128 players go in...
The WSOP $10,000 Heads Up Championship is down to its final four.
The limited field of just 128-players filled up fast. All 128 slots were taken two days before kick-off. This meant the organizers had to choose a mix of top poker players, notable celebrities, and Dan Bilzerian. There was also a smattering of wild cards.
Round one started each player out with 60,000 in chips and blinds at 150/300. Chips carry through each round and the blinds double. The blinds, as a result, become comically finicky in later rounds — imagine the chip stack in a live game with a 25,600/51,200 round.
Big-name pros who made the 128 included: Kristen Bicknell, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Fedor Holz, Mike Leah, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel Negreanu, and Erik Seidel.
One day event runs long
The event has not been without its controversies, Erik Seidel let his opponent blind down when they didn’t show. Predictably this has brought out strong opinions in both the for and against camps.
The play dragged on a bit. After 13 hours of play, when the round of 8 came to an end, the decision to run the rest on Saturday was taken.
Everyone who made it to the round of 16 got paid $24,832. Those knocked out in the round of eight got twice that at $49,664. Those who made the money included Daniel Negreanu and Grospellier.
… 4 come out
One of the wild cards, poker streamer Alyssa MacDonald, has been showing up the pros. She has beaten out pros like Mark Radoja and Victor Kudinov to make it to the final 4.
The toughest path to the final four fell to Micheal Zhang who had to take on Sean Winter in the round of 64. This was followed by Eric Seidel in the round of 32 and Daniel Negreanu in the round of 16. After that, relative unknown Chris Brewer's play must have seemed like a walk in the park in the round of 8.
High stakes regular, David Peters made it to the final four as well. This was despite being down to 4 big blinds at one point in his round of 8 match, where he had just 4 big blinds. But he managed to double up three times running and eventually knocked out Stefan Bukarov 5th.
Last but not least is Michael Addamo, who with $8 million in live tourney winnings is a dangerous opponent. He is being paired with Zhang in the semi-final.
The real David and Goliath showdown will be the other match though where Peters ($33,737,539 in tourney winnings) and MacDonald ($6,171) will be squaring off. It is hard not to root for the underdog in this one.
The final four will play down to a winner on Saturday, 15th August 2020. First place will be taking home $360,480 and the coveted HU bracelet.
