2008 NBC HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP

Despite some minor grumblings about player snubs and poor structure, the NBC Heads-Up Championship has quickly risen to be one of the most fan-popular and prestigious events on the tournament calendar.  The combination of non-stop superstar matchups and Cinderella underdog celeb stories makes for one of the only tournaments during the year that is as exciting to watch in person as it is on television.

Most of your usual suspects were invited this year including past champions Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, Paul Wasicka, as well as two-time runner-up Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.  Jesus was the only one of that group to make it out of the first round, as all the previous champions fell in their first round matches.  Wasicka was ousted by Freddie Deeb, which turned out to be the most normal of the champions’ first-round exits.

Hellmuth was paired up with Internet savant Tom “durrr” Dwan, who consistently plays the absolute highest of limits offered online in no-limit hold ‘em and pot limit Omaha (predominantly heads-up and against players similar in stature and talent to Hellmuth).  The match drew immediate attention from media and fan “bracketologists” as soon as the pairings were announced due to some rumors going around that “durrr” had been trying to get Phil to play him heads-up online for some time.  As if that wasn’t enough drama surrounding possibly the most anticipated of the first-round matchups, on only the third hand, there were a series of raises pre-flop, after which “durrr” moved-in with two tens, Hellmuth snap-called with two aces and jumped out of his seat - followed by some body movement that was “half-six-year-old who just got a new bike,” and “half Stephen Hawking attempting The Macarena” (Hellmuth later said in an interview that he got “durrr” to move-in because he gave off a “false weak-tell”).  To add yet another layer of unlikelihood to a hand that took place while most players were still getting settled into their matches, “durrr” turned a ten and Hellmuth then executed a move I often see on “Law and Order” when they have to tell a mother that her son was killed.  Then for the next eleven to twelve hours, Hellmuth put his “Poker Brat” face back on to let NBC know his thoughts on the hand.  There was later some speculation that the seemingly overplayed tens on Tom’s part was some sort of seventeenth-level meta-game move to try to get Hellmuth to play him online for millions of dollars.  Although intriguing, the hand was more likely a result the combination of a slight-cooler and a brisk structure.  

The other opening round Clubs Bracket matches were ordinary and uneventful compared to the early favorite for “match of the year” between Hellmuth and “durrr.” Jon Little took out Erik Seidel in what most people would consider an upset.  Gabe Kaplan proved that Patrik Antonius can sometimes lose a heads-up match and advanced to the second round to face Little.  Greg Raymer defeated Hooman Nikzad after Raymer got his money in the middle with the worst of it and sucked out.  Scott Clements defeated Kenny Tran, and Mike Matusow recovered from an early suckout from Joe Hachem to advance to play Tom Dwan.  Gavin Smith sucked out on Tom Schneider to move on to play Chris Ferguson, who defeated John Juanda.

The most interesting matchup in the Spades Bracket pitted Phil Ivey (widely regarded as the best player in the world) against Alisha Kunze, who qualified online through PokerStars, is a career losing player, and has never played in a live event before – so possibly the best player in the tournament (and possibly the world) pitted against the most inexperienced, freeroll qualifier, dilettante (although this IS poker, and anything can happen).  The impossible seemed to be an actual possibility as Kunze held a 3-1 chip lead over Phil about fifteen minutes into their match.  Soon after, Phil doubled through Kunze when they got it in the middle pre-flop with Phil holding aces against Alicia’s kings.  Alicia got down to 5,000 in chips shortly after, and moved it into the middle.  Phil called with J-9 offsuit and Kunze showed 5-5.  Phil flopped a nine and rivered an unneeded jack to eliminate Kunze.
Chris Moneymaker faced off against Jerry Yang.  The end of the match was very fitting, as Moneymaker got short early on, shoved and got called by Jerry Yang.  Chris’s 10-10 was way ahead of Jerry’s 4-4, but Jesus (Christ, not Ferguson) brought Jerry a four on the turn to eliminate Moneymaker.

Bill Edler took the cooler highway to a seat in the stands after flopping a flush against Scotty Nguyen’s king-high flush.  Gus Hansen lost a coin flip to double Don Cheadle up (let me just say that again – Gus Hansen lost a coin flip), but later proved he hasn’t lost his Gus magic when he ran his K-J through Cheadle’s J-J.  Don should have been rooting for a third jack, because it was clear that a king was coming on the flop … and it did.  So Gus advanced to the second round to take on Scotty Nguyen. 
Phil Laak defeated David Singer, which set in motion the events that would lead to controversy at the WPT Invitational.  Since Singer was eliminated by Laak, he was able to make the WPT Invitational on time to play in it.  Laak stayed in Vegas to play the next round, but eventually showed up to the WPT Invitation on Day 2 with a stack of 8,000 left from the 10,000 that all players started with.  Had Phil’s stack been in play the entire Day 1 and been blinded out, he surely would have less chips than that left.  Singer, the constant captain of the rules-and-rulings committee at tournaments, made a big stink about the fact that they let Laak into the tournament, and with the amount of chips he had.  He made derogatory remarks to Laak for over an hour, called over the Tournament Director multiple times, and made comments to Laak pretty much every hand. 

Although most players at the table agreed with him, some thought David was clearly making too much of the issue and Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger  (usually pretty averse to getting into any kind of drama) said to Singer that, although he agreed with Singer’s main complaint - "look, David, 'late' in this case clearly means two or three hands before the night ended. (referring to how much Laak would have lost in blinds if his dead stack was on the table) Either bring it up with the tournament director or let it slide."  Most of the table talk on the subject ceased after that.  Laak busted shortly later, but not before beating someone with 8-8 against Q-Q and building up quite a stack. The first Laak/Singer match winner – Phil Laak (at NBC Heads-Up).  The second Laak/Singer match was a push because, although Laak was allowed to stay in the tournament despite Singer’s  persistent snide comments and tattle-tailing to TD’s, Singer was able to bring some publicity to what was a pretty blatantly foolish and unfair decision by the Tournament Director, Commerce Casino, and the World Poker Tour – and none of it would have happened if their first round NBC Heads-up match had gone the other way.

Johnny Chan took down David Williams to draw Phil Ivey in the second round.  T.J. Cloutier went from down 3-1 in chips to eliminating Daniel Schreiber in two straight hands.  J.C . Tran got it all in the middle with 8-8 versus Annie Dukes Ad10d.  The flop came down about almost as if J.C got to handpick the cards - Js 5d 3c.  J.C. clearly doesn’t have control over turn cards though as the Qd peeled off giving Annie: three Aces; three tens; four kings; or any of the eight diamonds for the win.  Annie went from 45% to win the hand preflop, to below 30% on the flop, back up to 39% to win when the turn card hit.  J.C had to fade eighteen outs on the river card and succeeded as the five of spades hit on fifth.  J.C. took out Annie just a few hands later and advanced to face T.J..

The Hearts Bracket contained a magician, a “Dancing with the Stars” contestant, a former member of the MIT blackjack team, a guy who wants to be “the best bluffer ever,” a Suicide King, a former “Survivor” contestant, the player with the most respected last name in poker, a poker couple who just got engaged, a former World Series MVP pitcher …  and Sam Grizzle.  Chad Brown was the first to fall to Allen Cunningham, leaving no chance for an Elite Eight match-up of Chad Brown vs. Vanessa Rousso – who are engaged to be married.  After Paul Wasicka fell to Freddy Deeb, we would not have a repeat champion or a repeat finals match as both Wasicka (last year’s champ) and Chad Brown (last year’s runner up) were eliminated.

Orel Hershiser (former Dodger’s pitcher, NL MVP, World Series MVP, and a regular in the 2-5NL and 5-10NL at the Red Rock) was ahead in the count multiple times against Ted Forrest.  The blinds eventually got pretty high inducing Ted and Orel to get it all the middle.  Ted won the hand to get his chips back up to 8,800 – still Ted was behind 31,200 to 8,800.  Shortly later, Ted was down to 4,000 in chips and doubled again with his 4-4 holding up to Orel’s Q-6.  Ted grew that 8,000 into 9,200 before moving the last of his chips in with Ac5c with Orel calling with 6-6.  Orel put one right down the middle, flopping a set of sixes and leaving Ted swinging at a runner-runner straight to survive.  Forrest whiffed hard on the turn and river and was sent back to the dugout, but not before getting putting his signature on Orel’s baseball card protector – a gift Orel would give to whatever player knocked him out.
Jean-Robert Bellande had a 3-1 chip lead over Sam Grizzle late in their match, but Sammy battled back to “outwit, outplay, outlast” “Survivor” Jean-Robert Bellande.

Jamie Gold was involved in two consecutive pots that had everyone in the room (players, media, tournament staff, dealers, and even some of the maintenance crew) jaw-dropped, disgusted, and yet simultaneously impressed.  I actually saw one of the tournament staff standing at the table while both strange hands went down, scratching his head, and looking like he was a poker tournament director called to a table to make a decision, and when he got there one player was shot in the head, the other player was in a full suit of armor, and the table was filled with cut up watermelon and Elton John was laying in it.  The scene was that strange and confusing.

Jamie Gold announced “raise” first to act preflop, but hadn’t announced an amount or put any chips out yet.  Immediately Tom Kelly said “all-in.”  It was ruled that Gold could make any raise from the minimum to all his chips, but that Kelly’s “all-in” would stand after Gold made the raise.  Gold wisely chose to min-raise, leaving himself the most amounts of options.  He then turned his cards face up (which you are allowed to do at the NBC Heads-Up) to try to get a read on Kelly.  Gold tabled Q-Q and studied Kelly for 2-3 minutes, before folding!  THEN, the very next hand, Gold moved all-in as first to act, then decided to turn over an ace.  Kelly insta-called, showing A-K, only to see that Jamie’s down card was the same as his first – A-A.  The aces held up and Kelly was left with only 2,000 chips to Gold’s 18,000.  Jamie won the match a few hands later and advanced to take on Scott Fischman, who somewhat uneventfully defeated Todd Brunson. 

Vanessa Rousso had control of her match the whole way against Antonio Esfandiari, and eventually sent him packing – leaving Chad-Van at least one hope of having a $500,000 wedding.

Despite an early double up to take the chip lead over Andy Bloch, Shannon Elizabeth did not become the Cinderella story of this year’s big dance.  With Don Cheadle and both satellite qualifiers already eliminated, and with Jason Alexander falling to Huck Seed (who has probably been the most consistent player in this event since its conception) NBC’s hopes for a “David beats Goliaths” story rested on the shoulders of Orel Hershiser.

The Hearts Bracket was by far the “bracket that my mom would have heard of most of the names from.”  It was literally a smattering of the players that have been the biggest media stars over the last few years.  Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fell to Huck Seed, because, well, Jason Alexander is an actor and Huck Seed is definitely one of the world’s elite heads-up players.  Huck, I think I speak for all Seinfeld fans when I say “You’re killing Independent George!!”  Brian ‘sbrugby’ Townsend laid a bad beat on David Pham to advance, as Brian’s 10-9 embarrassed Pham’s 9-9 with a flop containing two tens.

Clonie Gowen took out Jennifer Tilly, so at least one of their resumes could now say:
1) Won a ladies-only event in 1892
2) Won my first round match in the NBC Heads-Up. 

The Grinder took out Daniel Negreanu (in a surprisingly boring match considering both players’ styles and personalities).  After having at least one player all-in on the first two hands of their match, Doyle moved in on Sammy for the 5th and final time with K-Q.  Sammy called with AhQh, but NBC loves Doyle so the flop blanked and a king fell on the turn.

Erick Lindgren held a chip lead over Eli Elezra for most of their match and was able to finish him off to move on and face Doyle in second round action.

David Benyamine defeated Jen Harman and Barry Greenstein took out Howard Lederer.

ROUND 2

About twelve minutes into Round 2, Andy Bloch had already built a 65,000-to-15,000 chip lead over Vanessa Rousso-Brown.  Around fifteen minutes later they got it all in on a board of A-K-3-5 with Andy’s two pair (K-5)having to fade about half the deck when Vanessa showed Ah10h.  The river was none of her eighteen outs and she was sent home with no money to put into the wedding fund, while Andy was guaranteed some money as the top sixteen finishers all made at least $25,000.
Scott Fischman finished off Jamie Gold without much resistance, which made Scott one of only two players to finish in the money all four years of the NBC Heads-Up.

Allen Cunningham was whaling them out of the park early against Orel Hershiser.  After a very early chip deficit, Allen flopped a straight and got paid off to even up the chip count.  Then a few hands later, Allen and Orel both made straights but Allen had the slightly higher end and extended his lead to 75,000 to 5,000.  The next thing we know, Orel had a slight chip lead, called a shove by Cunningham with A-10 to Allen’s K-6, flopped a ten, and continued the Cinderella story by moving on to the Sweet Sixteen.
Freddie Deeb defeated Sam Grizzle in a match that I’m probably glad I don’t have many details about.
John Little defeated Gabe Kaplan, and Greg Raymer took out Scott Clements.

Mike Matusow high-fived just about everyone in the audience after eliminating Tom “durrr” Dwan – was it because he beat a player of Dwan’s skill, or that he was now guaranteed $25,000?  Chris Ferguson had Gavin Smith short-stacked for a large portion of their match and eventually took a race with his 4-4 against Gavin’s K-8.  The board blanked and Gavin was sent packing.
Gus Hansen took out Scotty Nguyen in another unexpectedly boring match, and Phil Laak busted Jerry Yang with a set of threes. (I wonder if Jerry folds 6-6 when he hits a set on the flop).

Phil Ivey felted Johnny Chan in about 45 seconds in Round 2.  In all of his previous NBC Heads-Up tournaments, Ivey failed to win a match.  In the battle of “guys with letters for first names,” J.C. Tran defeated T.J. Cloutier, ending T.J.’s streak of three consecutive cashes.

The Sweet Sixteen match ups looked like this :

Jonathan Little v. Greg Raymer
Mike Matusow v. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
Gus Hansen v. Phil Laak
Phil Ivey v. J.C. Tran
Andy Bloch v. Scott Fischman
Orel Hershiser v. Freddy Deed
Huck Seed v. Michael Mizrachi
David Benyamine v. Doyle Brunson

Round 3 – The Sweet Sixteen

Jonathan Little got to call an all-in from Greg Raymer around forty minutes into their match.  Little’s aces held, and he advanced. Meanwhile, Chris Ferguson and Mike Matusow traded the chip lead back and forth a few times before Ferguson busted Mike. 
Phil Laak got short early against Gus Hansen and eventually had to just stick his chips in with 9-5 against Gus’s AdQd – no miracle for The Unabomber and Gus took the match.  Phil Ivey and J.C. Tran got all the money in the middle with your classic A-K vs. pair (10-10 in this case).  Phil hit a king and J.C. was done for this year. 
Andy Bloch and shorter-stacked Scott Fishman got it all in the middle with Scott holding K-7 and Andy tabling 8d9d.  Fishman was ok on the flop of 10c4c10h, but Andy went runner-runner diamonds. 
Orel Hershiser took an early chip lead against Freddie Deeb and eventually put him away when his J-J held up against the 10d9d of Deeb.  At this point Hershiser had defeated Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, and Freddie Deeb – players with a combined twelve WSOP bracelets.

Huck Seed’s 9-6 blew through the A-9 of Michael Mizrachi when a six came on the flop, sending Seed to the round of right.  Seed would face David Benyamine who defeated Doyle Brunson, much to the disappointment of a majority of the crowd.
The Elite Eight match-ups were set, and play ended for the day. |

Elite 8 Match Ups:

Jonathan Little vs. Chris Ferguson
Gus Hansen vs. Phil Ivey
Andy Bloch vs. Orel Hershiser
Huck Seed vs. David Benyamine

Elite Eight

The first match to end, around forty-five minutes into the round, was Huck Seed and David Benyamine.  Huck flopped a set of deuces, which turned into a full house, but with the final board being only 7-high, it was easy for Benyamine to get all his chips in the middle with his two nines.  Huck took the match and was the first contestant in the Final Four.

For almost all of their match, neither Orel Hershiser nor Andy Bloch ever held more than a 20k chip lead (starting with 160k each) and it was getting late into the match and the blinds were high.  This could possibly have been an advantage for Hershiser, who had been using the “Kill Phil” style of moving-in a lot against more experienced players.  Andy was eventually able to grab a 222,000 to 98,000 chip lead over Orel, and minutes later they were forced to get it all-in with Andy’s A-9 against Orel’s J-10.  Andy flopped a pair and the match was over.

It took Chris Ferguson about forty-five minutes of trading the chip lead back and forth with Jon Little before he caught Little with his hand in the cookie jar.  Little moved-in with the 7d10d and was called by Jesus with 9-9.  The board brought no help for little and Jesus made his third appearance in four years in the Final Four.

For most of their match, Phil Ivey chipped away at Gus Hansen.  So when the blinds got high, and Phil had more chips, it was over fairly quickly.  Gus moved in on a board of 9-3-6 all hearts, and Ivey called immediately.  Gus grimaced, knowing he was probably doomed.  Ivey had flopped a king-high flush, leaving Gus’s 10h3d drawing to runner-runner full house or straight flush.  If anyone can pull off that kind of outdraw, it’s Gus, but not this time.

We were looking at some great Final Four matches after the players took a break for dinner.

Phil Ivey v. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
Huck Seed v. Andy Bloch

The Final Four

The first few blind levels were fairly uneventful in both matches.  Around forty minutes into the Chris Ferguson/Phil Ivey match, we saw our first big hand and first elimination.  Ivey moved in on a board of 9-3-4-5 with two diamonds.  Jesus tanked for over a minute before making the call and turning over 8-8, while Ivey held 6-6.  Chris was ahead but had to dodge ten outs that would give Ivey the pot.  The Qh fell on the river and sent Chris Ferguson into his THIRD championship match (he lost his first two to Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest).  This also gave Jesus more career NBC HU wins than any other player (fifteen).
It was over an hour into the match between Andy Bloch and Huck Seed and there was little action, with the players trading blinds and raises a few times.  The blinds got to 5k-10k (each player starts with 320k in chips), so there had to be some action on the way.  Indeed there was, as ten minutes later Andy moved-in with a slight chip lead and Huck called.  Huck’s tournament and a bulk of Andy’s stack would on the line in a classic race, with Andy’s A-Q against Hucks 9-9.  The flop was great for Huck, coming five-high, and the turn was an offsuit six.  Andy needed an ace or queen on the river to advance and… the ace of clubs fell on the fifth street.  Andy Bloch was heading into the finals against good friend and fellow math aficionado Chris Ferguson.  Huck took home $125,000 and some well-earned respect from fellow pros and media for his consistent showings in heads-up tournaments.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP

This was set to be an interesting match up as both Chris Ferguson and Andy Bloch were both known to base a majority of their decisions on math.

Andy Bloch landed the first big punch in the match.  Andy bet 100,000 into a flop of AcJd8d and Ferguson called.  The turn was the 9d, Jesus (who held a slight chip lead) moved all-in.  Andy Bloch quickly called with Qd2d for a made flush.  Chris’s 8-8 made for a set of eights and he needed the case 8, or the board to pair to not hand Andy a massive chip lead.  The Qh on the river was no help, and match Number One ended shortly.

Bloch got Ferguson down over 3-1 in chips early in the second match, but Ferguson doubled up when his QdJd hit a queen to win the pot over Andy’s 3-3.  After the pot, Bloch still had a slight chip lead.  Later in the match, the players (with Andy still holding a slight chip lead) got it all in the middle on a flop of 4-5-10, no suits.  Andy moved in with 6c7c for an open-ender and a backdoor flush draw, while Jesus showed two jacks.   The 6d on the turn gave Andy additional outs, but the 9c on the river gave the pot, and a dominating chip lead, to Chris Ferguson.  Andy was forced to get it in soon with his short stack, and he did with his K-3.  Jesus though, woke up with Q-Q and made the call.  The window card was a queen putting Chris way ahead … but not as much as when another queen hit the turn, locking up the hand and the match for Chris Ferguson.  Chris’s come-from-behind victory evened up the match a 1-1.

The third match took only forty-five minutes.  Jesus opened the pot for 25,000 and Andy flat-called.  The flop came down 10c3s7s and Bloch checked.  Jesus lead out for 35,000 and Bloch check-raised to a total of 105,000; Jesus just called.  The turn was the 7h putting two sevens on the board, and Andy lead out for 150,000.  Jesus moved all-in and Andy went into the tank.  Bloch eventually decided that a coin-flip would decide this match … no, an ACTUAL coin-flip. “Heads I call, tails I fold.”  The quarter flew into the air and landed heads-up.  Andy then made the call with the 10s4s for tens and sevens with a flush draw.  Chris turned over two jacks (including the jack of spades, one of Andy’s outs). As the dealer turned the river card, the first thing everyone saw was that it was black; any spade would give keep Andy alive and with a sizeable chip lead.  After some time to focus our eyes, it turned out to be the 7c, giving Chris an unneeded full-house, but a much needed NBC Heads-Up Championship.  It took him three tries in the finals (with all three matches going 1-1 before a winner was decided), but Chris Ferguson had clearly solidified himself as the most dominant player in this tournament over the last four years – sixteen wins, three losses total, two runner-ups, and a Championship.

Before this year, when I heard the term “heads-up specialist,” I always thought of a young Internet guy with lots of gunk in his hair, wearing European clothes.  Now that image is of a slightly older Internet guy with a leather jacket and a cowboy hat, surrounded by his closest friends in a massive group hug in the middle of the NBC stage at the Caesar’s poker room.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.