Sam Stein and Davide Suriano Will Battle it out For the Gold
After seven thrilling rounds in two days, only two players remain in contention for the gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $335,553 in the prestigious $10,000 Heads-up Championship. Sam Stein will face Davide Suriano, with Stein looking to capture his second bracelet while Suriano attempts to bring home his first.
Both finalists beat a series of top professionals in order to reach the finals as Suriano started out by beating Scott Seiver followed by Daniel Cates, who he busted after spiking a jack when his jacks ended up all in versus Cates' kings. On Friday Suriano faced Serkan Kurnaz and after a two-hour battle, the longest of the round, the Italian secured himself a spot among the final eight.
Heads-up specialist Ankush Mandavia was his next opponent and Suriano held the lead for almost the entire match before closing things out with king-seven versus king-three. In the semifinal Suriano faced yet another heads-up phenom, but Daniel Colman also proved to be no match for the aggressive Italian.
Stein faced Bryn Kenney during his second-round match and hit an ace while holding ace-queen against Kenney's kings to advance. The next two players Stein faced were among Britain's elite, but both Sam Trickett and Max Silver fell short of advancing.
With just eight players remaining Stein faced Scott Baumstein, who ran into Stein's kings to surrender the lead and the busted when he . In the semifinal match Stein trailed Scott Davies for quite some time, but a huge cooler turned things around. In a set-over-set situation Stein grabbed the lead, and while Davies doubled back up once, he was unable to come back.
Here is a complete look at their respective roads to the championship match:
| Round | Sam Stein | Davide Suriano |
|---|---|---|
| Round of 128 | David Schnettler | Scott Seiver |
| Round of 64 | Bryn Kenney | Dan Cates |
| Round of 32 | Sam Trickett | Shane Moran |
| Round of 16 | Max Silver | Serkan Kurnaz |
| Round of 8 | Scott Baumstein | Ankush Mandavia |
| Round of 4 | Scott Davies | Daniel Colman |
The final match of this year's $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship will start at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, and PokerNews.com will be right there to bring hand-for-hand coverage.