on the board. Holz continued with his gutshot and he bet $2,700 but he was quickly called by Malinowski. The 7 of hearts was dealt on the turn and despite Malinowski having a ton of outs, he was still behind Holz's ace-high. Holz fired a bet of $5,860 on the turn and Malinowski called again. The river was another king and Malinoswki missed all of his outs to come out on top against the AQ of Holz. The 'Young Prince' (as dubbed by Joey Ingram) checked and Malinowski put effectively $11,989 in the middle to put Holz all-in, as it was his only way to win the pot. Holz managed to find the call and win a stack against Malinowski to take over the lead in the match for the first time since the start, 40 minutes before.

It was from that moment on that there was no more looking back for Holz. In the two hours that followed it was Holz who managed to grow a stack on one table to $67,000 and to $117,000 on the other table. This gave him a lead of $98,000 in match 3.

They called it a day after 562 hands, making it the longest session of the Face-Off Challenge so far. Holz was ahead by $108,196 when they called it quits, extending his lead in the entire challenge to $160,268, or 8 full buy-ins.

Match 4

Malinowski had another good start to the session as he had in Match 3. In the first couple of minutes, he already won an entire stack of Holz. $140k to go for the Polish crusher but Holz seemed to have different plans. When they arrived at the first break of the day Holz was down about $17,000 with about 300 hands left to play.

The first big pot going Holz's way was right after the break when he flopped a set with pocket sixes while Malinowski flopped top pair. When the two arrived on the river it was Holz with a set and Malinowski had improved to an inferior two pair with his Q9. Holz seemed unstoppable increasing his total lead to $186,000.

That's when the comeback kicked in for 'Iimitless'. With the help of some setups, a little bit of run good, and of course his skill as an incredibly good high-stakes player, he managed to wipe away a significant part of Holz' lead. Winning hand after hand and multiple big pots against Holz gave Malinowski a $69,893 lead at the end of session 4.

The run good kicked in a little too late, though, for Wiktor 'Iimitless' Malinowski. After a total of 1,958 hands it was 'CrownUpGuy' who was crowned the winner of the GG Face-Off Challenge. They played a total of 16 hours and 22 minutes in which Holz won $90,375.

All Results

📈 Session 1

‍🃏 459 hands played

⏰ 5h31m played

💰 Fedor Holz +$37,421

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📈 Session 2

‍🃏 472 hands played

⏰ 3h27m played

💰 Fedor Holz +$14,652

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📈 Session 3

‍🃏 562 hands played

⏰ 4h03m played

💰 Fedor Holz +$108,196

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📉 Session 4

‍🃏 465 hands played

⏰ 3h21m played

💰 Fedor Holz -$69,893

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📈 Overall

‍🃏 1,958 hands played

⏰ 16h22m played

💰 Fedor Holz +$90,375

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