2010 WSOP, Day 22: Heads Up!

Fun day yesterday. First Vera arrived, which suddenly helped make life seem a lot more normal. Then I got to help report on the first two rounds of Event No. 35, the $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship, an event that attracts a ton of big names and provides a high degree of entertainment for observers -- not too mention lots and lots to write about for those of us reporting.

Was paired with the endlessly clever and talented Snoopy for the first time this summer. If for some reason you aren’t familiar with Snoopy’s writing, check the Day 1 blog from yesterday for a sample. Also add his Black Belt Poker blog to your WSOP reading list, if it isn’t there already.

When we first arrived late yesterday afternoon, there was some confusion about where exactly the matches were going to take place. We were being told the Amazon room, but they needed 64 tables (with two matches played at each end of each table) to play the first round, and there weren’t even a dozen tables free in Amazon just a half-hour before start time.

Finally we saw they’d carved out some space in the Pavilion, and we got set up in a cramped space off to the side and were ready to go in time to begin reporting.

A bit of a whirlwind reporting on the first round, when 128 matches were happening at once, with bustouts beginning with the very first hands. I didn’t really look too closely at the structures beforehand, but the matches seemed to go especially fast. (Would be interesting to compare the structures for this event to, say, what they employ in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.)

The levels were just 20 minutes long. We are used to hour-long levels in the other events, but, of course, in heads up hands can be dealt at a much faster clip than in nine-handed games. But like I say folks were busting out very quickly, and the first round was done in a little over three hours. The second round also went by swiftly, it seemed, with the last match finishing in three-and-a-half hours or so.

Safe to say Phil Ivey stole the show yesterday. He was simultaneously playing in the $2,500 pot-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha event (Event No. 33), and so when he sat down for his first round match with Michael Mizrachi, he raised, then four-bet all in with , and Mizrachi called with pocket nines. Ivey spiked an ace on the river, and was back over in the Amazon Room having advanced to the second round.

His opponent in Round 2 was Victor Ramdin, and Ramdin, too, was playing in the PLH/PLO event. So a table was set up over in the Amazon for the pair to play their match during the breaks of that event. However, the tourney clock ran for them, so the blinds rose accordingly. Ivey won that match, too, and comes back today for the round of 64.

Ivey also made it through to Day 3 of Event No. 33, where he sits ninth in chips with 14 remaining. So it appears he’ll probably once again be the focus of attention today.

(One other player was double-dipping as well, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, but his opponent wasn’t in Event No. 33. Not sure exactly how their match was conducted over in the Amazon, but Smith lost.)

I have the day off today to spend with Vera, but will be back over there with the Heads-Up event tomorrow to see it through to its conclusion. Have a feeling Sunday will be a much longer day, with three rounds’ worth of matches, including the final which is played best-of-three.

Meanwhile, check in over at PokerNews to see how they go from 64 to 8, as well as to monitor Phil Ivey’s quest for an eighth bracelet in the PLH/PLO.