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

06-13-2009 11:52 UTC-12

Welcome to Heads-Up!

Welcome to the start of Event #29, the $10,000 World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em. Two hundred fifty-six players will take to the tables today in the Brasilia room, battling it out in what some consider to be the truest form of poker. We expect the field to be dominated by pros, but there are already a good number of unknowns sitting down.

The doors have just been opened, and the players are beginning to trickle into their seats. They'll be laid out with two matches at each table and a dealer on either end of the oval. We expect to be underway pretty close to the scheduled start time of 5:00pm. Sit tight, we'll be right back.

Level: 1

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

06-13-2009 12:09 UTC-12

Let's Go

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The cards are in the air, and we are underway. We haven't been provided with any sort of table draw, so we'll try to get you as much info on the match-ups as we can.

06-13-2009 12:14 UTC-12

Top Table

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At first quick glance across the room, one match immediately sticks out as must-see. Greg Raymer has drawn Isaac Haxton for this first round, and it figures to be a barn burner. They should be well familiar with each other's playing styles; both men made the final table of the $40,000 NLHE event early in this Series.

06-13-2009 12:23 UTC-12

Some Notable Match-Ups

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Greg Mueller is matched up with his fellow Full Tilt-er, Chris Ferguson in a battle of contrasting styles. A few tables away, Gavin Smith is tangling up with Chino Rheem in what figures to be the loudest table in the room. Erich Froehlich is playing against Matt Hawrilenko, who is wearing a well-tailored suit today.

The defending champion, Kenny Tran, has drawn the diminutive but very dangerous Anna Wroblewski for his first round match-up.

Level: 2

Blinds: 150/300

Ante: 0

06-13-2009 12:28 UTC-12

More Match-Ups

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Noah Schwartz vs. Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro

Tom "Durrrr" Dwan vs. Nam Le

Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf vs. Ryan Young

J.C. Tran vs. Dario Minieri

Joe Cappello vs. Peter Eastgate

Yevgeniy Timoshenko vs. Barry Greenstein

Mohsin Charania vs. Ted Forrest

06-13-2009 12:28 UTC-12

Two Done

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Hoyt Corkins has won his first-round battle already, standing up from his chair and looking around the room with a lost stare in his eyes. We're not 100% sure who he beat as it happened so quickly, but we think it may have been Jonathan Little.

EDIT: It wasn't Little. It was Vadim Trincher.

And just now, the second match has ended, as Justin "BoostedJ" Smith dispatched with an unrecognizable online player.

06-13-2009 12:33 UTC-12

Level 2

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Players move to Level 2 with blinds of 150/300.

In this heads-up tournament, blind levels will be only 20 minutes.

06-13-2009 12:34 UTC-12

Rajkumar vs. Ng: Vivek Crippled

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Vivek Rajkumar raised with the button to 600, and Evelyn Ng reraised to 1,700. Rajkumar four-bet it to 5,200, and Ng made the call.

The flop came {5-Diamonds}