Amidst all the controversy surrounding the World Series of Poker (WSOP) it’s been somewhat lost that there’s actually eight weeks worth of solid poker to be played. Of those that decided it safe enough to show the annual Heads Up, NLHE Championship reached the quarterfinal stage. There were a number of familiar faces present and with the chip counts equal, everyone has a chance of taking home the bracelet and $25,000 prize to go with.
The first named match-up takes place between Anthony Guetti and Jake Cody. Cody has the chance to wrap up poker’s Triple Crown after winning at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Deauville and the World Poker Tour (WPT) in London both in 2010. He has carried that stellar form into 2011 after winning the UKIPT High Roller in Nottingham and could well be there or thereabouts come Sunday.
More high profile than Cody is circuit veteran Gus Hansen, whose last victory was in the 2010 Poker Million, as he takes on Matt Marafioti. Hansen will go in as favorite to reach the semis and will hope to add to his solitary WSOP bracelet that he picked up at the WSOPE in London last year. Marafioti shouldn’t be underestimated and his tournament pedigree was plain to see in last year’s WSOP as he came runner up in the $10k Pot Limit Hold’em Championship, receiving a cheque to the tune of $381,507.
The third match sees two time bracelet winner and Nevada native Eric Froelich take on the relative unknown Nikolay Endakov. The final match of the four, meanwhile, is between Yevgeniy Timoshenko and David Paredes.
