The 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship took place this past weekend and the tournament was chock-full of surprises, big hands, and finished up with one of the hottest players in poker taking on a very surprising opponent in the finals.
The big news in Round 1 of the tournament had to do with a major upset in the Hearts Bracket, as NFL legend Emmitt Smith was able to upset reigning WPT Champion and Team PokerStars Pro David Williams. Other players falling by the wayside in Round 1 included Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Annette Obrestad, and Chris Ferguson.
As the tournament progressed a few players started to stand out in terms of their focus –and just being hot—including 2003 WSOP Champ Chris Moneymaker, late addition to the lineup Andrew Robl, Vanessa Selbst, Erik Seidel, Jonathan Duhamel, and David Benyamine. In the end, the Final Four of the tournament included Andrew Robl, Erik Seidel, Chris Moneymaker, and Jonathan Duhamel.
On one side of the bracket were the two Main Event winners –Moneymaker, who started the online poker boom with his win in 2003, and his current contemporary, 2010 WSOP winner Jonathan Duhamel. When the dust settled it was “the original” that would move on to the finals to play the winner of Erik Seidel and Andrew Robl.
The Robl vs. Seidel battle was an interesting match, but when all was said and done Robl was unable to defeat Seidel, who is arguably the hottest player in poker at the moment –considering Seidel has seemingly been hoisting a poker trophy every other week.
Unlike the other rounds where it is a one-and-done format, the finals of the Heads-Up Poker Championship are a best-of-three format. Seidel quickly won the first match, and after Moneymaker shot out to a quick lead in the second match, Seidel chipped away and eventually ended Moneymaker’s run in the tournament. Seidel has now won over $4.3 million in 2011 alone, and has moved into the top spot on the all-time money list.
Here is a look at the payouts for the tournament:
- Erik Seidel — $750,000
- Chris Moneymaker — $300,000
- Andrew Robl — $125,000
- Jonathan Duhamel — $125,000
- David Benyamine — $75,000
- Vanessa Selbst — $75,000
- Olivier Busquet — $75,000
- David Oppenheim — $75,000
- Phil Gordon — $30,000
- Phil Galfond — $30,000
- Michael Mizrachi — $30,000
- James Bord — $30,000
- Jason Mercier — $30,000
- Eugene Katchalov — $30,000
- Ayaz Mahmood — $30,000
- Doyle Brunson — $30,000
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Written by Steve Ruddock on March 7th, 2011