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

Good night everybody. The stage is set for an amazing day of heads-up action tomorrow.

Pham Last Man

Ivey knocker-outer, Kido Pham, was the last person win a match today. He was playing against Gavin Smith and neither player wanted to budge.

A little less than two hours into the match, the two were virtually still even and then it happened.

Smith check called 20k from Pham on a J♠ 6♦ 5♣ board. The turn brought the 3♣ and Smith checked again. This time Pham bet 45,000 and Smith came over the top for 168,000. Pham moved all in and Smith called.

As it turns out, Smith had A♣ 7♣ for a turned nut flush draw while Pham had turned two pair with his J♥ 3♥. Only a club or a four could save Smith but instead it was a red ace.

Kido Pham is our last player to advance to day three.

Tomorrow they will resume at 3pm to finish out what they've started. The players will be starting with 960k stacks.

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

Thanks to planning by the Harrah's tournament staff, they put the four tables where the final eight matches of the night are to be played so closely together with the rail so tight on the players that media will not be allowed to enter the playing area due to lack of space.

If only there was a way to get more space in a room that has hundreds of empty poker tables...

As you can imagine, this makes the job of actually reporting on the tournament a bit difficult but have no fear! PL.com has used guerilla tactics before and we'll do it again.

Whatever it takes to make sure that the information reaches the masses!

Vive Le France

In one corner we have le two Frenchmen. Ludovic Lacay and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier are going to battle it out. A match that the country of France has been waiting many years months to see. A group of compatriots have that corner locked down as they crane their necks to see what happens.

Rast Roasted

Brian Rast and Ayaz Mahmood came to play! Just a few minutes into the match saw the two of them all in.

The board was J♣ 9♦ 8♦ Q♥. Rast made a bet, but Mahmood moved all in. Rast called rather quickly.

They both had tens to make the straight but it was Mahmood that held the T♦ 6♦ for the straight and the diamond redraw. A look of uneasiness swept over Rast's face his best case scenario would be a chop.

The dealer rapped the table, burned a card, and turned over the 4♦!

Rast gave up the majority of his chips leaving himself just a little more than 40,000.

Those 40k wouldn't last him long. Rast ended up being the first elimination just a few minutes later.

Rajkumar Goes to White Castle...Almost

Vivek Rajkumar drew Vanessa Rousso for his fifth round. It took less than half an hour for a chilly cooler to make its way to their table.

They got it all in on a A♠ K♣ T♠ board. Rajkumar turned over a set of tens and it seemed like he knew there was no way he was ahead. He wasn't - Rousso turned over Q-J for broadway.

After some accounting, Vivek was refunded some chips. He's still in but has a long road ahead of him if he's going pull it off.

Kravchenko Pachinko'd

Alex Kravchenko and Ernst Schmejkal got all in preflop in an amazing hand were Ernst held pocket kings while Kravchenko just pocket nines.

Despite being fairly deep stacked, Kravchenko seemed to be willing to flip for it if need be.

Unfortunately it wasn't a flip and when the dealer failed to deliver a nine, Kravchenko was left nearly crippled.

Over a span of about a half an hour, the half dozen or so matches that were still being played out began to end one by one until the corner of the room lay completely silent.

Phil Gordan bested Armritraj Singh, Vanessa Rousso outlasted Melanie Weisner, and Gavin Smith beat out Maxim Lykov.

Alex Kostritsyn somehow got his pair of deuces to hold up against Keith Block's K-Q offsuit when the dealer produced a paintless board.

Moments later it was Alex Kravenchko getting the pair to hold up. He called an all in from Sam Stein with pocket sevens.

Stein's A-3 was drawing pretty thin on the flop, but the turn gave him an extra four outs. Any ten would have given him broadway.

We're going to track down the table draws and we'll have them for you ASAP.

Play is set to resume at 11pm PST. We'll see you back here then!

It's time for the second round of the day. Each match they start with bigger stacks of chips so the rounds are expected to go a little slower. About an hour into it and only two matches have ended which leaves fourteen matches going on.

Vivek Rajkuma is in there complaining that it's too cold while Vanessa Rousso and Melanie Weisner are chatting away about all topics under the sun.

One Hand, One Win

"Hey man, you win your match or what?" some railbird asked Jason Somerville.

"Yeah, in one hand," he replied.

He had been playing Julian Herold and somehow the two got all in preflop on the first hand; Sommerville with A-K offsuit and Herold with A-Q offsuit.

The flop was all blanks. A king on the turn came which gave Somerville a pair of kings and Herold a gutshot straight draw. The river was a useless queen and, just like that, Somerville had won his match.

Instead of immediately walking away to find something else to do, he's sitting in there watching the other match that was going down at his table. Whoever wins that match will be his opponent.

Kido Wins Again

It was a few minutes before the next match ended. We caught up to the hand on the 5-6-7 flop. Kido Pham was up against Anton Kozlovskiy and he had already put in a check raise. Anton shoved all in and Kido made the call with pocket aces. Anton turned over 6-8 for a pair and an open ender.

Kido watched on as the dealer rolled over two bricks.

"Good game," Kido said and the two shook hands. Anton, looking a little dazed, found the closest opening in the rail and took off.

Clements Down, Back Up

Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier is up against Scott Clements this round. It didn't take very long for Clements to be on the ropes. With a bunch of chips already in the middle, Clements fired 85,000 after Elky checked it to him.

The board was 6♥ 2♦ 9♣ 7♦ A♥.

"All in," Elky said quietly.

Clements tanked for what seemed like forever. If he folded he would be left with just 60k, a painful prospect considering he had put over 150,000 in the middle already. In the end he did fold.

"Were you bluffing?" he asked Elky who shook his head. Right before mucking his hand, he flashed it to Clements (we couldn't see it) and Clements nodded.

Clements was left with only 60k, but after a few minutes we looked and he was back up to about 150,000. Nice comeback!

Just one match is being played out in the Amazon Room. Everyone else has already taken off to get dinner or do whatever it is these players do while they're not playing poker.

Both girls that were left in the tournament advanced and are going to be playing each other in the next level. Coincidence? Probably.

The list of the next round matchups should be posted shortly after the final match completes and we'll have it up for your ASAP.

Girl On Girl Action

Melanie Weisner will play Vanessa Rousso in the next level.

She had been playing against Dee Tiller and it wasn't looking good. Tiller, wearing a cowboy hat and a plaid ranch shirt, often would quietly sing country songs to Melanie while she was thinking.

"Man you are a tough person to get chips off of!" Tiller exclaimed at one point. It was clear that Weisner wasn't budging an inch.

He had slowly ground Melanie down to about half a starting stack when things started to turn around for her.

After doubling up once to get above even, Weisner got Tiller all in on a A-K-7-7-K board. Her A-K was far superior to Tiller's A-6.

Jaka Takes Out Trash

Faraz Jaka had gotten Mike Leah down to just 50,000. At 2,500/5,000 blinds, Leah shoved all in from the button and was called by Jaka.

Jaka: J♠ 7♦

Leah: K♣ 2♦

Leah was ahead - 'was' being the key word. A jack on the flop changed everything and Leah chasing one of the three remaining kings in the dead. The paintless turn and river left Leah broke and Jaka advancing to the round of 32.

Blocked Up

The last match is still going on right now with Keith Block holding a 2-1 chip lead over Scott Baumstein.

Block almost had it in the bag a couple of minutes ago when he got all in preflop with A-9 to Baumstein's K-9.

The flop was Block friendly and had Baumstein standing out of his chair.

A king on the turn those had him sitting back down. Another king came on the river for extra style points.

The first hour of play had several people hitting the rail. James Collopy, Juan Ramirez, Eric Cloutier, and a few others were all had their days cut short.

Pham-tastic

We were all excited to see Phil Ivey and Kido Pham battling it out in the $10k heads up but it appears that we're just a couple of hours late.

The story is that Phil Ivey called Kido Pham and convinced both him to play their heads up match early so Ivey could focuse on his other tournament.

We're not sure what the Rio would say to the average man if they made such a request, but Phil Ivey certainly didn't have a problem setting it up. We heard it was a quick match and that Ivey ended up losing. Now he can focus all of his attention on the HA tournament where he is just a handful of players away from a bracelet.

Something Schmells Fishy

Vladimir Schmelev lost his match against Chris Moorman in spectacular fashion

They got it all in on the turn on a 3♣ J♠ 9♣ T♠ board. Moorman had pocket threes but Schmelev had smashed a two outer on the turn to make a better set. The river was a ridiculous 3♦ though giving Moorman the one card he needed to make quads and win the pot.

Schmelev was muttering all kinds of things under his breath in Russian.

"Holy shit Chris Moorman! What is this, online?" Sorel Mizzi, who was playing his match on the other side of the same table, said.

Luda!

Jordan Morgan bluffed off a nice chunk of his stack in the first few minutes off play.

He was heads up on the river against Ludovic Lacay on a 2-7-3-6-6 board. Morgan had bet 30,000 and it took Lacay a couple of minutes to make the call.

Morgan quickly turned over his T♣ 9♣ - complete air. Lacay turned over J-7 and dragged in the pot.