After two long, late Day 1s in the $25K Heads-Up Championship, just 16 players were left from the original 128-player field.
Day 2 saw them redrawn into a new bracket:
Two rounds were scheduled for Sunday, with the final four returning Monday for the semifinals and final.
Who doesn't love a Hellmuth cameo?
Daniel Negreanu drew Biao Ding and the bracket set up a potential semi-final with Michael Mizrachi and a dream final against Alex Foxen.
Things didn't start so well for Negreanu, though, and he struggled to win a hand in the first level.
He was still looking for his first pot of the match 15 minutes in, when Phil Hellmuth provided some unintentional comedy.
"The great Daniel Negreanu," he boomed as he swept onto the stage recording on his phone. "Nothing but love for Daniel. Great player."
He then turned to Ding, as if surprised to see him there, and said, "Hello," before exiting stage left.
“I haven’t won a hand yet, Phil,” Negreanu shouted after him.
It didn't take long. “First one!” Negreanu said to the rail, dragging chips back and pointing at his watch.
He lost the next but got some change from the dealer, and the rail burst into applause again. “I didn’t win that one,” Negreanu said. “I folded.”
Mizrachi, Negreanu eliminated
Michael Mizrachi was the first player eliminated on Sunday. Ryuta Nakai sent him to the rail with a pair of nines after some mis-timed post-flop aggression from The Grinder.
Nakai would play the winner of the match-up between Cary Katz and Julien Sitbon.
After 150 minutes, only two matches had been decided – starting stacks on Day 2 were 1.2 million or 200 big blinds. That's a lot of play.
Then players started falling. Nikita Kuznetsov got the rest of Justin Saliba's chips with set-over-set. Alex Foxen dispatched Brandon Wilson, and Thomas Boivin set up a quarter-final match-up with him after beating Barak Wisbrod.
And Negreanu almost had Biao Ding dead. He had a 10:1 chip lead, but lost two all-ins to see Ding come back into it.
He then got Ding all in with 
against 
.
The 
runout was brutal, with Ding hitting his three-outer on the river to leave Negreanu distraught: "I can't f***ing take it anymore," he said.
He didn't have to take it much longer. Ding completed the comeback shortly after, winning the first all-in after taking the chip lead.
Round of 16 results
- Biao Ding def. Daniel Negreanu
- Dimitar Danchev def. Florian Pesce
- Cary Katz def. Julien Sitbon
- Ryuta Nakai def. Michael Mizrachi
- Henri Puustinen def. Nikolai Mamut
- Nikita Kuznetsov def. Justin Saliba
- Thomas Boivin def. Barak Wisbrod
- Alex Foxen def. Brandon Wilson
That left the quarterfinals looking like this:
- Biao Ding vs. Dimitar Danchev
- Cary Katz vs. Ryuta Nakai
- Henri Puustinen vs. Nikita Kuznetsov
- Thomas Boivin vs. Alex Foxen
Boivin hits the front
The heavyweight clash was at the bottom of the bracket, with Octopi Poker coach Thomas Boivin taking on one of the very best in the world, Alex Foxen.
The match started out cagily, but Boivin landed the first meaningful blow, when he turned a flush with 
. Foxen got sticky with but had to fold to a shove on the river.
Boivin was eying Foxen's stack after that hand.
"If you take 4.8 [million] and subtract your stack, that's mine," Foxen said.
"There's less to count over there," Boivin hit back with a smile. "It's faster."
Whichever stack he counted, the result was the same – he had a 2:1 chip lead.
It was the best match on paper and it was living up to its billing.
A few hands later, Foxen put out a small 50K bet on the river of a 
board. Boivin raised to 200K with 
and Foxen came back over the top to 650K.
Boivin gulped and you could see he was breathing heavier. He made the correct call and was shown 
. That gave him a 3.5M to 1.3M lead.
Big bet trouble
Meanwhile, Henri Puustinen was blasting out big bets and his last one got him in trouble.
He bet 240K into 160K with 
on a board showing 
. Nikita Kuznetsov made the call with 
.
Puustinen rivered the flush but the 
gave Kuznetsov a full house.
Kuznetsov bet, Puustinen made a big raise and made a good fold when he was asked for the rest of his chips. That left Kuznetsov with close to a 4:1 chip lead and he became the first player to book his place in the semifinals shortly after.
Talking of big bets, Ding was next out after flopping a set of tens, and colliding with a rivered flush from Dimitar Danchev. It left Ding with three big blinds and he couldn't summon up another epic comeback.
Foxen finds two doubles
Action was speeding up now.
Boivin jammed with 
and Foxen snapped for his last 958K with . Foxen flopped an ace and stayed ahead through the runout.
Then Foxen raised with 
and called a jam from Boivin who had . He won that one as well. And after having a 3:1 chip deficit, he now had a more than 3:1 chip lead.
He had a chance to win the match next hand when he raised with 
and Boivin shoved with . The 
flop was no good for Foxen.
In the end it came down to a flip. Boivin shoved his last 20 big blinds with 
and Foxen called with pocket fives. The runout was no help for Boivin and Foxen progressed to the semis.
The final semifinal place was won by Nakai, who shoved with 
and was called by Katz with 
. Nakai picked up a wheel draw on the 
flop and rivered a five to seal the win.
$25K Heads-Up Championship quarterfinal results
- Dimitar Danchev def. Biao Ding
- Ryuta Nakai def. Cary Katz
- Nikita Kuznetsov def. Henri Puustinen
- Alex Foxen def. Thomas Boivin
Semifinal lineups
- Dimitar Danchev vs. Ryuta Nakai
- Nikita Kuznetsov vs. Alex Foxen
All four losing quarterfinalists got $150,000. The semifinals and the final of the $25K Heads-Up Championship play out on Monday.
