Back and Forth

Heads-up has been a fairly torrid affair so far and both Su Hao and Fedor Holz are taking it in turns to swap the chip lead and are playing at a rapid pace.

Holz started on the button and the first hand of heads up went raise, fold before Hao seized the lead on the second hand.

The Chinese player made it 45,000 to go on the button and Holz called quite quickly before checking the flop over to Hao, who bet 80,000.

The German called quickly and it was off to the turn, which Holz checked for a second time and Hao hit the think tank for a minute or so before reaching for a hefty stack of chips, making it 128,000 to go, which Holz called to swell the pot to over 500,000.

The river saw Holz check it over to Hao once more and the Chinese player fired out a chunky third barrel, making it 266,000 to go, leaving himself 381,000 behind. Holz tanked for quite some time before electing to let it go with a wry smile.

“You can pick one,” said Hao as he raked in the hefty pot to climb up to 1.2 million and seize back the lead.

Holz picked the right hand card, which was the .

“Nice bluff” he quipped good-naturedly before proceeding to win the next three hands in a row to seize back the chip lead with some aggressive pre and pot flop play to win without showdown on all three occasions with the hands making it to the river all three times.

By the end of the level the chip lead had changed hands on at least four separate occasions but it was Holz who finished as the man in the driving seat with a stack of 1.25 million to Hao’s 800,000.