Thirty-Two Hopefuls Remain in the Heads-Up Championship
After three exciting rounds of heads-up poker, the first day of the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end. There are 32 players remaining out of the 152-player field, all of whom are in the money. The day started with a short delay as many last-minute registrations were able to get into this event. After the draw was posted, 48 of the 152 players weren't amused as they had to play the first round. The remaining 104 players received a bye securing their seat in the second round.
Among the notable losers in the first round were Matt Marafioti, Sam Trickett, Jason Koon and Vanessa Rousso as Jason Mercier, Chris Moorman, David "Doc" Sands and Matt Perrins moved onto the next round. The real action started as the field got down to 128 and we had a full bracket of players to follow.
Sands, Phil Ivey and Justin Bonomo were among the first players to win their second round match while Andy Frankenberger, Shaun Deeb and Vladimir Shchemelev each busted. Today also marked the World Series of Poker debut of online superstar Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom who proved he could also play live during the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure when he won the $100,000 Super High Roller event banking just over $1.2 million. Blom beat Andy Bloch in the first round, but had to admit defeat in the second when he lost against Tommy Chen. Other notables that lost their second round match were Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Victor Ramdin, Erik Seidel and 2009 Heads-Up Championship winner Leo Wolpert.
With the field down to 64, all players had to win just one more match in order to cash for $10,966. Steven Landfish was the first player to reach the money when he beat Peter Jetten by rivering a straight against a turned set. Scott Baumstein didn't have a lot of trouble with Victor Ilyukhin, who called a big shove from Baumstein preflop with jack-ten. Baumstein watched his ace-deuce hold up and give him a seat in the fourth round. Richard Lyndaker took out the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela. Lyndaker had flopped a straight when the money went in and Kassela's pair and gutshot couldn't catch up. We also said goodbye to 2010 Heads-Up Champion Ayaz Mahmood and 2011 Champion Jake Cody in the round of 64.
Daniel Negreanu beat Faraz Jaka in the second round and got another top opponent in the third matching up with heads-up specialist Jonathan Jaffe. Negreanu lost a big pot halfway through the match when both players had made a full house and the money went in on the river. He didn't recover and lost his last chips with fives against aces.
Other big names to make it to the round of 32 are Brian Hastings, Brock Parker, Eric Froehlich and Vanessa Selbst. The biggest upset came when Phil Ivey lost against the unknown Chae An. Ivey got it in good with ace-king against ace-seven, but a seven on the flop send him out the door.
We will come back tomorrow with the final 32 players and play until there are just four players remaining. The first round will take place at 1:00 PM local time followed by the second round at 4:00 PM and the final round at 7:00 PM. These are the payouts the remaining 32 will be fighting for.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $371,498 |
| 2 | 229,722 |
| 3 - 4 | 130,606 |
| 5 - 8 | 56,380 |
| 9 - 16 | 20,674 |
| 17 - 32 | 10,966 |
Be sure to join us right here on PokerNews for all of the action starting tomorrow. In the meantime, be sure to check out our coverage of the other WSOP events happening on our Live Reporting Pages.
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and Kester moved all in for his final 19,000 chips. It took Selbst around five seconds to make the call and she showed 
. Kester was trailing with 
and drawing dead on the 
turn. The river was the 
and Selbst moved on to the next round.
. Esfandiari held the 
. After the board ran out 
and Godshall called all in for 25,000 with the dominating 
. The board came 
and Godshall doubled back. Then just a couple of hands later, Godshall doubled again.
and Godshall doubled again. He was all in for 56,000.
and Esfandiari check-called a 2,100 chip bet. The turn was the 
and Esfandiari check-called 5,200. The river was the 
and both players checked. Esfandiari showed 
and took down the pot.
. Esfandiari showed 
with two clubs and Green checked to Koon who bet 2,000. "He just moved all in for like 16,300," Koon laughed as he made the call with 
and a 
. Koon showed 
