2018 World Series of Poker

Event #16: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day: 1
Event Info

2018 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
44
Prize
$185,965
Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$571,600
Entries
114
Level Info
Level
58
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
0

Adrian Mateos Set to Defend Heads-Up Title; John Smith Looking to Break Through

Adrian Mateos
Adrian Mateos

Welcome back to PokerNews' coverage of the 2018 World Series of Poker.

The only event of its kind on the WSOP docket, Event #16: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship is one that many in the poker community wait year-round for. Adrian Mateos is the defending champion of this event and became the youngest player to win three bracelets at just 22 years old last year. Already with a final table under his belt this summer, Mateos will no doubt be back and looking to capture bracelet no. 4.

A mix of the biggest live names in the game and online heads-up specialists tend to make up a significant portion of the field, but there are also some that don't fall under either category. John Smith is the prime example of this. While he may have lost to Mateos in last year's championship match, Smith has finished runner-up two straight years and cashed in three of the last four years in this event. He may not have won the elusive bracelet, but he's been the talk of the heads-up tournament two years running.

Here is a breakdown of the heads-up tournaments over the years at the WSOP:

YearBuy-inEntriesChampionEarningsRunner-Up
2007$5,000392Dan Schreiber$425,594Mark Muchnik
2008$10,000256Kenny Tran$539,056Alec Torelli
2009$10,000256Leo Wolpert$625,682John Duthie
2010$10,000256Ayaz Mahmood$625,682Ernst Schmejkal
2011$25,000128Jake Cody$851,192Yevgeniy Timoshenko
2012$10,000152Brian Hastings$371,498Jason Mo
2013$10,000162Mark Radoja$331,190Don Nguyen
2014$10,000136Davide Suriano$335,553Sam Stein
2015$10,000143Keith Lehr$334,440Paul Volpe
2016$10,000153Alan Percal$320,574John Smith
2017$10,000129Adrian Mateos$336,656John Smith

The schedule for the day is likely to be three rounds of matches taking place at 3 p.m, 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. Registration closes as soon as the first draw for matches begins at 3 p.m., and PokerNews will be on hand to provide the brackets and live updates on all of the action.

Tags: Adrian MateosJohn Smith