Event 15 of the toto hk WCOOP 2008 was the first of two no-limit hold’em heads up shootouts on the schedule. It’s a pretty simple process, you play your opponent 1 on 1, then win, play another opponent and win, and keep moving up until you are the champion. Of course, it sounds a lot easier than it actually is! toto hk
PokerStars set the guarantee at $500,000, which would account for about 1,666 entries with the $320 buy-in. But just like every single other event so far this series, the guarantee was destroyed when 2,048 people registered increasing the prize pool to $614,400. This meant 256 places would be paid, and the eventual winner would take home over $104,000.
Quite obviously, in order to beat out 2,043 other players you have to be good at heads up poker. However, you have to be more than just good, you have to have luck on your side. With that many entrants, it takes winning 10 matches in a row before the final battle. Any good poker player would tell you it would take skill and luck to accomplish this feat.
There were many bad beats, nice laydowns, suckouts, and rivers hit for the final 2 players, who sat alone, each with 4,096,000 chips. This final epic battle was between HuxFluxen and pandaCHAN12. Immediately after the first hand was dealt, both players were calling for a manager. It seems the $55k for the runner up and $104k for the champion was too steep to play for. To reduce some variance and make their experience that much better, they cut a deal. The runner up would win $70k and the winner would take home just under $90k. Even though the deal was made, this was still a $20,000 heads up match, neither player took it lightly.
After the deal was done, the players were ready. The blinds were started at 10,240/20,480, so the match was 200 bbs deep. Every 15 mins the blinds would escalate, but this was a good structure for a heads up tournament. Many action players prefer heads up poker because that’s exactly what it is, action action action. It’s 1 on 1, not 1 on 8. You have to play more hands and get into more spots, great for any action junkie!
After about 30 minutes of play, HuxFluxen and pandaCHAN12 each took their turns holding the chip lead. However, HuxFluxen started to gain more momentum, and eventually had a 3:1 chip lead. In the final hand, HuxFluxen raised preflop and was called by pandaCHAN12. On the flop of 6s Td 5s, pandaCHAN12 checked and HuxFluxen bet 122,880, which was check-raised up to 368,000 by pandaCHAN12. After some though HuxFluxen moved all-in with Qs3s for a flush draw and was quickly called by panda with KdTc and top pair. Things would turn around if panda could fade a spade or queen. However, the turn was the Ts which gave Hux the flush, but panda two pair. The river blanked the Ah and the 8,192,000 chips were all moved to HuxFluxen. pandaCHAN12 collected $70k for his runner up finish and HuxFluxen won the WCOOP bracelet and $89,744!
