One of the interesting match-ups in the First Round sees Winamax Pro Joao Vieira take on Nik Airball, who lost a $1 million heads-up match to Matt Berkey in May 2023.
On the first hand, Vieira opened to 1,500 from the button, and Airball defended the big blind to the K♦Q♦7♣ flop. Airball check-called for 800, bringing in the 9♥ turn. Airball checked for a second time before Vieira sized up to 3,600.
Airball knocked over Vieira's betting chips to see the amount before making the fold.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has long stood as the premier poker event globally, drawing the most skilled and dedicated players worldwide. Over the next two months, fierce competition will unfold as players vie for one of the most prestigious accolades in the WSOP: the Player of the Year (PoY) title.
Those looking to immortalize their names in poker lore need to be aware of the set of new rule changes that the WSOP has implemented for the PoY race. These modifications are crucial for anyone planning their summer grind and hoping to secure a spot at the top of the leaderboard.
The brackets for the Heads-Up Championship are about to take place, slightly delaying the start time. We'll bring you the match-ups when they have been determined.
In the meantime, here are the chips that will be used in today's action.
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2024 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the start of Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship here at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, one of the most prestigious events on the WSOP schedule.
This three-day event gets underway at 12 p.m. local time. Registration closes prior to the first draw, or will sell out once it reaches 64 entries. The schedule for Day 1 has players playing two rounds, with possible byes in Round 1.
Matches will take place at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. with breaks between matches. The starting stack is 150,000 chips with surviving players resuming on Day 2 at 12 p.m. where they will play two more matches, again at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Last year's event saw 64 players generate a prize pool of $1,504,000. The winner was Chanracy Khun who defeated poker legend Doug Polk heads up to win $507,020 and his first WSOP bracelet.
"I feel really good. I'm relieved," he told PokerNews. "And it's tough to find any words, but it's a mix of emotions. But at the end of the day, I'm really, really glad it's over."
Over the years, this tournament has attracted some of the best heads-up players the world has ever seen and has had numerous noteworthy champions:
Year
Buy-In
Winner
Entries
Payout
Country
Runner-up
2023
$25,000
Chanracy Khun
64
$507,020
Canada
Doug Polk
2022
$25,000
Dan Smith
64
$509,717
United States
Christoph Vogelsang
2021
$25,000
Jason Koon
57
$243,981
United States
Gabor Szabo
2019
$10,000
Sean Swingruber
112
$186,356
United States
Ben Yu
2018
$10,000
Justin Bonomo
114
$185,965
United States
Jason McConnon
2017
$10,000
Adrian Mateos
129
$336,656
Spain
John Smith
Planning on playing this event? PokerNews activates MyStack for every WSOP event, regardless of that tournament's buy-in, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting
MyStack is a free poker tool that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
