News: No-Limit Heads-Up Championship

256 players signed up for the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship (Event 25). 32 participants survived the first day. The prize pool amounts to $2,406,400, of which the winner will receive $539,040.

Daniel Schreiber won in 2007

Last year, Daniel Schreiber won the tournament. Schreiber is an online heads-up expert and performed remarkably in the past year. In the finale, he defeated Mark Muchnik.

Many Top Matches in Round 1

Several top-class duels took place in the first round, so it wasn't really surprising that countless stars were sent to the rails.

Alex Kravchenko faced Barry Greenstein in the first round. After raise and re-raise Barry called an all-in of the Russian and showed . Kravchenko held and was an almost 70% favourite. The board didn't help Barry and Kravchenko made it into Round 2.

Nicolas Levi prevailed over Daniel Negreanu, who just recently won his fourth bracelet in Event 20. In the Heads-Up
Championship he already dropped out in the first round though. With and hit top pair, Negreanu lost against Levi's .

JC Tran eliminated Sorel Mizzi. Tran raised to 1,300, Mizzi re-raised to 3,400. Tran pushed all-in and Mizzi called. Tran held , Mizzi had .
A 56% to 44% coin flip in favour of Mizzi. Already the flop gave Tran the king, turn and river didn't help Mizzi anymore.

The winner of this year's NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship,
Chris Ferguson, defeated Keith Helgevold in the first round.

Sebastian Ruthenberg without a Chance

Sebastian Ruthenberg had to battle it out with Tony G.
Within only a few hands, Tony was able to gather an impressive 3:1 chip lead and didn't give Sebastian any chance to get back into the game. On the board of , Sebastian went all-in, showing . Tony flipped over . Turn and River were , and Tony G made it to the next round.

Many Pros on the Rails in Round 1
Phil Ivey lost against John Hennigan. Kevin
O'Donnell eliminated Patrik Antonius. Huck Seed had to submit to Stephen
Wolf. Kenny Tran defeated Steve Billirakis. T.J.
Cloutier was sent to the rails by Jonas Entin.

Highlights of the 2nd Round

Theo Tran sent Andy Bloch in round 2 to the rail. On the board of both went all-in. Bloch had pocket fours, Tran for the straight. The jack on the river changed nothing.

The Spaniard Carlos Mortensen kicked out David Singer. With pocket aces he was way ahead against Singer's A-6. The board brought no change and Mortensen made it to Round 3.

Justin Bonomo was able to eliminate Phil Gordon. Phil check-raised Bonomo
with a pure bluff all-in. The later one called with top pair and was in the next round.

Johannes Strassman out in Round 2

Antonio Esfandiari took Johannes Strassman out of the tourney. Johannes
bet everything on an open-ended straight draw, which didn't hit unfortunately.

Round 3 – ITM
All the players who made it into the third round had already secured their share of the prize money. To survive the day, they also had to make it through this round.

Quads saved Esfandiari – at least for a while

With Antonio Esfandiari faced Emil Patel with in Round 3. The flop came with . Only an ace could save Antonio, or a seven. And that's exactly what the turn card was, . Split pot. Soon after, Patel eliminated Esfandiari anyway.