Arthur Conan Wins $466,167 and First WSOP Bracelet in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship
He had to wait two weeks, but in the end, Arthur Conan took down the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship for $466,167 by defeating Aleksejs Ponakovs in the final. With 161 entries on Day 1, a prize pool of $1,561,700 was created with the lion-share being awarded today.
Conan had a 4th place finish in Event #14: THE BIG 500 and the 9th place in Event #13: PLO Championship but he finally got that win here in one of the most anticipated events of the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online schedule. This win takes him to over $2 million in tournament wins on just GGPoker itself.
In his WSOP live tournaments career, he finished in 15th place in the Crazy Eights back in 2018 and in 3rd place in the €1,000 Heads-Up Challenge during the International Circuit series in Paris in 2016.
Ponakovs won $279,700 for his runner-up spot while Adrian Mateos and Daniel Soltys both cashed for $155,389 today.
2021 GGPoker WSOP Online Event #15: $10,000 Heads-Up Championship Final Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Arthur Conan | France | $466,167 |
| 2nd | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | $279,700 |
| 3rd | Daniel Soltys | United States | $155,389 |
| 3rd | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $155,389 |
| 5th | Max Kruse | Germany | $62,156 |
| 5th | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | $62,156 |
| 5th | Vlad-Stefan Lache | Romania | $62,156 |
| 5th | Miguel Capriles | Venezuela | $62,156 |
| 9th | Mirza Muhovic | Luxembourg | $31,078 |
| 9th | Carlos Chadha | United States | $31,078 |
| 9th | Stuart Wallensteen | Canada | $31,078 |
| 9th | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | $31,078 |
| 9th | Sami Kelopuro | Finland | $31,078 |
| 9th | Mike Watson | Canada | $31,078 |
| 9th | Yen-Liang Yao | Taiwan | $31,078 |
| 9th | Joakim Andersson | Sweden | $31,078 |
Conan's Road to His First Bracelet
Conan had to face Mateos in the semi-final and was the first to secure his spot in the final when they both flopped a flush. But with the ace-queen in his hand, Conan held the nuts to bust the Spaniard and prevent him from possibly winning his fourth WSOP bracelet.
Ponakovs needed a bit more time to deal with Soltys. Around twenty minutes after Mateos had hit the rail, Ponakovs had limp-called the raise of Soltys to flop a straight. Soltys had hit top pair and check-shoved for 24 big blinds and was left drawing dead on the turn to bust in third place.
While the semi-finals lasted just under an hour, the final was a different story as that took almost two hours with the evenly matched opponents.
Even though Ponakovs took an early lead, Conan quickly took it over. They got back to even stacks for a while but in the end, Conan three-bet jammed with jack-nine suited. Ponakovs had called for 23 big blinds with pocket fives. Conan found a nine to connect with on the flop to secure the maiden bracelet and first-place prize.
While this tournament has crowned its champion, there's still loads more action going on here at GGPoker. Check out Event #25: $777 LUCKY SEVENS as they play down to a winner too as the PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you the blow-by-blow action live as it happens.