The WPT Heads-Up Poker Championship has come to an end and the last man standing is Poker Hall of Famer (PHoF) Phil Ivey. This is big win for Ivey who hasn’t played a lot of poker in the United States in recent years. Ivey defeated Patrik Antonius to take home $400,000 while Antonius collected $200,000 for his second place finish.
WPT Heads-Up Poker Championship
The WPT Heads-Up Poker Championship saw a total of 32 players who entered the tournament by (invite only). Each of them put down a buy-in of $25,000 to compete in high stakes poker action that paired different players based on a random selection. Each player would get three matches against their opponent and the winner would advance to the next round.
The global poker community was tuned into this high stakes tournament as some of the best high stakes poker players in the world were competing against each other and the random selection put together some interesting matches. In the end, it boiled down to Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius who are two of the best poker players in the world.
Phil Ivey vs. Patrik Antonius – Final
While both are top poker players, Phil Ivey is still regarded by many as the greatest of all time (GOAT). Phil Ivey has $32 million in career prize money and sits in 9^th place on the All Time Money list while Antonius has just over $12 million in career prize money and tops Finland’s All Time Money list.
The format for the WPT Heads-Up Poker Championship final required a total of 5 games to be played and the player with 3 wins would be declared the winner. Fans expected the final clash between Ivey and Antonius to be a closely fought game as the two players have a lot of history together and have played each other a number of times over the years.
Back when Full Tilt Poker was around, the two racked up a lot of hours battling against each other and are very familiar with each other’s style. They have also faced-off on popular poker shows such as High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark.
However, the final did not turn out to be a closely competed affair as Ivey showed his class and took down Antonius rather easily as he won three consecutive games to establish his dominance. Ivey has once again proved to the poker community that he is indeed one of the best poker players to have ever played the game.
Both Players Had A Tough Route To The Finals
We are giving high praise to Phil Ivey not just because he beat Patrik Antonius in the finals but because both players had a tough road to reach the finals and had to be on top of their game to finish in first and second place. Patrik Antonius had to take down Sam Greenwood and Doug Polk in his road to the final.
Phil Ivey had a more difficult route to the final as he had to beat Manig Loeser, Christopher Kruk, Anthony Zinno and the number one ranked player on the UK’s All Time Money list Stephen Chidwick.
Ivey Will Take Momentum Into 2021 WSOP
Phil Ivey has not played a lot of poker in the United States in recent years due to the long drawn out poker cheating case with the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City. The Borgata was looking to seize any money that Ivey won in the United States and this caused Ivey to stop playing poker in the U.S and instead travel to foreign locations and play high stakes poker games.
With the Borgata case finally behind him, Ivey is now more open to playing more poker in the United States. We expect Ivey to use this momentum and have a good run at the 2021 WSOP.