One of the signature events of the 2013 World Series of Poker wrapped up over the weekend as Canadian Mark “AceSpades” Radoja won the Event #16: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em. The Main Event may get the headlines, but many players look at this tournament as the one they want to win. 162 players lined up to see who would stand atop the one-and-one hill and Radoja bested Don Nguyen in the final to win his second bracelet and $336,190.
Now, you may see the number 162 and wonder how on Earth a heads-up bracket can be created without a field size that is a nice, even power of two. The answer is byes. Of course, when there is no way to properly seed players, making some people play an extra round can be a sticky situation. The only way it could be done here was a random draw. Thus, 68 players participated in the first round while 94 received byes into the second round. The 34 winners of the first round matches were paired up against each other in the second round. To make up for forcing some people to play an extra match, the WSOP refunded each opening round player $5,000, win or lose.
As it turned out, both Radoja and Nguyen had to get past that “play-in” round just to make the field of 128. The WSOP bracket-maker must have had a vision, as Radoja’s name was slotted in the very top spot of the entire bracket.
Both players had to wade through a veritable minefield to get to the final match. Radoja faced Ludovic “Cutsss” Lacay in the third round, 13-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth in the sixth round, and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo in the penultimate match. Nguyen got last year’s heads-up champion Brian Hastings in the second round, Ali Eslamis in the fourth round, and Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky in the seventh round. Here is a look at the two finalists’ paths to the last round:
Mark Radoja
Round 1: Johannes Meyer
Round 2: Douglas Polk
Round 3: Ludovic “Cutsss” Lacay
Round 4: Ankush Madavia
Round 5: Alex Venovski
Round 6: Phil Hellmuth
Round 7: Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo
Don Nguyen
Round 1: Steve Saraf
Round 2: Brian Hastings
Round 3: Jan Kasten
Round 4: Ali Eslamis
Round 5: Craig Bergeron
Round 6: Sean Winter
Round 7: Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky
In each match, players began with one-third of the starting stack and were allowed to use two add-ons, each worth another one-third of the stack, at any time during the match, except for during a hand. In the championship match, Radoja needed to use one of the add-on’s early on, but was then able to get back into the match when he doubled-up with pocket Queens against Nguyen’s A-6. Radoja fell down again and it looked like it might be Nguyen’s tourney, but Radoja grinded his way back, eventually getting Nguyen down to his final chip.
On the last hand, Nguyen was all-in with A-3 and Radoja called with K-9. Nguyen’s Ace-high held up through the turn, but a King on the river paired Radoja, giving him all the chips and the tournament.
2013 World Series of Poker Event #16: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em – Final Results
Mark Radoja – $336,190
Don Nguyen – $204,648
Justin Bonomo – $110,485
Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky – $110,485
Phil Hellmuth – $54,024
Randy Lew – $54,024
Sean Winter – $54,024
Russell Rosenblum – $59,024
