With about 90,000 in the middle and the board showing 
, Alexander Kostritsyn bet 64,000, then Ludovic Lacay raised to 177,000.
Kostritsyn contemplated the raise for about a minute, then finally made the call. Lacay tabled 
, but Kostritsyn had 
for two pair and took the large pot.
Kostritsyn jumps to a lead in this one, with 1.135 million to Lacay's 785,000.
![[user80015]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Faraz Jaka entered the pot from the button with a raise to 17,000 only to have Ayaz Mahmood three-bet to 50,000.
Jaka deliberated for a few moments before sliding in a bet amounting to 122,000 to prompt an insta-muck from Mahmood.
Ernst Schmejkal raised to 16,000 from the small blind/button, and Vanessa Rousso called. The flop came 
. Rousso checked, Schmejkal bet 16,000, and Rousso called.
The turn was the 
. Rousso again checked, and this time Schmejkal bet 40,000. Rousso thought a moment, then let it go. Schmejkal showed his 
as he dragged the pot.
Schmejkal edges to a small lead here in the early going, with 980,000 to Rousso's 940,000.
Kido Pham opened to 24,000 from the button only to have Jason Somerville three-bet to 75,000.
Pham made the call to see a 
flop fall and a continuation bet of 85,000 follow from Somerville.
Pham took his time before folding as he slipped to 850,000 as Somerville raked in the pot to climb to 1,070,000 in chips.
Jason Somerville opened for a min-raise from the button to 16,000 and Kido Pham made the call.
The flop fell down 
and Pham check-folded to Somerville's 20,000-chip bet.
Here in the quarterfinals, players will each start with 960,000 chips.
They will be playing 30-minute levels, with the blinds going up according to the following schedule: 4,000-8,000, 5,000-10,000, 6,000-12,000, 8,000-16,000, 10,000-20,000, 12,000-24,000, 15,000-30,000, 20,000-40,000, 25,000-50,000, 30,000-60,000, 40,000-80,000, 50,000-100,000.
In addition to reporting on the action here in the blog, we'll be updating the "Chip Counts" page along the way as well to reflect where the players stand. (When consulting that page, remember who is playing whom to see how each match is going.)
Level: 1
Blinds: 4,000/8,000
Ante: 0
We are just a couple of minutes away from getting started. Our four quarterfinal matches are being played on the two feature tables here in the Amazon Room, with two matches per table.
On the main feature table, Vanessa Rousso and Ernst Schmejkal are playing on one end, while Alexander Kostritsyn and Ludovic Lacay? are battling down on the other.
Meanwhile, on the secondary feature table we find Jason Somerville and Kido Pham on one side, and Faraz Jaka and Ayaz Mahmood on the other.
The two winners at each table will be playing each other in the semis -- i.e., the Rousso-Schmejkal winner will face the Kostritsyn-Lacay winner, and the Somerville-Pham winner will take on the Jaka-Mahmood winner.
There is no easy road to the quarterfinals -- never mind the bracelet -- in the $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Here are the paths our elite eight took to get to this point:
Jason Somerville defeated Andrew Lichtenberger, Amit Makhija, Tobias Reinkenmeier, Julian Herold, and Martin Kabrhel.
Kido Pham defeated Brian Roberts, Brendan Murphy, Phil Ivey, Anton Kozlovskiy, and Gavin Smith.
Faraz Jaka defeated Olivier Busquet, Thomas McNamara, Michael Leah, Nicholas Rampone, and Phil Gordon.
Ayaz Mahmood defeated John Duthie, Nathan Doudney, James Collopy, Kevin Saul, and Brian Rast.
Alexander Kostritsyn defeated Bruno Fitoussi, Dario Minieri, Jeremy Coon, Keith Block, and Chris Moorman.
Ludovic Lacay defeated Rob Akery, Eric Sagstrom, Jordan Morgan, Timothy Adams, and Bertrand Grospellier.
Ernst Schmejkal defeated Nikolay Evdakov, Joao Barbosa, Juan Ramirez, David Williams, and Alexander Kravchenko.
Vanessa Rousso defeated Johannes Strassmann, Vadim Trincher, Terrence Chan, Melanie Weisner, and Vivek Rajkumar.
Welcome back to Day 3 of Event No. 35, the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Only eight have survived from a 256-player field largely comprised of poker's top players.
Each of our quarterfinalists has already accomplished a lot, defeating five opponents thus far to make it to today. But much work is still to be done. Three more rounds are left to be played, with the final being a best-of-three affair.
Here are the quarterfinal match-ups with which we'll begin today:
Jason Somerville vs. Kido Pham?
Faraz Jaka vs. Ayaz Mahmood?
Alexander Kostritsyn vs. Ludovic Lacay?
Ernst Schmejkal vs. Vanessa Rousso
All eight are guaranteed paydays of at least $92,580 for making it this far, but each is eyeing that $625,682 first prize and WSOP bracelet that would come should they make it through three more tough opponents.
The action begins at 3 p.m. local time. See you then for reports from all of the matches as the next 2010 WSOP bracelet winner is determined.
