Conan, Mateos, Soltys, and Ponakovs Reach Semi-Finals of Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up Championship
After almost eleven hours on another day of the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online, the semi-finals of Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up Championship have been reached.
Arthur Conan, Adrian Mateos, Daniel Soltys, and Aleksejs Ponakovs each survived five match-ups to get to the point where they get to come back on September 4 to play it out for the lion-share of the $1,561,700 prize pool.
The original cap of the tournament was set at 128 but the registration was opened up again as GGPoker increased the maximum number of entries to 256. In the end, 161 players registered for $10,000 each, this meant that the top 16 would cash for at least $31,078. Even though all four players have secured $155,389, they will have their sights set on the first-place prize of $466,167 which will also come with a gold WSOP bracelet.
Conan was the first player to get to the semi-finals when he took out Miguel Capriles with a full house. Conan's best WSOP cash on GGPoker was in the 2020 Main Event when he finished in 71st place for $30,776. Conan will be battling Mateos who eliminated Vlad-Stefan Lache in the quarter-final with the higher two pair.
Over on the other side of the brackets, Ponakovs busted Aliaksei Boika when he managed to hit the river to secure his seat. This left German professional soccer player Max Kruse and Soltys as the last match to finish. Kruse got back from a short stack to even to short again. He then doubled back to even to lose most of it again before doubling up once more before losing everything in the end.
Routes to the Final Four
| Arthur Conan | Adrian Mateos | Daniel Soltys | Aleksejs Ponakovs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round of 256 | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye |
| Round of 128 | Shota Hirao | Bryan Micon | Tamas Adamszki | Blaz Zerjav |
| Round of 64 | Ben Maya | Ioannis Angelou-Konstas | Francisco Benitez | Daniel Smith |
| Round of 32 | Roman Hrabec | Roman Emelyanov | Feng Chen | Renan Bruschi |
| Round of 16 | Stuart Wallensteen | Mirza Muhovic | Joakim Andersson | Yen-Liang Yao |
| Round of 8 | Miguel Capriles | Vlad-Stefan Lache | Max Kruse | Aliaksei Boika |
When play resumes on Saturday, September 4 at 5 p.m. GMT, the stacks will be reset to 100,000 and play the same exact structure as they did today. What does change is that the tournament will be broadcast on GGPoker.TV from the semi-finals onwards with commentary provided by Norman Chad and Lon McEachern on a 30-minute security delay with cards-up coverage.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $466,167 |
| 2 | $279,700 |
| 3-4 | $155,389 |
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand again to bring you all the action but on a similar delay as the stream. Make sure to follow along when things start up again. But for now, the team will be back on Sunday, August 22, to provide you with all the updates for Event #16: $1,050 WSOP GGMasters HR and Event #17: $400 PLOSSUS.