Leonard and Martirosian Among Final Four in $25,000 Heads-Up Championship

The curtains have drawn on Day 2 of Event #7: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Action took place in the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, where 16 players returned having navigated their way through rounds one and two the previous day.

Play resumed a little before 1 p.m. local time, and plenty of onlookers had gathered at the rail to watch some of the game's elite battle it out. Players were scheduled to play two matches, knowing that a win in round three would secure a minimum cash of $86,000. However, they each had one eye on a bigger slice of the $1,532,800 prize pool.

As play concluded for the day, four players survived, each only two more victories away from a $500,000 payday and a coveted WSOP gold bracelet.

Semifinal Matches

Player 1		Player 2
Artur Martirosian	vs.	Patrick Leonard
David Chen	vs.	Aliaksei Boika

Full Bracket

Day 2 Action

Four-time WSOP bracelet winner, Chance Kornuth, was the first to progress to the quarter-finals, beating Killian Desnos. Desnos entertained on Day 1 and continued similarly today. Blind raises and a devil-may-care playing style stumped opponents in the previous rounds, but Kornuth didn’t take long to figure it out and dispatched Desnos in timely fashion.

There was also a blockbuster match-up between heads-up specialist Kevin Rabichow and two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian. Martirosian, who made it to the final four of this very event at the 2024 WSOP, got himself one step closer to the title after winning a crucial pot and shortly after eliminating Rabichow.

Another eye-catching collision saw Patrick Leonard take on Martin Zamani. Leonard put a big dent in Zamani’s stack early on and ended the match soon after to progress.

David Chen held a significant chip lead versus Richard Green, but Green dug in to turn the contest on its head. Chen found himself with less than five big blinds at one point, but two important double-ups saw him fight his way back into it. After a bit more back and forth, Chen managed to punch his ticket to the next round.

Poker powerhouse Alex Foxen lost to Frenchman Thomas Eychenne. Eychenne got out to an early lead and Foxen never found a way back.

The quarter-final lineup was completed by Mike Shi, Harvey Castro and Aliaksei Boika.

Round 3 Results

Winner	Defeated
Patrick Leonard	Martin Zamani
David Chen	Richard Green
Artur Martirosian	Kevin Rabichow
Chance Kornuth	Killian Desnos
Mike Shi	Matthew Wantman
Harvey Castro	Joao Vieira
Aliaksei Boika	Brandon Brown
Thomas Eychenne	Alex Foxen

Quarterfinal Round

Leonard was the first to progress to the semi-final. Taking on Shi, Leonard caught an early bluff to take control of the tie. He continued to pressure his opponent, and it wasn’t long before he had complete control of the match before sealing the deal.

Next to emerge victorious was Boika in a topsy-turvy match versus Castro.Flopped quads drew the players back level before they exchanged double-ups. Boika then gained some momentum, and when Castro committed to a river bluff, Boika made the call and ended the match.

Kornuth got the better of the early exchanges in his heavyweight match-up versus Martirosian and looked to have complete control with a near 9 to 1 chip lead. Martirosian staged a remarkable comeback, though. Eventually winning the crucial all-in to progress to the semi-final.

The fourth and final match to finish up this evening was the showdown between Eychenne and Chen. Early aggression gave Chen momentum, and he never looked back. In the end, though, it was a cooler that decided the winner. Top pair versus a set.

Quarterfinal Results

Winner	Defeated
Artur Martirosian	Chance Kornuth
Patrick Leonard	Mike Shi
David Chen	Thomas Eychenne
Aliaksei Boika	Harvey Castro

Action will resume for Day 3 Sunday at 12:15 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe Event Center. Play will also be streamed on the PokerGO YouTube channel.

Martirosian is seeking his third World Series of Poker bracelet, while Leonard is chasing his second. Chen and Boika are looking to secure their first.