Event 29 - $10,000 World Championship Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Day 1 | 2009 World Series of Poker

Jun 13, 2009

The Real Justin Smith

Justin "Boosted J" Smith just arrived a few minutes late, and he was a bit surprised at what he saw when he walked up to his table. His match with Hoyt Corkins was already underway with someone else sitting in his seat. It's still not exactly clear who it is, but we notice that ElkY doesn't have an opponent yet, so it may well be that James D'Ambrosio sat down at the wrong table. You can't blame him for not wanting to play ElkY, can you?

The floor staff is trying to figure out exactly what to do about this. We'd guess that Hoyt and Justin will have to restart their match from the beginning.

Jun 13, 2009

All Alone

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Jason Mercier is all alone on Table 227, as his opponent, Jesper Petersen has not shown up to play yet. Mercier is sporting sunglasses today, and he looks almost sad as he gazes around the room in search of his counterpart.

Jun 13, 2009

Back at It

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Cards are in the air, and we're underway in the Round of 128! Each player begins with the 60,000 chips they accumulated in the first round.

Level: 1

Blinds: 200/400

Ante: 0

Jun 13, 2009

Almost Set for Round Two

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We're just a few minutes away from the start of Round 2 of the $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship. The players have just begun to take their seats, and we expect to be underway sharply at 10:00.

Jun 13, 2009

Round Two Match-Ups

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Steve O'Dwyer vs. Johannes Steindl
Johnny Chan vs. Anthony Guetti
Alec Torelli vs. Jan Maarten Meijer
Masaaki Kagawa vs. Francois Safieddine
Kyle Brossia vs. Aaron Wilt
PLAYER UNKNOWN vs. David "Raptor" Benefield
Antonio Esfandiari vs. Konstantin Puchkov
Olav von Prince vs. John Juanda
Yevgeniy Timoshenko vs. Dmitry Stelmak
Chris Ferguson vs. Jason Somerville
Mike Caro vs. Joe Cappello
Jason Senti vs. Philippe Dauteuil
Benjamin Sprenger vs. Gavin Smith
Andrew Feldman vs. Steven Crawford
Scott Baumstein vs. Noah Schwarz
Nathan Doudney vs. Anthony Roux
Jesper Petersen vs. Jason Mercier
Steven Silverman vs. Alex Keating
Michael Baxter vs. Jared Ingles
Benjamin Tollerene vs. Greg Raymer
Lex Veldhuis vs. William Thorson
Stuart Marshak vs. John Duthie
Thomas Marchese vs. Michael Banducci
Terrence Chan vs. Tommy Chen
Adam Ewestein vs. Evelyn Ng
Domen Pinteric vs. Albert Iversen
John Parker vs. Jonathan Aguiar
Nicholas Rampone vs. Tariq Rahim
Jamie Armstrong vs. Ramin Henke
Roman Yitzhaki vs. Joao Vide Barb
Steve Zolotow vs. Anton Allemann
Jonathan Jaffe vs. Mohsin Charania
Sorel Mizzi vs. Cory Carroll
Benjamin Lamb vs. Scott Seiver
Alexey Popov vs. Kenneth Middleton
Nathanael Poysti vs. Stanislav Alekhin
Adam Junglen vs. Erik Seidel
Tom "Durrrr" Dwan vs. Samuel Stein
"Action" Jeff Garza vs. Matt Giannetti
Steven Levy vs. Brian Lemke
Claudio Rinaldi vs. OPPONENT UNKNOWN
Matt Woodward vs. Lance Treankler
Dario Minieri vs. Alexander Venovski
Justin "BoostedJ" Smith vs. Hoyt Corkins
Jeff Madsen vs. Joe Serock
Scott Fischman vs. Scott Montgomery
Kenneth Shei vs. Michael Pesek
Jamin Stokes vs. Layne Flack
John Tabatabai vs. Benjamin Spindler
Dmitry Lesnoy vs. Taylor Caby
Andrew Lichtenberger vs. Joseph McGowen
Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier vs. James D'Ambrosio
Matt Hawrilenko vs. Robert McLaughlin
Jessie Martin vs. Andrew Zaichenko
Shawn Buchanan vs. Benjamin Francisco
Bryan Pellegrino vs. Will Failla
Dragan Galic vs. Daniel Illingworth
Bryn Kenny vs. Roberto Romanell
Mark Teltscher vs. David "The Dragon" Pham
Vanessa Rousso vs. Emil Patel
Shaun Deeb vs. Branden Hampton
Evan Roberts vs. Kenny Tran
Justin Filitz vs. Olivier Busquet
Richard Anthony vs. Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf

Jun 13, 2009

Round 1 Concludes

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We've cut the field in half now as we have reached the end of Round 1. Two hundred fifty-six players began the day, and just 128 of them remain. By the end of the night, that number will be cut in half again as tomorrow's field only allows for 64 players to return for the third round.

The action was lightning fast in this first round, with all but a handful of matches completed well within two hours. As the last matches finished up right at the three-hour mark, the players and spectators vacated the room for this extended break.

Round two will kick off at 10:00pm sharp. The full table draws will be posted just as soon as we get them typed up. Rest assured, it figures to be a fantastic series of matches. Stay tuned!

Jun 13, 2009

Benefield Advances

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On the last hand of round 1, Scott Augustine was all in for 800 chips before the flop. He and David Benefield each turned over one card, Augustine showing the {8-Spades}

and Benefield showing the {3-Spades}

.

The board ran out {A-?}

. As the cards lay, Augustine was ahead. He turned over his second card, not improving with the {10-Diamonds}

. Benefield rolled over the {3-Hearts}

though, giving him the winning set of three and punching his ticket to round two.

Jun 13, 2009

Augustine Crippled by Benefield

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With just a slight lead, Scott Augustine moved all in before the flop holding {J-Hearts}

. David Benefield held {K-Diamonds}

, and he was either going broke or taking an insurmountable lead.

The board ran {Q-Diamonds}

. Both players paired up on the flop, but Benefield's queen was good enough to win him the pot. Augustine has just 800 chips left.

Tags: David Benefield Scott Augustine

Jun 13, 2009

Benefield Evens it Up Again

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We now have just one match remaining in round one, that between David Benefield and Scott Augustine.

Benefield has just crawled back to even up the match with king-six against Augustine's ace-nine. Benefield paired his king on the flop, and the rest of the board ran out ragged to hold him up. He's now virtually even with his opponent, just about 4,000 chips separating the two men.