WSOP 2011 - $25k Heads-Up Championship Day 1 complete

WSOP 2011 - $25k Heads-Up Championship Day 1 complete

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

The 2011 World Series of Poker has officially gotten under way with the inaugural $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold ‘em Championship event attracting a half-capacity field of 128 players, generating a prize pool of over $3m.

The winner of this event will take home not only the first open event bracelet of 2011 but also a cool $851,192 for making their way through one of the toughest fields ever assembled in a poker tournament. The list of players who didn’t make it past Day 1 is as star-studded as any field – Lex Velduis, Shaun Deeb, Eugene Katchalov, Antonio Esfandiari, newlywed Erick Lindgren, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, Barry Greenstein and Sam Trickett were just some of the names hitting the rail $25,000 worse off.


Of the 32 remaining players, however, we have some great poker players in contention – David Benyamine, Andrew Robl, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Daniel Alaei, Jake Cody, Isaac Haxton, John Juanda, Olivier Busquet, Maxim Lykov, Tom Dwan and Chris Moorman are all through to Day 2 where half the remaining 32 players will make the money. Payouts begin at $67,436 for each round of 16 bustout with quarter-finalists receiving $138,852; semi-finalists taking home $283,966 and the two finalists battling it out for the difference between $525,980 and the top prize.


One player who won't be back for Day 2 but who did make a big impression was James Bord. The WSOPE winner got involved in, shall we say, a “frank exchange of views” with John Juanda. Bord was doing the lion's share of the trash talking until security were called to separate the pair.


One other notable missing name from the line-up was a Mr. Phil Ivey.


The draw for the next round is as follows:


David Benyamine vs. Anthony Guetti
Chris Moorman vs. Richard Lyndaker
Dani Stern vs. Jake Cody
Isaac Haxton vs. Jonathan Jaffe


Ashton Griffin vs. Tom Dwan
Daniel Alaei vs. Gus Hansen
Steve Blilirakis vs. Trevor Pope
Matt Marafioti vs. Maxim Lykov


Eric Froehlich vs. Steve Zolotow
John Duthie vs. Carlos Mortenson
Jason Smirnov vs. Darren Elias
Erik Cajelais vs. Nikolay Evdakov


Yevgeniy Timshenko vs. Amritraj Singh
Oliver Busquet vs. Andrew Robl
Kunimaro Kojo vs. Nick Shulman
David Paredes vs. John Juanda



Tags: WSOP 2011, WSOP $25k Championship, James Bord, John Juanda