WSOP Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship (Live Updates)

Day 3

Always A Bracelet Maid, Never A Bracelet

23:11 PST Friday 9th June 2017

No one was ahead by much in the final match between Adrian Mateos and John Smith. Not until the hammer finally fell in hand #73.

With the blinds at 50,000/100,000 Smith limped with Qh-8d and was raised by Mateos to 3x the big blind. After Smith called leaving himself 1,170,000 behind the flop came As-9s-3h.

Mateos C-bet a third of the pot and Smith moved in over the top of him. After a short think Mateos called with the 5s-2s. Smith was in the lead but still had to fade a spade, deuce, five or the runner-runner wheel draw.

The turn was a black queen there was a split second while everyone double checked the pip. Then Mateos’ rail exploded: it was the queen of spades. Smith was drawing dead and the dealer turned over the river showing a king.

No one was paying attention though as Smith was already shaking Adrian’s hand. Second place again for the 70 year old veteran. Adrian on the other hand had just broken a WSOP record for youngest player to win three bracelets.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for John Smith who has the best match-for-match record of anyone in this event over the last two years, but in the end poker is a cruel mistress and to him that already has went the bracelet.

At 22 Adrian Mateos is the youngest player to ever have won three bracelets. Even Stuey ‘The Kid’ Ungar held off until middle age to worry about bracelet number three.

"It’s insane that I have three bracelets," he said. "It’s really difficult to win three bracelets and I’m 22. I run good and I think I play good so that’s all that matters."

He’s right of course the number of players with exactly three bracelet so far number in the low forties and none were just 22 when they won their third. He’s joining giants of the game like Barbara Enright, Doug Polk and Barry Greenstein in the hat-trick stakes.

Better luck next year John. And congratulations to the record breaking Adrian.

John Smith Finals Again vs Adrian Mateos

19:45 PST Friday 9th June 2017

John Smith and Adrian Mateos are head to head for their first and third bracelets respectively. They will each start with 3,200,000 in chips and blinds will be 10,000-20,000 to start with.All blind levels are still 20 minutes each.

Second place will take $208,154 and a plateful of regret. First takes the glory and $336,656.

Adrian Mateos vs Charlie Carrel

19:31 PST Friday 9th June 2017

Charlie Carrel with his teenage swept-fringe bowl cut and his tie-dye hoodies cuts a striking figure at his table as the far more conservative looking Adrian takes his seat wearing a very European grey jumper. They are both top ten tournament money winners in their nations Carrel is the 5th biggest in the UK while Mateos is 2nd in Spain.

Europeans heads-up. It’s gonna be a quick one I suspect.

Sure enough the game took just thirty seven hands to come to a conclusion when with Carrel sitting behind 854,000 in chips he raised pre-flop with an unsuited A-T. He was three bet to 160k and shoved for the rest. Mateos snap-called and rolled of the A-K off-suit.

The 6-6-2 left no option for Carrel but to pull a ten out of his multi-coloured dream sleeves but a Q-4 on the turn and river earned him joint third with Reiss and $112,379.

Elsewhere controversy still rages over – what I believe I am ahead of the game in calling – Choicegate. Where Matt Glantz may or may not have been allegedly angle-shot in the Dealer’s Choice Event.

John Smith vs Ryan Reiss

17:45 PST Friday 9th June 2017

The first match turned out to be more chess than dice to begin with small pots traded back and forth. The first big swing didn’t come until nearly fifty hands in when John Smith bet three streets with 54os on a 5-2-2-3-A board. Reiss called every street then mucked his hand giving up 442,000 chips in one hand.

Ryan Reiss dug deep though, and managed to pull ahead as the blinds raised, peaking at around 2.2million in chips. The chips hovered around this level with John Smith making small gains here and there and then losing them back until hand #94 when, with the blinds at 30,000-60,000 Smith picked up jacks and got them into a race with Reiss’ suited Ace-King.

The board rolled out 7-7-8, with another 8 on the turn, and a final Q knocking Reiss down to just 540,000, just 9 big blinds.

The final blow came just a few hands later (hand #105) with Smith raising 160,000 and Reiss shoving 1,200,000. Smith called with the K-Q and Reiss showed 9-9.

The first card on the flop was a queen and the 6-3-8-4 that followed might have just as well been blank. Out went Reiss in joint third with someone collecting $112,379 while Smith watched the next match to see who he’d be up against in the final.

Play Begins on the Semi-Final

13:40 PST Friday 9th June 2017

Day 3 of  Event #15 starts off with Ryan Reiss – one time bracelet winner, in the 2013 Main Event no less– against John Smith – last year’s runner up who has just four other WSOP cashes but $1.2million in tournament winnings.

Mind you in this final four $1.2million makes you the underdog, between them this final four have over $16million in tournament cashes.

Their match will be followed up by Charlie Carrel – a UK player with $5.8million in tournament cashes but is still looking to add a WSOP bracelet to his multiple EPT wins – who will be taking on the Spanish No. 2: Adrian Mateos. Mateos has firsts in WSOPE and EPT main events. He’ll be looking to take a title in the homeland of World Magazine for which the original World Series was named.

Whoever goes busto in these first rounds will still be taking home $112,379 but all eyes will be on the $336,656 which comes with the bragging rights and bracelet.

They will all be starting with 1.6million in chips and blinds at 6,000-12,000 to start.

Day 2

Last Year’s No. 2 Will Be Coming Back For More In Round of Four

00:16 PST Friday, 9th June 2017

After Fee’s elimination Busquet, Duong and Hughes followed slowly of the next few hours. Each of them taking home $54,986 and zero new bracelets.

The round of four will start tomorrow with John Smith vs Ryan Reiss around 3 PM PST. Carrel vs Mateos will follow with the winners showing down for the bracelet around midnight PST. Chip stacks will be 1.6 million and blinds will be starting out at 6,000-12,000.

John Smith, purple heart awardee and last year’s runner up, has emerged as something of a crowd favorite. Though the UK contingent will have their eye on Carrel.

In other WSOP news, here’s a quick roundup of all the bracelets won so far. Someone will be adding their name to the list tomorrow. Join us then.

Brackets - Round of Four

Ryan Fee Out In Round of Eight

20:21 PST, Thursday, 8th June 2017

In the first elimination of the round of eight. 

Ryan Fee took a beatin when he three-bet Carrel pre-flop to 85,000 with pocket aces and was called. The flop came 9-5-3 rainbow and Fee checked his over pair. Carrel bet out with 60,000 and Fee flat called. The river came Jh and Fee made the same move, check calling for another 130,000. Fee check-called Carrel’s 504,000 shove on the Ks river and Carrel showed pocket nines to take most of Fee’s stack.

After that there was a quick all in race between Carrel’s Ks-8s and Fee’s Qc-Jc. Neither player connected with the 9-9-6-7-7 board and Fee hit the bricks, making sure the door didn’t hit him on the way out.

Last Hand of The Round of 16

21:21 PST, Thursday 

Ryan Reiss and Dan Smith were the players still passing chips back and forth as the round of eight started the end came when Smith – after doubling up four times running to get from 1bb to 115,000 in chips – shoved with Q-5os.

 Reiss called with the T-9os and won when the board rolled out K-T-3-4-T. 

Smith cashed for the $26,711. From here on out busting out means a minimum of $54,986.

Round Of 16 

21:15 PST Thursday, 8th June 2017

With everyone now in the money everyone eliminated this round will be collecting $26,711 for their efforts. Chip stacks are starting at 400,000 and blinds at 1,200-2,400.

16th - Moritz Deitrich busted against Ryan Hughes

15th - Dario Sammartino busted against Jack Duong

14th - Russell Thomas busted against John Smith (this man is a Heads Up terminator.)

13th - Taylor Paur got it all in pre-with A-4os against Adrian Mateos’ Qh-Jh. The board was not messing around when it rolled out Q-T-6-Q-T. Goodnight, Vienna for Paur.

12th - Jason Les went to the rail after shoving his ace-high straight into and ace high club-flush on the river. Les is out, Busquet moves on.

11th - Joe McKeehan played a flop of 9-7-5 against Ryan Fee. They got the last chips in after the turn and river both came threes. Fee had the 6-3 of hearts and McKeehan didn’t bother showing his own cards.

10th - Chris Moore was beaten by Charlie Carrel (Go, Team UK).  Daniel Negreanu is a fan.

Bracket Update

18:41 PST Thursday, 8th June 2017

Play down to 16

18:38 PST Thursday, 8th June 2017

The remaining round of 16 played out with a number of notable matches. On the feature table Ryan Fee and Jason Mercier traded triple-range merges until Fee came out on top. John Smith, last year’s second place finisher in this event, knocked out Chance Kornouth, who in turn had knocked out Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson on day one.

Eric Seidel and Joe Cada were among other notable eliminations.

There was some overlap as round of sixteen matches started while the last two matches in the previous round played out.

Halioua First Out On Day 2

15:16 PST Thursday, 8th June 2017

First to go was Michel Halioua, with blinds at 600-1,200 Halioua min-raised and was three bet by his opponent Dan Smith. Smith C-bet the Qs-5d-3s flop for 7,000. Halioa raised to 17,000 and Smith called.

The turn was the Ks, Smith check raised to 75,000 and was called. Smith shoved the 2d on the river and Halioa snap-called.

Dan Smith showed Js-9s and Michel Halioa mucked his card.

Back For The Bubble Day 2 of the Heads Up Championship

15:04 PST Thursday, 8th June 2017

Going home one place before the money is always tough. You play and play and play and then to come so close…

Well, today half the field is going to share seventeenth place. That’s the nature of Heads Up tournaments. Today will consist of three rounds whittling the 32 starting players down to the final four. 

Daniel Negreanu has his usual round up for his performance in the Heads Up event yesterday. He won’t be joining us today having lost his scalp in the early rounds.

Elsewhere Mark Wahlberg took to Twitter to thank the WSOP for helping with his charity tournament. And people have been bemoaning the shifting timetable of PokerGo’s coverage of the event, which for safety was scheduled with a lot more rounds of play just in case everyone suddenly wanted to play.

Day 1

On To Day 2

01:25 PST, 8th June 2018

Day one finished up with everyone in the chip lead (it is a shootout after all) and a field that is a Who’s Who of Great White Sharks. Big names that have made it through to day two include Ryan Fee, Jason Mercier, Eric Wasserman and the star of 1998’s Rounders: Erik Seidel.

The round of 32 will kick off tomorrow, the 9th June 2017, at 3 PM PST instead of the originally scheduled midday start. And the event will continue to be live streamed on Poker Go.

When they get back to the tables everyone will be starting with 200,000 in chips and starting blinds of 600-1,200. There will continue to be a 20 minute clock and a whole bunch of action which we will be covering here.

Official Brackets For Round of 32

01:10 PST, 8th June 2017

Ferguson Still Looking For Love In Round Two

00:46 PST, 8th June 2017

There was a certain amount of approbation for Chris Ferguson who has returned to the WSOP this year. He ma y be the Jesus of poker but he’s looking still waiting on that forgiveness. In this event that approbation turned into a cheering section for his second round opponent Chance Kornouth, who went on to beat Ferguson in that round.

With blinds at 4,000/8,000 Ferguson had the lead moved all in from the big blind with 8-3os. The aptly named Chance called for 85,200 and showed K-9os. Which held leaving Ferguson with just 29,600.

Ferguson called his remaining chips a few hands later with A-Tos but ran into pocket aces. The board ran out K-5-3-4-9.

Round One Finished

21:12 PST, 7th June 2017

The Round of 64 has been drawn from the remaining pool. 

Plenty of big names are still in itm while others like Scott Seiver, Sorel Mizzi, Rainer Kempe, Doug Polk with his freshly minted One Drop bracelet, Round Zero champ Radoja, and last years Heads Up champ Alan Percal have passed on their chips to better and luckier players.

Good-luck to everyone left, and Godspeed to the eliminated.

Negreanu Takes A Beat

19:20, 7th June 2017

Daniel Negreanu was another of the big pros to fall, knocked out by Amadi Mateos, X, in a brutal round two cooler. But don’t take my word for it, you can watch the final hand of that round on the Poker Central Twitter feed:

Round Zero to Radoja

16:15 PST, 7th June 2017

In the final hand of the $5,000 play in round with stacks almost even Radoja raised from the button to 1,000  with Ac-Tc. Bowker three bet to 3,000 and Radoja called.

The flop of A-5-2 rainbow looked good for Radoka who called Bowker’s 3,200 c-bet, only to catch a ten on the turn. Bowker bet 7,000 and Radoka opted to slow play his two pair by just calling.

On the eight which fell on the river Bowker shoved for a little under 30,000 and was insta-called. Bowker rolled over the acey-deucey and went home disappointed.

With Bowker out, the tournament manager sorted the draw for the round of 128.

Round of 128 Brackets

Dan Smith vs. Aaron Mermelstein

Ali Davoudi vs. Raymond Dandrea

Michel Halioua vs. David Rentzsch

Darren Elias vs. Alex Keating

Jose Tavares vs. Kane Kalas

Philip Wiszowaty vs. Dau Ly

Dimitar Danchev vs. Jeremy Wien

Ryan Riess vs. Goran Mandic

Jason Les vs. Chad Power

Patrick Leonard vs. Justin Bonomo

Doug Polk vs. Albert Daher

Sergi Reixach vs. Pavel Plesuv

Orlando Romero vs. Simon Lam

Olivier Busquet vs. Scott Davies

Faraz Jaka vs. Thiago Nishijima

Bertrand Grospellier vs. Kristen Bicknell

Richard Kirsch vs. Igor Yaroshevskyy

Erik Seidel vs. Carl Leckner

Scott Seiver vs. Alessandro Meoni

Dan Zack vs. Jack Duong

Jonathan Jaffe vs. Gal Yifrach

Chou Chou vs. Pablo Fernandez

Sorel Mizzi vs. Dario Sammartino

Paul Volpe vs. Brady Seeley

Sam Stein vs. Tom Marchese

Cary Katz vs. Barry Woods

Jan-Eric Schwippert vs. Brock Parker

Russell Thomas vs. Anthony Zinno

John Smith vs. Osman Ihlamur

Dietrich Fast vs. Bill Klein

Chris Ferguson vs. Daniel Merrilees

James Chen vs. Chance Kornuth

Yevgeniy Timoshenko vs. Julien Martini

Benjamin Geisman vs. Nick Petrangelo

Markus Gonsalves vs. Brandon Steven

Moritz Dietrich vs. Rainer Kempe

Ivan Luca vs. Mark Radoja

Richard Tuhrim vs. Jake Abdalla

Ryan Hughes vs. Jeffrey Wagner

Kitty Kuo vs. Jimmy Guerrero

Cate Hall vs. Sylvain Loosli

Taylor Paur vs. David Peters

James D'Ambrosio vs. Martin Kabrhel

Christopher Dow vs. Samuel Touil

Matthew Diehl vs. Ian O'Hara

Adrian Mateos vs. Daniel Negreanu

Eric Wasserson vs. Koray Aldemir

Jared Jaffee vs. Michael Ross

Aymon Hata vs. Alex Luneau

Michael Addamo vs. Alan Percal

Joe McKeehen vs. Dominik Nitsche

Keith Block vs. Andrew Lichtenberger

Ryan Fee vs. Jake Schindler

Laszlo Bujtas vs. Ruoyang Wang

Corey Dodd vs. Jason Mercier

Christopher Kruk vs. Davide Suriano

Jason Koon vs. David Benyamine

Stefan Schillhabel vs. Joe Cada

Chae An vs. Jason Mo

Chris Moore vs. Taha Maruf

Jason McConnon vs. Alan Schein

Ayaz Mahmood vs. Ben Tollerene

Charlie Carrel vs. Timothy Adams

Keith Lehr vs. Stephen Chidwick

Heads Up Play About to Start

15:11 PST, 7th June 2017

Day one of the $10,000 Heads Up Poker Championship has come to a close with two full rounds played.

129 players entered this year, somewhat down from the 153 who bought in back in 2016, when Alan Percal won it in a final showdown with John Smith. but it still makes for a substantial $1,203,200 prize pool.

Due to the slightly awkward number of entrants the tournament will kick off with a single match between randomly drawn players here was an addition round  between Kyle Bowker and Mark Raoja who will only have to buy in for $5,000. That will leave us with a Round One bracket of 128 players.

16 of those players will end up being paid, with a min cash of $26,711 and sizeable $336,656 up top for first.

In other good news before this stream goes out, you’ll be able to watch the Heads Up play from the incredible Omaha Hi/Lo final table. Poker Go clearly know when to give the people what they want. 

Is there a more thrilling way to play poker than heads up for table stakes? The one-on-one, mano-a-mano, tete-a-tete nature of heads up play purifies the sense of competition. Just you against the villain. Every bluff and value bet aimed at manipulating and counter-manipulating your one opponent.

 And that is before you put up a $10,000 entry fee and dangle a World Series bracelet over the finishing line for the winner. The WSOP $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship is going to be cut throat, and it’s going to be a great watch. For the hardcore fans all three days will be live streamed on Poker Go.

In order to keep the tournament within the three days scheduled each match will be played with blind levels of just 20 minutes, much quicker than is usual for live poker tournaments at these stakes. The short levels are countered by the far faster turnover of hands in heads-up matches. After all, there is only ever one player waiting behind you to act.

As with most of the championship events players will be starting off with 50,000 in chips and blinds of 200-300. To keep the tournament feel going round-after-round, the stacks will double in  each successive heat with blinds rising accordingly.

Last year’s  $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship event was won by Alan Percal who beat out John Smith in the final round for a first place payout of $320,574; though we haven’t seen much of Percal since, he may well be playing the tournament again this year. We’ll see who shows when it kicks off at 3:00 PM Vegas time (UTC –07:00) on Wednesday, 7th June 2017.

We’ll be covering it for you here.