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.
to keep Soltys ahead with the higher kicker.
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.
for Ponakovs to hit the river for the higher two pair to send Boika to the rail.
for Kruse to flop trips and improve to a full house on the river to double back to almost starting stack.
, Lache check-called the 1,650 continuation-bet of Mateos.
on the river. Lache checked for the final time. Mateos shoved for Lache to tank and then call for this last 39,000 with the 
for two pair but Mateos held the 
. The higher two pair gave Mateos a ticket for Saturday, September 4 when the sem-finals will be played.
and Capriles checked again. This time, Conan bet 4,000 and Capriles raised it up to 12,000 to see it get called.
for Capriles to push his last 10,780 over the line. Conan called with the 
for the full house to secure a spot in the semi-finals on September 4 while Capriles busted for a cash of $62,156 with the 
for Mateos to hold with the king kicker and trip kings on the board to bust Muhovic and become the last player to reach the quarter-finals.
