Poker Blog

The NBC National Heads-Up Championship just concluded and it was an exciting weekend of poker. Pros, celebrities, and a couple of amateurs all descended on Caesars Palace in Las Vegas looking to take down the $500,000 top prize. Among those in the field were Doyle Brunson, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Orel Hersheiser, Annie Duke, Paul Wasicka, and Phil Ivey.

Day 1 saw a field of 64 whittled down to 32. Among those that moved on to the second round were Main Event Champions Chris Moneymaker, Jerry Yang, Joe Hachem, Jamie Gold, and Peter Eastgate. Phil Ivey and Gabe Kaplan both advanced as well as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Annette Obrestad.

Day 2 saw the field narrowed from 32 to 8. First, the players had to play to the final 16. Moneymaker, Yang, Gold, and Eastgate all managed to make it into the sweet 16 as well as former November Niner Dennis Phillips. Doyle Brunson headlined those making the sweet 16, as he took on Annette Obrestad. She knocked out Phil Hellmuth heads-up. Gabe Kaplan showed that he is more than a commentator, lasting into the final 16. Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra, Annie Duke, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Phil Laak and Jason Mercier rounded out the field of 16.

Sixteen played to eight to conclude Day 2. Gabe Kaplan’s storybook run ended, but Jerry Yang and Dennis Phillips continued their unlikely runs as they both made the final eight. Scotty Nguyen and Jason Mercier made the elite eight and faced each other. Peter Eastgate made it as well and faced Erik Seidel. Doyle Brunson put the poker world on notice that he isn’t done yet and faced Dennis Phillips. Jerry Yang took his run good against Annie Duke.

The final four has three players that people expected and one they did not. Amazingly, Dennis Phillips took out Doyle to make the final four. Jerry Yang and his “Astronaut suit” went down to Annie Duke. Jason Mercier hit the rail, baby, as Scotty Nguyen advanced. Peter Eastgate didn’t fare any better against Scotty Nguyen.

It was Phillips vs. Duke and Nguyen vs. Seidel in the final four. Phillips never got much going against Duke and eventually went out when his A-8 failed to outrun Duke’s sevens. Scotty Nguyen and Seidel were involved in a big pot. Nguyen flopped top pair with strong kicker with K-9 and Seidel flopped the same pair but worse kicker with 9-7. A seven on the turn gave Seidel two pair, but both players checked. The river fell another nine and Nguyen bet out 100,000 with his trips. Seidel moved all-in and Nguyen made the call. Seidel showed his 9-7 for the full house and the final two was set.

The final of this heads-up championship featured two friends. Erik Seidel, eight time bracelet winner and Full Tilt Poker pro, and Annie Duke, bracelet winner and UB pro. The finals are a best of three, so a player had to win twice to take the title. Annie jumped out to an early lead. The final hand of the first round saw Seidel all-in on a flop of Ks-Js-7h. He held 8s-6s for a flush draw. Duke held As-Kd for top pair. The turn fell the Jh and river the Ah and Duke was up 1-0.

Match two was pretty much one sided as Seidel controlled the action from the opening bell. The final hand of the match saw a short stacked Annie all-in with Kh-5d and Seidel with 8s-7h. The flop of 6h-9d-4h gave Seidel a straight draw. The turn fell the 5h to fill Seidel’s straight, but Duke now had a flush draw. The river fell the 9s and we were knotted at one a piece.

Seidel took a sizable chip lead in the third match and looked destined to win the whole thing. Then a huge hand went down between the two that swung momentum into Duke’s favor. After a raise to 80,000 by Seidel pre-flop, Duke shoved. Seidel called with Ad-Kd and had Duke’s Qd-9d crushed. Diamonds were not a girls best friend in this case. However, clubs were as the board fell Qc-4c-10c to give duke the lead with a pair of queens. Seidel needed an ace or a king to take down the hand and the title. The turn and river both fell nines and Duke took a 3 to 1 chip lead.

It didn’t take long before Seidel tried for his own double up. He moved all-in with Ah-2c and Duke called with pocket nines. The flop was about as bad as you could want for Seidel’s hand as it fell 8h-6h-7c to give duke an open-ended draw. The turn fell the 5d to complete Duke’s draw. Seidel’s only chance was for one of the remaining nines to hit the river. The river fell the 8s and Annie Duke was the champion.

Annie Duke is the 2010 NBC National Heads-up Champion. She took the title and $500,000 in prize money. She had no easy road to the finals as she had to beat Andy Bloch, Darvin Moon, Paul Wasicka, and Dennis Phillips to get her shot at close friend Erik Seidel. She ran well at the right time and took down this prestigious event. Congratulations to Annie Duke, NBC National Heads-up Champion.

Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

Phil Ivey has topped the all time money list in poker tournament winnings. He overtook Daniel Negreanu who he’s been trailing since before the 2009 WSOP Main Event. Had Phil Ivey not lost with AK to Darvin Moon’s AQ this feat may have been accomplished back at the final table of that event. Daniel Negreanu states in his poker blog that Ivey is the most consistent winner in all the different styles of poker in the live high stakes poker games. He also states that :

“It’s my belief that Phil Ivey is the best poker player in the world, and that includes every format. I’ve played live with him, and cash, Hold’em, Stud, Omaha, whatever, and he is just the most consistently good player at everything- include online based on what his results look like. I don’t think anyone has won more money online, live play, or tournament poker, than Ivey. Pretty strong.”

Phil Ivey has proved himself to be the best in the world. He is has the best winning record in online poker cash games *, live cash games, and now world class poker tournaments.

Poker All Time Money List:
1st Phil Ivey $12,802,783
2nd Daniel Negreanu $12,432,367 *
3rd Jamie Gold $12,201,061
4th Phil Hellmuth Jr $10,991,871
5th Scotty Nguyen $10,955,557
6th Joe Hachem $10,856,216
7th Peter Eastgate $10,630,471 *
8th Allen Cunningham $10,398,118
9th Erik Seidel $9,814,424
10th T.J. Cloutier $9,787,199
11th John Juanda $9,730,882
12th Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen $9,221,767
13th Carlos Mortensen $8,894,713
14th Joe Cada $8,626,099
15th Jerry Yang $8,263,393
16th Johnny Chan $8,232,651
17th David ‘The Dragon’ Pham $8,194,767
18th Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson $8,032,900
19th Justin Cuong Van Tran $7,956,635
20th Paul Wasicka $7,628,127

Phil solidified his first place in our Top Ten Poker Accomplishments of all Time. Congratulations to Phil Ivey.

* Not sure what Ivey’s winnings are compared to Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson
* Daniel may have more than noted here
* Peter Eastgate just made money in a tournament and is not reflected here.

Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

Svetlana Gromenkova photo image

World Series of Poker champion of the 2008 $1,000 Ladies’ No-Limit Hold’em event, Svetlana Gromenkova, was born and raised near Moscow, Russia. Her education endeavors brought her to the United States in 2002. This is when she took up residence in Brooklyn, New York and studied Psychology at New York University. While living in Russia, Gromenkova played bridge professionally. After moving to the U.S., her card interests changed from bridge to poker and she began playing poker online.

Read more about Svetlana Gromenkova here.

Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

Horiamv entered the final table with the chip lead. Most of the rest of the field was relatively close, all with between 10 and 15 Million. Ligra80 entered as the short stack with just 3.2 Million. These were the chip counts at the start of final table play:

23dontreraiseme 11,376,799

espiderman 10,053,956

KingsOnTilt 15,326,242

horiamv 23,023,063

seiwertsystem 14,898,835

K Prince 14,617,912

AADYNASTY 15,216,247

Ligra80 3,247,108

syyyke_mann 12,142.338

Espiderman was the first player eliminated from the final table. AADYNASTY raised pre-flop to 740k and Ligra80 made the call. Espiderman then moved all-in for 7.789 Million total. AADYNASTY made the call and Ligra80 moved out of the way. Espiderman got caught with his hand in the cookie jar when he found his Ac-4c was against the pocket rockets of AADYNASTY. Espiderman was drawing dead after the turn and AADYNASTY actually made a flush on the river to send espiderman out in 9th.

It took quite a few hands to lose our next player, but Ligra80 was forced to take a stand. He had just 3.37 Million and with ante of 60k and blinds of 250k and 500k, Ligra80 moved all-in from UTG+1 with Kh-Qh. KingsOnTilt woke up with Ac-Ks and made the call. The flop and turned missed both players, but the river fell the Ad and Ligra80 hit the rail in 8th.

K Prince was down to about 4.1 Million and moved all-in for 4 Million after seiwertsystem raised to 1.199 Million pre-flop. Action folded around to seiwertsystem, who made the call with Kh-Jc. K Prince was actually ahead with As-10c but that didn’t last long as the flop fell with a king on it. The turn put K Prince farther behind as a flush draw came, but seiwertsystem had the better draw. The river fell a harmless 5s and we were down to six.

Soon afterwards, one of the biggest pots of the night developed between seiwertsystem and AADYNASTY. Sewiertsystem raised to 1.199 pre-flop and AADYNASTY re-raised to 3.5 Million straight. Sewiertsystem then moved all-in for 13.711 Million total and AADYNASTY made the call. The pot sat at 28.5 Million and most of the players had to be in shock when seiwertsystem showed Kh-Jh. AADYNASTY was well ahead with Ac-Qc. His lead grew when an ace hit the flop, but he now did not want a queen to hit as a 10 also hit to give seiwertsystem a broadway draw. The turn fell the 4d and river the Jd to give AADYNASTY the largest pot of the night to this point and send seiwertsystem out in 6th place.

A few hands later, syyyke_mann raised to 1.222 Million pre-flop and was called by both KingsOnTilt and horiamv. With just 918k left, KingsOnTilt moved all-in on the 10-A-9 flop. Horiamv made the call, but syyyke_mann raised to 3 Million to go. Horiamv took the hint and got out of the way. Syyyke_mann held As-10h for top two pair and KingsOnTilt held Kd-6d for air. A turn six left KingsOnTilt with two out to win the hand. The river fell the 8d and four players remained.

A deal was reached between the four remaining players and as a result, it did not take long to lose our next player. Two hands after the deal was struck, syyyke_mann limped from the button and horiamv and 23dontreraiseme all saw a flop of 4-8-2. Action was checked to syyyke_man, who bet 2.844 Million. 23dontreraiseme then moved all-in for 19.317 Million. Horiamv moved out of the way and syyyke_mann made the call with pocket jacks. 23dontreraiseme showed Ac-4s for middle pair. The turn fell the 10s and river Qh to give syyyke_mann the pot of 42 Million and the chip lead. 23dontreraiseme took home $65 for his deal adjusted prize. (Under the original terms of the tournament, he would have had to make it heads-up to win this much.)

AADYNASTY was the next to fall. He raised to 1.5 Million from the small blind and syyyke_mann instantly moved all-in for 47 Million. AADYNASTY called for 19 Million total and found his As-5d dominated by the Ac-Kd of syyyke_mann. A king on the flop sealed the deal for syyyke_mann as AADYNASTY had to watch a harmless six hit the turn and meaningless five hit the river. AADYNASTY took home $71,000 for his strong effort.

Heads-up play saw syyyke_mann with a 67 Million to a 52 Million chip lead over horiamv. Heads-up play lasted only seven hands with the final hand a mini-raising war between the two players. Horiamv was all-in with pocket tens and faced the As-9c of syyyke_mann. Both players flopped a straight draw when the flop fell Ks-Qc-Js. The turn 4h left syyyke_mann needing a ten or ace to win the even. Normally, when you have a pocket pair, you want to hit a set on the board, but in this case, horiamv would have settle for a deuce on the river. Instead, he hit his set on the river, which gave syyyke_mann broadway. Horiamv finished as runner-up but walked away from the event with the most money, his share of the prize money from the deal was $85,000.
Syyyke_mann is the champion of the Full Tilt Poker MiniFTOPS Main Event. He received $82,465.24 for his strong effort. While many players try and stay away from big pot poker, syyyke_mann was able to play and win several big pots in ascending to the chip lead, and eventually the title.

Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com