As if to outdo her already impressive “top 20” finish at the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic last week, PokerRoad blogger and UB sponsored pro Annie Duke, took down the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship over the weekend, claiming a top prize worth $500,000.

This event, which started with 64 tough contenders on Friday, eventually came down to only Annie and Erik Seidel for the best of three final match-up, and it took all three matches for Annie to win it, forcing Seidel to settle for yet another highly public runner-up finish (Seidel came in second in the 1988 World Series of Poker Main Event to Johnny Chan, a moment immortalized in the movie Rounders).

Along with Seidel, Annie had to personally beat Andy Bloch, Darvin Moon, Paul Wasicka, Jerry Yang and Dennis Phillips to win this highly prestigious tournament- her first major victory since 2004’s Tournament of Champions.
 
With this win, Duke’s live tournament earnings have shot above $4,000,000, keeping her still in second place behind Kathy Liebert on the Women’s All Time Money List, but giving her a much more comfortable million-plus margin, above 3rd place’s Annette Obrestad.

The “Elite Eight” payout positions for the 2010 NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship were as follows:

1st.  Annie Duke - $500,000

2nd.  Erik Seidel - $250,000

3rd.  Scotty Nguyen - $125,000

3rd.  Dennis Phillips - $125,000

5th.  Jerry Yang - $75,000

5th.  Doyle Brunson - $75,000

5th.  Jason Mercier - $75,000

5th.  Peter Eastgate - $75,000

For more information on the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship visit the live blog from NBC Sports or check out the episodes on NBC, when they debut this April.