Event 35 - $10k Heads-Up Championship - Live Updates

If you're going to suck out, you may as well suck out for your first WSOP bracelet and more than $600k.

Ayaz Mahmood is your 2010 WSOP Heads Up Champion after sweeping the best of three match in just over 11 hours. Tonight's match "only" lasted five and a half hours compared to last night's six hours worth of play.

Grand Finale

The final hand was not at all what you'd expect from this match given how conservative both players had played up until that point. Ernst Schmejkal opened the ill-fated hand with a raise to 250k, which Mahmood called. The flop came A♥ 10♦ 9♣.

Schmejkal checked and laid the trap almost too perfectly. Mahmood bet 250k, Schmejkal reraised to 600k and the way things had played out all evening it seemed almost certain Schmejkal had the ace. Mahmood was willing to gamble, reraising all in and drawing a snap call from Schmejkal.

Mahmood showed Q♥ 10♥ while Schmejkal flipped over top pair A♥ 6♠. He couldn't fade all the outs, however, as the turn brought a J♦ and the river brought a K♠ and made the winning straight for Mahmood.

Upon seeing the winning card, the player born in Bangladesh leapt from his seat and nearly toppled into the media bleachers after stumbling on the final table stage.

Reflecting on the Win

Mahmood told PokerListings after the match that he did not put his opponent on the ace and thought Schmejkal held king-ten or something similar. "He had been laying hands down to big raises; I thought he would fold, but even if he didn't I still had one more match to go," said Mahmood.

So, what is Mahmood's next goal? First, win the main event. Then, "In three or four years I want to have more bracelets than Phil Hellmuth," Mahmood said jokingly.

Who eats dinner at 11:30 pm? People on the graveyard shift and players who are competing for 600k in the Heads-Up Championship of the World.

Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal are just about to resume after taking a 60 minute pause in their match. Blinds are currently at 60k and 120k with 28 minutes remaining in the level.

Schmejkal has battled back from a 5:1 deficit and now has the chip lead heading into hour number five of the second heads up match.

To recap: Mahmood won the first match in a six hour battle that ended about 6 am on Monday morning. Play resumed at 7 pm Monday night and at one point Mahmood needed to catch a jack or queen to seal the championship. That didn't happen, Schmejkal faded the outs, and we play on here in the Amazon Room.

Stay put, how could you live with yourself if you weren't around for the conclusion of this epic match?

Chip Count

Just when you think it might be over, Ernst Schmejkal comes staggering back into contention.

The German just found a much needed double up as he had shifted to an all in or fold strategy preflop. One more double up would get us back to even, but Ayaz still holds chip the advantage for now.

Hanging In There

Facing a preflop raise nearly every hand and a chip deficit of 5:1, Schmejkal finally decided to take a stand against the bullying of Ayaz Mahmood.

Mahmood raised preflop, Schmejkal moved all in and Mahmood called quickly. Schmejkal flipped over A♦ 10♦ while Mahmood held Q♣ J♦. Mahmood needed to win one coin flip for the championship, but it wasn't to be on this hand.

The board came 5♥ 4♥ 3♠ 9♥ 4♣ and Schmejkal doubled his stack of 1.145 million. Now with more than 2 million in chips things aren't quite so dire for Schmejkal.

Suck Out

Things were going bad enough for Schmejkal before he got runner-runnered by Mahmood for a large pot. This only pours salt in the wound and makes his road to victory all that much more difficult.

There was a minimum raise preflop and both players saw a flop of Q♣ J♥ 2♥. Schmejkal checked the flop to Ayaz who fired out 350k. Schmejkal called after thinking for a moment and then saw the turn card 8♣. Both players checked the turn.

The river brought a 8♠, Schmejkal checked, Ayaz fired 550k and Schmejkal once again called after thinking for a moment. Ayaz announced three eights and flipped over 7♠ 8♥ while the dismayed Schmejkal mucked a king-jack.

Chip Count

Ayaz Mahmood has once again taken a commanding chip lead in the $10k Heads Up Championship needing only one victory to seal his best of three win.

Mahmood has turned up the aggression ever so slightly with the chip lead and has taken the last few pots off of Schmejkal. Even with the increased action we don't anticipate this one ending with a preflop all in coin flip.

Game Changer

The pot where the tides turned began with Mahmood raising to 160k preflop. Schmejkal called and the flop came 9♣ 8♣ 4♦. Schmejkal checked, Mahmood bet 175k and Schmejkal called.

The turn card brought a J♥ and both players checked. The river card brought a brick 3♠ and Mahmood bet out 200k. Schmejkal tanked for a couple minutes before raising one million more. Schmejkal turned over pocket sixes, which were not good enough to top the J♣ 10♥ of Mahmood.

Anticlimactic Showdown

It looked as though Schmejkal was going to even things up again when he turned over top pair at the river, but Mahmood also held top pair and the two chopped things up.

Here's how it went down. Mahmood bet 160k preflop and Schmejkal called. The flop came K♦ 3♣ 7♥, Schmejkal checked, Mahmood fired 150k and Schmejkal called. The turn brought a 7♦ and both players deceptively checked.

The river card was a Q♦, Schmejkal fired out 350k and drew a call from Mahmood. Schmejkal showed K♥ 9♥ while Mahmood turned over K♠ 8♥.

Chips

Both players have managed to double through one another within the last hour.

Mahmood looked to have Schmejkal on the ropes as he tallied the first double up and took an almost 5:1 chip lead needing only one more victory for the bracelet. That didn't last long, however, as Schmejkal's flush helped him almost back to even and he has since taken the chip lead.

Now the players are virtually dead even with blinds at 100k and 200k.

Mahmood First to Double

Mahmood rode his success last night all the way to a large chip lead tonight. It didn't last long, but we'll tell you about the hand anyway.

Mahmood held pocket sixes and found a flop of A♣ J♣ 7♦ and a turn that brought the joker card 6♦. Schmejkal picked a bad time to move all in over the top of Mahmood's 500k bet and Ayaz snap called with the set. The river brought a brick and Mahmood could almost feel the bracelet around his wrist.

Back In It

Mahmood may have shot out to an early lead, but the German isn't going down without a fight.

Schmejkal did the raising preflop, making it 80k to go. Mahmood called and the flop came 9♥ 8♣ 2♥. Mahmood opted to check call the flop and the turn brought a 10♥. Mahmood check raised all in this time but was met by a snap call from Schmejkal.

Schmejkal turned over Q♥ 5♥ while Mahmood showed A♥ 8♦. The river blanked out and just like that the match is back to even.

Chip Stacks

We're back for the unplanned day number four of the $10k Heads Up Championship.

Last night's championship duel between Ayaz Mahmood and Germany's Ernst Schmejkal went so late that WSOP officials decided to bring them back today to finish things up.

Both players are competing in a best of three format for the WSOP bracelet and $625,674 first prize. Mahmood won the first match last night, so if he wins again there will only be one match played this evening. Obviously if he loses we'll see a rubber match for all the marbles.

The difference between first and second is about $239k, so the two players have understandably been very careful in their decision making so far tonight. In fact, if this were a heavyweight title fight and not a poker match, the fans would probably be booing and screaming at the players to quit dancing around.

The preflop raising has been regimented to the point that it resembles a limit game. With blinds at 15k and 30k, the standard preflop opener has been 70k with not too much variation. Usually the first player to bet after the flop has been scooping the chips, but there have been a few hands to vary from the script.

Half a Mil

In one of the more aggressive hands we've seen, the pot grew to over a million chips before we had seen any cards.

Schmejkal raised to 70k, Ayaz reraised to 210k and then Schmejkal made it 500k to go on the button. The flop came K♥ J♣ 6♦ and both players checked. The turn brought a 3♥, Ayaz check and Schmejkal put in a bet of 425k, which was good enough to win him the pot.

Thus far, this pot represents the largest of the night.

Chip Count

Woohoo! Day 3 of the $10,000 No Limit Heads-Up Championship is in the books with an unscheduled day 4 coming at you tomorrow.

The main story of this event is that two dudes (almost) nobody has ever heard of are battling it out for a bracelet.

Sure it's not Ivey and durrrr but it's still a big event with an assload of prize money still waiting for the winner.

Mahmood ended up beating Schmejkal when he rivered two pair to outdraw top pair. Well, there was another hand after that but when Schmejkal was left with less than a big blind, the final hand was just a formality.

This event, which is rapidly becoming known as the 'event that wouldn't die' will resume tomorrow. Due to the ridiculous amount of time that was spent playing out the first match, they won't be starting back up again until 7pm.

You better be there... or else.

Guten tag!

Well it's getting late and the sun is about to come up here in Las Vegas but you wouldn't know that in the Amazon Room.

Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal are closing in on the six hour mark in their first heads-up match in a potential series of three.

The original plan according to the schedule is to play to a winner but, with the first match going for so long it's anyone's guess as to whether or not the play will continue or if it will be halted until tomorrow.

The floor staff said it's up to the players. How sick are they? I guess we'll find out.

The last few hours have been long stretches of nothing happening flecked with moments of excitement.

One player would get ahead of the other and it would seem that the end of the match was imminent but, inevitably, the match would even itself back out.

Schmejkal was a bit behind in chips when a cooler setup presented itself.

Both players were dealt pocket pairs - eights for Mahmood but tens for Schmejkal. The tens held and Schemjkal regained the chip lead with 4.4 million to Mahmood's 3.3.

Then, Mahmood got all in preflop with pocket queens against Schmejkal's ace-rag for a massive 6.4 million.

Just one measly little ace would have sealed it for Schmejkal but, when it failed to arrive, the poker game was back on.

We're not sure why, after so many hours of solid play Schmejkal, decided to gamble it all with such a sub-par hand, but now it was Schmejkal who was in trouble with a paltry 1.2 million to Mahmood's 6.5 million.

We've noticed that things have a way of evening themselves out in this match and this next hand was no exception.

Mahmood was all in against Schmejkal's K-7 offsuit with A-8 offsuit. The board came out Q-8-7-5. Down to just two sevens or three kings left in the deck, Schmejkal was rewarded with a beautiful (for him, and perhaps only him) K♠ on the river.

We can only wonder what's on the minds of the tournament staff stuck here running the event, but we know what we're thinking.

Schmejkal has 3.1 million now and Mahmood is down to 4.6 million.

The players are now on a break. Lovely.

During the last hour we saw fortunes exchange hands in this event.

Mahmood was in the lead when he flopped two pair with 6-5 offsuit on a 6-3-5 board.

He thought he was good but Ernst Schmejkal had flopped a set of fives. The two got all in and no miracle six came for Mahmood who was cut down to just a million.

This was just the beginning of the crazy roller coaster to come.

A short while later, Schmejkal completed on the button and Mahmood shoved all in with K♦ 2♥.

Schmejkal had been trying to get a little tricky with his A-J and he did in fact get Mahmood to take the bait. Unfortunately for the German, a king came on the flop and Schmejkal couldn't outrun it.

This pot got Mahmood up to a little less than two million.

For the next half hour or so Mahmood kept the pressure on and increased his stack until he had overtaken the lead.

Then he picked up pocket eights and by the river there wasn't a card higher than a nine on the board. The pot had swelled to 1.8 million and both players checked. Mahmood showed his eights and Schmejkal mucked.

So, to make a long story short, here we are three hours into the first match and the two are virtually even in chips.

A little more than an hour into the first of three possible matches and there is not much to report. The two seem to be feeling each other out.

Ernst Schmejkal jumped out to an early lead but with a couple of key hands, Mahmood had taken the edge.

The first hand that got Mahmood on the right track was when he called 80k preflop from Schmekal.

The flop was 6♣ 5♠ J♠ and Mahmood check-raised Schmejkal's 80,000 to 440,000 total.

Schmejkal called but then folded after Mahmood fired out another bet of 1.1 million on the 8♦ turn.

Then a little while later, Mahmood made a pair of kings on a 3♥ T♥ 3♣ K♦. He had fired 100,000 on the turn and then followed up with 300,000 more on the 7♦ river. Schmejkal made the call.

"Two pair he said," as he turned over K♠ Q♠ to make kings and threes (with the pair of threes on the board).

They were good. Mahmood is now sitting on almost 4.5 million to Schmejkal's 3 million.

The final table is now set. The players are currently taking a thirty minute breather before continuing.

Ayaz Mahmood overtook Jason Somerville in the last semifinal round.

The match took a bit longer than most (but nothing like the Rousso-Schmejkal round), and now just a couple of more heads up matches stand between these two players and bracelet glory.

Mahmood hacked away at Somerville until the final hand when Mahmood picked up A-Q against Somerville's pocket tens and managed to nail an ace on the flop.

Drawing to just two outs that never arrived, Somerville will have to make peace with his third place price of $214,289.

In the left corner we have Ayaz Mahmood. He was born in Pakistan but somehow found his way into the poker world and has since then amassed over $750,000 in tournament winnings.

Though he's had several cashes at the WSOP, the bracelet has remained elusive. Tonight he will have a chance to seal the deal and nearly double his lifetime winnings in one fell swoop.

In the right corner is Ernst Schmejkal. Not much is known about him other than the fact that he hails from Germany. He appears to have no live tournament cashes but there are some rumors floating around that he's an online heads-up sit and go specialist.

The way he has played in this event, it seems like there may be some truth to them.

He has plowed his way through the champion laden field and now finds himself so close to the bracelet he can taste it.

Check back in a few minutes as the $10,000 No Limit Hold-em Heads Up Championship resumes.

The players reassembled at the predetermined 7:30pm start time to begin the semifinal matches.

While we enjoy watching Vanessa Rousso play, she may be a bit too nitty. As you know, we here at PL.com are way more interested in entertainment value than who deserves it, who wants it the most, or who the crowd likes.

With the elimination of Rousso, we were excited at the prospect of fireworks in the semifinal matches. We have not been disappointed.

Schmejkal Earns Seat In Finals

While Rousso v. Ernst Schmejkal went on for four hours, his next match didn't even make it to forty minutes.

Schmejkal came out swinging and built up a small lead over Kostritsyn from the very beginning.

We suspected that these two Russians were going to go at each with full force but the match ended in an impressively short amount of time.

It all happened when Alexander Kostritsyn opened to 40,000 preflop and was reraised 76k more by Schmejkal.

Alex flat called and they saw a K♣ 2♠ K♦ flop. Ernst bet out 80,000 and Kostritsyn flatted.

The turn came the 5♠ and that's when all hell broke loose. Schmejkal checked and Kostritsyn fired 210,000. Schmejkal made it 450k total. Kostritsyn then raised it another 300k to 750,000. Ernst didn't slow down and shoved all in.

Kostritsyn made a bit of a "WTF" face and shrugged before calling and turning over his pocket aces.

No good - Schmejkal turned over K♠ 4♦ for flopped trips.

Perhaps there was some history between these two that told Kostritsyn that Schmejkal was capable of four bet bluffing there, or maybe he was just blinded by the rockets. Either way, the river was a brick and Kostritsyn is out.

He'll be taking home $214,289 for his effort.

For now, half of the heads up final puzzle is there.

Ernst Schmejkal, reported heads up sit and go specialist, will be there. Now we just need to see if Ayaz Mahmood or Jason Somerville will be the one to challenge him.

"Dude, it was such a marathon. I'm like brain dead right now," Rousso told her friend as she walked away from the table.

After over four hours of give and take, her match was finally over - though not with the result she was looking for.

Rousso was down to just a smidge over 400k when Ernst Schmejkal shoved all in from the button. Rousso paused for a moment before calling all in.

She was in the lead with A♥ 4♥ but Schmejkal was very much alive with his J♠ 3♠.

The 2♠ T♠ 9♣ gave Schmejkal even more outs and the 8♠ on the turn gave him the lock hand.

Rousso, clearly drained after the four hours of poker, still had enough energy to smile and shake Schmejkal's hand while congratulating him on his play. Schmejkal returned the compliments and thanked her for the well wishing.

The next round of matches will start at 7:30. The winners of the next round will battle for the bracelet in the final round. It's getting close the end!

Here are the matchups for the semifinal round:

Alex Kostritsyn v. Ernst Schmejkal

Ayaz Mahmood v. Jason Somerville

So much for starting the second round of the day early! Not only will they not start early, but they won't even be starting at the originally scheduled time

Vanessa Rousso and Ernst Schmejkal's match is going so long that the original starting time for match 2 of 7pm has already been pushed back to 7:30pm.

Here's an example of a typical Rousso/Schmejkal hand:

Rousso makes it 60k to go from the button and Schmejkal makes it 160k to go. The both check it down the whole way on a board of 9♥ T♦ Q♠ A♠ Q♥. Schmejkal turns over T-8, a pair of tens and full expecting to drag the pot.

Rousso then turns over her A♦ 4♦.

Nevertheless, despite a lot of back and forth, we just saw a big pot go down which Rousso will probably be thinking about for a long time.

Rousso In Trouble

The flop was 5♥ 9♠ 3♥. Schmejkal bet 100,000 and Rousso went into the tank. She asked for a count and then counted down her own chips.

She quietly announced that she was all in. Schmejkal removed his sunglasses to reveal a pained look.

"I call," he said.

"Straight draw," said Rousso as she turned over her 7♠ 6♣. It was about the best that Schmejkal, who was holding pocket eights, could have hoped for.

Schmejkal stood to pull in a 1.4 million pot. If Rosso hit, he would be gone.

Unfortunately for the LadyMaverick, the turn and river were blanks and she's back to square one. Well, maybe more like square ½ - she only has about 400k left.

So much for having the next round of the day at 6pm.

The tournament officials had discussed this as a possibility but they must have not realized that in the process of discussing the logistics, they might be jinxing Vanessa Rousso and Ernst Schmejkal into a marathon match.

We've seen lots of min-betting, checking down of top pair, and a ton of folding.

Vanessa, who maintained a healthy lead for almost the whole match, let Ernst Schmejkal reclaim the lead during the last hour. Her 4-1 lead evaporated over a series of small pots gone wrong.

Recently she asked a friend to go buy her some Advil. A few minutes after that she was asking for a bathroom break. The break seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. It wasn't long before Rousso was back in the driver's seat.

Rousso Comeback

Rousso and Ernst fought it out in a pretty big hand recently. We caught up to the action on the Q♥ 2♣ 2♥ flop.

Schmejkal bet 45,000 and, as we've seen many times before during this match, Rousso came out with a min-raise. Schmejkal came back and repopped it to 160,000 and Rousso called.

They saw the 9♣ turn and Rousso donked out 200,000. It was enough to convince Schmejkal to give up his hand and save his ammo for a better spot.

With that Rousso was back in the lead with about 1.3 million to Schmejkal's 600k.

Only one match remains ongoing in the Amazon Room.

Vanessa Rousso, who jumped out to a very early and very big lead, is having a tough time putting Ernst Schmejkal to sleep. She had him down to just under 400,000 (meaning that Rousso had the remaining 1.4 million in chips or so), but he has more than doubled up now and is proving to be a bit more tenacious than we had expected.

The tournament officials have noticed the rapid pace of these events and have suggested that play time might be moved forward to 6pm if Rousso's match finishes early enough.

The players aren't complaining because the heads-up final match is a best out of three affair meaning it could be a late night before you know it.

See Ya, Kido

Just like we have seen in most of the other matches, the pace is quick, the betting aggressive, and the matches short.

Kido Pham was the first player to be eliminated today. He was playing Jason Somerville and had been cut down to less than a quarter million.

All we could gather about the hand is that Pham had been trying to get tricky with 8♣ 5♣ but Somerville had pocket tens.

The flop was a ridiculous A♠ 3♣ 2♣ giving Pham a whole boatload of outs.

Unfortunately for Pham, he somehow managed to miss everything and was the first elimination of the day. The pay level is up to $92,580; not bad, but a far cry from the $600k+ of first.

Somerville stood from his seat and wished Faraz Jaka and Ayaz Mahmood (he'll be playing one of them in the next round) good luck before plopping a crisp one hundred dollar bill in front of the dealer and leaving the area.

Ludo-cris'd

Ludovic Lacay had been taking a bit of beating from Alex Kostritsyn.

We caught up to the final hand on the turn. There was already a bunch of chips in the pot on an A♥ 3♥ 3♣ 9♠ board.

Lacay had bet 113,000 and Kostritsyn moved all in over the top. Luda snap-called with his A♦ T♦ and was shown Kostritsyn's 8♥ 4♥ for the naked flush draw.

The river was a crazy 6♥ giving Kostritsyn a flush as well as a bit of an embarrassed expression on his face.

Lacay snap-shook hands and then snap-exited the tournament area.

Plunged!

 

The Toilet Flushed (Clever, Huh?)

Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka and Ayaz Mahmood's match was pretty even for the first couple of levels until one hand changed everything.

The board was K♦ 6♥ 5♦ 3♦ 3♠. There were a bunch of chips in the middle and Ayaz had bet all in for 559,000 - a big overbet.

Jaka counted out the call and began to think.

"Why so much?" he asked.

Moments later he was sliding in the call.

"Flush," Mahmood said quietly as he turned over his 6♦ 2♦.

Jaka was left with less than 300,000 and he tried valiantly to get back into the match. Unfortunately, Mahmood's lead proved to be insurmountable.

Mahmood made it 72,000 from the button and Jaka shoved for the last of his chips. Mahmood made the easy call with A-Q offsuit while Jaka had K-8 offsuit. The board didn't contain any cards higher than a seven and Jaka was off to collect his payday.

Today is the day. Exactly 256 players started the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship and at the end of tonight only one will have survived.

The final match is going to be pretty serious no matter who is in there. First place is going to be $625,674 while second will take home $386,900. How's that for a pay jump?

They're set to start in just a few minutes. Here are the matchups:

Here's a look at tomorrows match-ups:

Jason Somerville vs. Kido Pham

Faraz Jaka vs. Ayaz Mahmood

Alex Kostritsyn vs. Ludovic Lacay

Ernst Schmejkal vs. Vanessa Rousso