Adrian Mateos won the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship last Friday, which began with 129 of the best players in the world. The 22-year old Mateos collected $324,470 in winnings for his victory.
It has been an impressive start to a WSOP career for Adrian Mateos, who always has 3 WSOP bracelets in his short time playing the world’s premier poker tournament. Players to have to 21 or older to enter a World Series of Poker event.
Stellar Beginning to a Poker Career
Mateos spoke about the improbable feat, saying he cannot believe the run he’s been on during the 2016 and 2017 WSOP tournaments. Mateos said, “It’s insane that I have three bracelets. It’s really difficult to win three bracelets and I’m 22. I run good and I think I play good, so that’s all that matters.”
In short, to win three WSOP bracelets before your 23rd birthday, you need to be both lucky and good. That sums up what most successful card players say when they have a successful run. A card player can play next-to-perfect poker and still lose, if the cards do not fall right. Of course, skill wins out over the long term.
Defeated Daniel Negreanu in the Round of 64
Adrian Mateos began the event with a major success, defeating Daniel Negreanu heads-up in the 2nd Round (Mateos had a bye in the first round). To win the event, the champion had to defeat 7 different players, including Ian O’Hara, Eric Wasserson, Taylor Paur, Ryan Hughes, Charlie Carrell, and John Smith.
John Smith was the opponent in the Heads-Up No’Limit Hold’em Championship final round. Smtih is a U.S. Army Veteran and a Purple Heart recicient for a wound he received in Vietnam. Due to his backstory, John Smith became a fan favorite by the time he squared off with Adrian Mateos.
Heads-Up Final Versus John Smith
With 48 years of living separating them, the final provided an absolute contract. Adrian Mateos held the lead throughout most of the heads-up final, though Smith took the lead in the mid-to-late phase of the match. Mateos quickly collected himself and retook the lead, never to surrender it again.
After the match, Adrian Mateos praised the style of play used by his opponent. He said of John Smith, “He plays really different from a lot of players, but that worked for him. It’s really hard to play against him; he makes different plays every hand.
“He changed his game every hand. He’s really hard to read.”
John Smith spoke of his own successful run at the WSOP in 2016 and 2017, where he had back-to-back late runs in the Heads-Up Championship. Smith said of his future plans, “I’ll be back next year. Unfinished business. Maybe I can get three seconds.”
Mateos Proudest of WSOP Heads-Up Championship
Adrian Mateos said, of the three bracelets he’s won, this is the one which gives him special pride. Heads-up events are few and far between, and they leave no room for a player to build a chip stack by beating lesser opponents.
Mateos said of the win, “There’s not many heads-up events in the year, and I really want to play [in them]. I was really focused for every round to win and I really like to play heads-up, so it’s fun.”
While it is common for a poker player to praise his or her latest accomplishment, one gets the idea Adrian Mateos was being truthful. Even for a young player, after someone wins a couple of World Series of Poker bracelets, they become a marked man. Every player in the tournament new they were facing a young phenom, yet Adrian Mateos walked away as the undefeated champion.
