Blinds: 1,000/2,000
Daniel Soltys raised to 4,000 from the button and Max Kruse three-bet shoved for 49,452 for Soltys to call.
Max Kruse: 
Daniel Soltys: 
The board ran out 
for Kruse to flop trips and improve to a full house on the river to double back to almost starting stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
101,096
-52,692
|
-52,692 |
|
98,904
52,692
|
52,692 |
|
||
Blinds: 1,000/2,000
Aleksejs Ponakovs raised to 4,000 from the button and Aliaksei Boika three-bet shoved for 47,049 which Ponakovs called.
Aliaksei Boika: 
Aleksejs Ponakovs: 
The board ran out 
for Ponakovs to hit the river for the higher two pair to send Boika to the rail.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000
50,449
|
50,449 |
|
||
|
Busted | |
Blinds: 1,250/2,500
Max Kruse raised to 5,000 from the button and Daniel Soltys defended.
The flop came 
, Soltys check-called the 5,000 continuation-bet of Kruse.
The turn was the and Soltys check-raised the 7,500 bet of Kruse to 22,500 and got the call.
The completed the board and Soltys took a bit of time before shoving for 56,526. Kruse tanked for a while and opted to fold while showing the 
for top pair.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
121,526
20,430
|
20,430 |
|
|
78,474
-20,430
|
-20,430 |
|
|
||
Blinds: 1,500/3,000
Max Kruse raised to 6,000 and Daniel Soltys defended. The flop came 
, Soltys check-called the 6,000 continuation-bet of Kruse. The turn was the and Soltys now check-raised the 9,000 bet of Kruse to 24,000 to get the fold.
On the next hand, Soltys limped in and Kruse opted to check. Kruse check-called the 3,000 continuation-bet of Soltys on the 
flop and for 8,400 on the 
on the turn to then check-fold to the shove of Soltys when the completed the board.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
159,926
38,400
|
38,400 |
|
|
40,074
-38,400
|
-38,400 |
|
|
||
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Max Kruse raised to 8,000 from the button and Daniel Soltys three-bet to put Kruse all-in who called for the remaining 46,974.
Max Kruse:
Daniel Soltys:
The board ran out 
for Kruse to flop the pair of treys immediately to double up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
109,948
69,874
|
69,874 |
|
|
||
|
|
90,052
-69,874
|
-69,874 |
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Daniel Soltys raised to 8,000 from the button and Max Kruse defended.
The flop came , Kruse check-raised the 4,000 continuation-bet of Soltys to 12,000 and got the call.
The turn was the and Kruse shoved for Soltys to make the call for the 70,052 he had behind.
Daniel Soltys: 
Max Kruse: 
Soltys had turned the straight while Kruse held top pair.
The river completed the board with the .
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
180,104
90,052
|
90,052 |
|
|
19,896
-90,052
|
-90,052 |
|
|
||
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Daniel Soltys raised enough for Max Kruse to call for his tournament life as he pushed his last 19,896 over the line.
Max Kruse:
Daniel Soltys: 
The board ran out 
for Kruse to hold with the king-kicker and the trips on the board to double up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
152,208
-27,896
|
-27,896 |
|
|
47,792
27,896
|
27,896 |
|
|
||
Blinds: 2,500/5,000
The hands are being played very quickly as the chips keep flying back and forth but Max Kruse has managed to reclaim some of his chips. This is how they are situated right now.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
121,708
-30,500
|
-30,500 |
|
|
78,292
30,500
|
30,500 |
|
|
||
Blinds: 2,500/5,000
Daniel Soltys raised enough from the button for Max Kruse to call for his last 48,792 in total.
Max Kruse: 
Daniel Soltys: 
The flop came to keep Soltys ahead with the higher kicker.
The turn was the 
and that gave Kruse some outs to split the pot if a four would come on the river but the 
came instead to seal the deal and send Kruse out of the field . Soltys secured the last spot in the semi-finals on September 4.
A recap is to follow.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
200,000
78,292
|
78,292 |
|
|
Busted | |
|
|
||
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.
| 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.
| 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.
