Dimitar Danchev wins WSOP Heads-Up Championship for $800,000

Dimitar Danchev can now consider himself a heads-up specialist. The Bulgarian, with over $11.3 million in career live tournament earnings, has won one of the WSOP’s most prestigious titles: the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $800,000.

Danchev won the newly-expanded 128-player tournament, which was split into two 64-player Day 1s, winning all seven of his heads-up matchups to win his second-career WSOP bracelet and the fourth-largest score of his career.

His other bracelet, naturally, came in a 97-player $10,000 online event on GGPoker in 2022, where he won $327,668.

Danchev’s WSOP Heads-Up Championship road

Unlike previous years, where it was a 64-player cap, a second 64-player Day 1B meant Danchev had to outlast seven of the best players in the WSOP to top a 128-player field and win the illustrious gold bracelet.

Danchev joined in on Friday’s Day 1A, defeating Ian Bromfield in Round 1, followed by recent Triton Montenegro $50,000 Super High Roller and WSOP Europe Super High Roller champion Christopher Nguyen.

In the vital third-round match, Danchev defeated Killian Desnos to clinch a min-cash and a spot in the Round-of-16 on Sunday’s Day 2.

Following his “very tough” battle with Florian Pesce in the Round-of-16, Danchev was drawn with Biao Ding, who had just beaten Daniel Negreanu. The match was one of the best of the entire tournament, with both players trading the lead back and forth. Eventually, Danchev would river a flush against Ding’s second set to virtually seal the victory and his place on Day 3.

In the semifinal, against Ryuta Nakai, Danchev used two massive hands to propel himself to victory. He flopped a set while Nakai turned top two to give him a three-to-one lead.

The match wouldn’t last much longer, as Danchev’s pocket queens held up against Nakai’s ace-jack offsuit, setting up a final against Russia’s Nikita Kuznetsov.

The televised final against Kuznetsov would go on for three-and-a-half hours, with Kuznetsov inching out to a two-to-one chip lead. However, Danchev would flop a full house with pocket fives against ten-nine on a ten-ten-five flop, and the two would trade stacks after it got all in on the river.

Danchev would maintain his advantage until the final hand. Danchev flopped two pair with queen-seven against Kuznetsov’s queen-eight. A queen on the river gave the Russian trips against Danchev’s full house, and it was game over.

Winner’s reaction

After taking down his biggest live score since winning the $40,000 2024 Triton Jeju Mystery Bounty for $804,000 plus $540,000 in bounties, he was quite relieved to have reached the end of the road.

“They were all equally tough, but I would say I had a very tough second round against Christopher Nguyen,” Danchev told PokerNews after his victory.

“When I had to hero call for my tournament [life], that was a really tough spot. Also, Florian Pesce was a very tough opponent.

“Against Nakai, I was really in a tough spot, because he was really grinding me down; I couldn’t win many hands. I was very lucky to win two of the biggest hands.”

As for how he’s going to celebrate, he’s going to keep it pretty lowkey, since he only arrived in Las Vegas less than 48 hours before the start of the tournament.

“We will go for a nice dinner, I guess, maybe tomorrow. I’m still jet lagged, I just really wanted to play this event, so it feels amazing to actually win it.”

$25,000 Heads-Up Championship Results