High Stakes Heads-Up Action Begins at Noon
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the start of Event #7: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship here at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, one of the most prestigious events in the WSOP schedule.
This three-day event gets underway at 12 p.m. local time with the draw, and the first round immediately following. Registration closes once it reaches 64 entries (sold out). The schedule for Day 1 has players playing two rounds. The second round (Round of 32) will begin at 5 p.m.
The starting stack is 150,000 chips and levels are 20 minutes long. The event is played with a 20-second shot clock preflop and 30-second shot clock after the flop.
The 16 surviving players return on Day 2, Saturday, at 12 p.m. when they will play two more matches, again at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. (Round of 8). Semi-final and final matches will take place Sunday at a time yet to be determined.
Last year's event saw 64 players generate a prize pool of $1,504,000. The winner was Darius Samual, who took his shot in the event by risking half his bankroll to enter.
He defeated fan-favorite John Smith, Russian poker phenom Artur Martirosian, and Faraz Jaka en-route to victory.
"The match with John Smith I think was [my favorite]," Samual told PokerNews. "His small-ball style was a lot of fun and it lasted a long time."
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $25,000 | Darius Samual | 64 | $500,000 | United Kingdom | Faraz Jaka |
| 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 |
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