Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius Battle for WPT HU Championship Title

Jason Glatzer

Jun 22, 2021 3 min read

Poker legends Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius will face off for the title in the inaugural World Poker Tour Heads Up Poker Championship after the field of 32 entries, featuring an interesting background mix of high-stakes pros, gamers, and influencers, is down to just one final heads-up battle on Tuesday, June 22.

Both players have locked up a $200,000 payday and the player that comes out on top will double that for a total haul of $400,000. All of the match-ups have featured a best-of-three format until the finals which will boast a best-of-five format.

Poker fans can follow along on what promises to be a match talked about for the ages at the WPT Twitch channel or the WPT YouTube channel starting at 3 p.m. EDT. Live updates can be found on the WPT website.

Watch Ivey vs. Antonius live here

Ivey Defeats Kruk, Chidwick, Zinno, and Loeser

Phil Ivey advances to face Patrik Antonius in the finals

Ivey faced four formidable opponents on his way to tonight's heads-up final against Antonius including defeating Manig Loeser in the opening round and Anthony Zinno in the second round.

On Monday, Ivey battled against Stephen Chidwick in an epic battle between two of poker's titans with the duo combining for nearly $67 million in live tournament cashes. The winner would advance to the semi-finals with at least a $100,000 min-cash locked up with the loser going home empty-handed.

Ivey won the first match when his queens held against ace-jack before running a sick bluff during the second match getting Chidwick to fold top pair with a possible flush on the board. Ivey sealed the deal and advanced to play against Christopher Kruk after Chidwick bricked the board with king-three against Ivey's ace-nine.

Kruk, who was already in the money after besting Wiktor "Limitless" Malinowski in the quarterfinals, appeared to have all the momentum early on semifinals after winning the first of three matches after Ivey check-jammed with snowmen into Kruk's flush.

Ivey was down but certainly not out and took down the second match after Kruk attempted to bluff him with air on the river into Ivey's straight. The ten-time WSOP gold bracelet winner then advanced to the final round after Kruk attempted another bluff with air only to run into Ivey's flush.

Phil Ivey's Road to the Final

Round	Match-up
Round of 32	Manig Loeser
Round of 16	Anthony Zinno
Quarterfinals	Stephen Chidwick
Semifinals	Christopher Kruk

Antonius Defeats Greenwood, Burakov, Polk, and Oshiro

Patrik Antonius advanced to the finals against Phil Ivey

Antonius began his journey to the final round by defeating Gakuto "GACKT" Oshiro in the opening round before sweeping Doug Polk in the second round in on of the highest profile matches during the event.

Antonius had one of his toughest battles against Stefan "Stefan11222" Burakov on the money bubble in the quarterfinals. The match was tied up with each player winning one match. The rubber match was a back-and-forth before Antonius gained control. The Finnish poker superstar advanced after his ace-eight suited was good against king-queen.

Sam Greenwood needed to come back from behind in the quarterfinals against Dan Smith in order to advance to face Antonius in the semifinals. Antonius won the first match after he called a jam with top pair holding king-queen against Smith, who paired the board as well with jack-ten.

The second match is certainly worth a watch for those that missed out on the live stream as both players seemingly had control at one time or another. Antonius advanced to face Ivey after his nines were good against ace-seven to send Greenwood to the rail for a $100,000 min-cash.