Gus Hansen advanced to the final four of the $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship defeating Matt 'ADZ124" Marafioti who heads home with $138,852. Hansen was joined in the semi-finals by Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Eric Froehlich, and Jake Cody.

The final two matches to determine a winner of the bracelet and $851k first place prize will be played Friday.

Anthony Guetti was defeated by Jake Cody, while David Paredes lost to Timoshenko, and Nikolay Endakov lost to Froehlich, each departing $138,852 richer.

Eric Froehlich is a proven two-time bracelet winner. Yevgeniy “jovial gent” Timoshenko is a WPT championship winner. Jake Cody is a proven winner on the EPT scene so it should make for exciting Friday matches to determine the winner.

Here are the quarter-final matches scheduled for Thursday:

Anthony Guetti vs. Jake Cody
Gus Hansen vs. Matt Marafioti
Eric Froehlich vs. Nikolay Endakov
Yevgeniy Timoshenko vs. David Paredes

There were 128 entrants who created a prizepool of over $3 million.

Changes in the event from last year included moving it up to the beginning of the series, raising the buy-in from $10,000 to $25,000, giving players a triple starting stack of 75,000 chips and giving each player two clear add-on buttons.

The prizes for the final four:

1. $851,192
2. $525,980
3. $283,966
4. $283,966