Heads-up Championship Reaches its Elite Eight

Posted by pokerguru on June 16, 2009

One of the most prestigious poker titles that any player can win is the Heads-up Championship. After two very long days, we are finally down to 8 players and all three matches will be played today until we have a champion. One of the most feared players in the world is still alive as Johnny Chan is on his game and looking for his 11th bracelet. Here are the matchups for the remaining 8:

Leo Wolpert –vs- Dustin Wolf

Jamin Stokes –vs- Johnny Chan

Nathan Doudney –vs- Bryan Pelligrino

John Duthie –vs- Steve O’Dwyer

Event 28 continued to move slowly and play was stopped at the 3am deadline. However, they still have 27 players left in the tournament and will be back early on Monday to get this one done. Play is scheduled to start at 1pm. Joe Simmons is the current leader with 1,100,000, but there are several players hot on his heels and well within striking distance. It would be a surprise if they don’t get close to the 3am deadline again to get the bracelet decided on.

Event 30 ended up having 436 people enter and they are down to 109. JC Tran is the current leader with 176,900 in chips. He has a lot of competition for the top spot though as John Juanda, Eli Elezra and Andy Bloch are all in the top 20. Event 31 started with 770 players and was the late starting tournament of the evening. Sabic Sebastian is the overall leader with 72,700 in chips and Marco Traniello (55,000) and Andrew Black (54,300) are on the first page of the leader board.

Another World Championship Event kicks off tonight at the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Event will get underway. There were some noticeable absences from the last couple of tournaments which should mean that this field is going to be loaded with a lot of well rested professionals. Don’t be surprised to see the likes of Hellmuth, Negreanu, Lindgren, Brunson and Harmon going deep in this one.