2011 National Heads Up Poker Championship
The day began with eight hopefuls looking to score $750,000 and the title of 2011 NBC National Heads Up Poker Champion. The day ended as it has so many other times this year, with Erik Seidel hoisting a big trophy.
The eight-time WSOP bracelet winner just keeps on adding to his list of accomplishments and has now moved into first place on the all-time tournament earnings leaderboard ahead of Daniel Negreanu with roughly $14.7 million in career winnings.
- The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship announced its complete 2011 field today. As always, there’s some “Way to get that right, nice call” additions and some complete head-scratchers. A couple first-timers that fall into the welcome addition bucket would be the man the myth the legend, Black Phil Ivey, Big Sldick, the one and only.
- In March 2011, Seidel won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, defeating 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker in the final. The $750,000 he collected for the win moved him into first place on the all-time tournament money list. In May 2011, Seidel won the $100K Super High Roller event at the WPT World Championship for $1,092,780.
The Full Tilt Pro has been on fire in 2011, winning three events, making six different final tables and earning nearly $4.5 million. Its a run that can only be rivaled by Negreanu’s numbers in 2004. The only difference is that Seidel has accomplished all of this in the span of just over two months.
ESPN3 streamed the $25K Heads Up, $50K Poker Players Championship and the Main Event online. ESPN also doubled the airtime given to the WSOP from prior years. For the first time ever, television coverage of the WSOP Main Event was 'live' with a 30-minute delay. The final table of the Main Event was televised in its entirety on ESPN.
Seidel and his appearance in the movie Rounders were a big part of the poker boom and to earn his most recent victory, he had to defeat 2003 WSOP main event champion Chris Moneymaker, the man widely credited for bringing poker into the main stream.
Moneymaker bested both David Oppenheim and Jonathan Duhamel on his way to the finals, locking up $300,000, which is the second largest score of his career. Though he fought hard in the best-of-three finals, his every move was countered with remarkable accuracy by Seidel.
Every hand was second best and every bluff was picked off. In the end, he ran right into a flopped monster and was left drawing dead by the turn.
What makes Seidel’s win even more impressive was that he finished runner-up to Annie Duke in 2010. It was an improbable back-to-back finals appearance that has only been accomplished by Chris Ferguson in the tournament’s seven-year history.
Click on the bracket below to view the final standings.
After a late night party at Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace, the bracket is officially set for the 2011 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship.
The field of 64 was released a week ago, but there have been some changes to the line up. Incredibly, Annie Duke will not be returning to defend her title and her spot will go to Olivier “livb112” Busquet, a player who is widely regarded to be one of the best heads-up players in the world.
Additionally, poker commentator Gabe Kaplan will not be able to attend the tournament and has been replaced by recent LAPC main event final tablist Carlos Mortensen.
There are several interesting match ups slated for the first round, including three with celebrities. Liv Boeree will face off against Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Tom “durrrr” Dwan will take on Don Cheadle and David Williams will compete against former NFL star Emmitt Smith.
Another interesting match up will feature Phil Ivey and Dan “jungleman12” Cates, two players who have regularly competed at the highest stakes online.
One other match of interest involves Mike Matusow and Greg Raymer, two players who squared off against each other in the 2004 WSOP main event.
You can view the complete bracket below. Card Player will be on the set for the tournament’s duration bringing live updates from each match. The action begins Friday at noon, so be sure to check back to see if your bracket predictions come true.
2011 National Heads Up Poker Championship 2020
Click on the bracket below to view larger image.