Event 25 - $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship Day 1 | 2008 World Series of Poker

Level: 3

Blinds: 200/400

Ante: 0

06-13-2008 11:43 UTC-8

Phil Ivey Eliminated

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On a flop of {9-Diamonds}

Phil Ivey and John Hennigan got all the money in the middle. Ivey turned up {K-Diamonds}

for top pair, but Hennigan had him crushed with {9-Hearts}

for two pair. The turn was the {A-Hearts}

, the river was the {3-Diamonds}

and Hennigan dragged the pot, leaving Ivey with only 2,000 in chips.

A few hands later, they were all in again on a flop of {8-?}

. Ivey held {J-?}

and again was in bad shape against Hennigan's {Q-?}

. The turn was a {7-?}

, the river was a {Q-?}

and Ivey was eliminated in the first round, while Hennigan will advance.

Tags: John Hennigan Phil Ivey

06-13-2008 11:35 UTC-8

Giorgio Medici Eliminated

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Jonathan Jaffe limped on the button, Giorgio Medici raised to 800, Jaffe reraised to 4,000 and Medici called all in.

Medici {K-?}

Jaffe

The board ran out {A-?}

and Jaffe won the pot with two pair--aces and nines--defeating Medici and punching his ticket to round 2.

Tags: Giorgio Medici Jonathan Jaffe

06-13-2008 11:34 UTC-8

Tony G Makes Quick Work of Sebastian Ruthenberg

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After bursting out of the gate to a 3-1 chip lead over German opponent Sebastian Ruthenberg, Tony G has just landed the final blow, sending his young opponent to the rail.

On a board showing {5-Clubs}

, Tony and Sebastian got it all in with Sebastian's tournament life on the line. Sebastian revealed {Q-Clubs}

at the showdown; Tony tabled {A-Diamonds}

.

The board ultimately ran out {A-Hearts}

,

giving Tony two pair, aces and fives, sending him on to the round of 128.

Tags: Tony G

06-13-2008 11:31 UTC-8

The Tardy Boys

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Despite a five-minute grace period in which the dealers would hold up play if one of the players in each match had yet to arrive, several poker heavyweights have yet to arrive at the Rio and are currently being blinded off. Freddy Deeb and David "The Dragon" Pham are no-shows so far, as is Kenny Tran, who has been blinded down to 16,500 from his original 20,000 starting stack.

Tags: David Pham Freddy Deeb Kenny Tran

06-13-2008 11:29 UTC-8

Notable Round 1 Matchups

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Brad Booth vs. Phil Gordon
David Singer vs. Erik Cajelais
Marco Traniello vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Phil Ivey vs. John Hennigan
Kenny Tran vs. Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis
Alex Kravchenko vs. Barry Greenstein
Mike Sexton vs. Andy Black
John Juanda vs. Nick Schulman
Daniel Negreanu vs. Nicolas Levi
Patrik Antonius vs. Kevin O'Donnell
Sorel Mizzi vs. JC Tran
Isaac Haxton vs. Scott Fischman
Andy Bloch vs. Bill Edler
Lyle Berman vs. Dutch Boyd
Jeffrey Lisandro vs. Shannon Elizabeth
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond vs. Chris Bell
John Tabatabai vs. Jonathan Little
Gene Todd vs. Michael Mizrachi

Level: 2

Blinds: 100/300

Ante: 0

06-13-2008 11:03 UTC-8

Shuffle Up and Deal!

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Cards are in the air for Round 1.

Level: 1

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

06-13-2008 03:02 UTC-8

Heads-Up NL World Championship Kicks Off at Noon

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It's mano a mano time at the 2008 World Series of Poker when Event #25, $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship, gets underway at noon in the Amazon Room. The field, which is capped at 256 entrants and will almost certainly be filled, then plays down, bracket-format, in rounds of head-to-head matchups that cut the field in half through each successive round. The first three rounds are scheduled for play on Friday, trimming the field down from an initial 256 to 32.

Last year's event was captured by online heads-up specialist Daniel Schreiber, who demonstrated to the live poker world just how formidable his heads-up skills had become. He pocketed $425,594 for his win.

Tags: Daniel Schreiber