The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

It seems that this game of ours has grown so popular that even the networks are starting to sit up and take notice. It certainly hasn’t escaped the attention of NBC. Last Superbowl Sunday, the channel aired the NBC annual Poker Superstars Championship, attracting 8.6 million viewers, and now we have its second foray into poker broadcasting, the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championships.

It’s an irresistible formula for TV: sixty of the world’s biggest names in poker (plus four amateur ‘wild card’ players thrown into the pack) descend on the Golden Nugget to duel one-on-one across the felt. Seldom have so many big personalities been brought together in one card room for the cameras. Think of it: the clashes, showdowns, lucky breaks and bad beats; the needling, the tantrums, the show stealing gags. This thing was going to be an epic and there was no way we were waiting until May 1st when the first of four episodes airs. We had to be there.

NBC‘s innovative set up in the Nugget gave the whole thing an intimate feel, and allowed the audience to really get on top of the action. Clearly a lot of thought had gone into the presentation of poker as spectacle; the main table in the middle was beamed onto the big screen and encircled by seven outer tables which were so close to the audience that you could see every flop and hear every word the players said. Naturally, this encouraged the players to crack jokes, fool around and interact with the public. For the semi-final and final we would be moved right up to the final table, so we could literally reach out and touch the players. This was going to be fun…

The action began slowly, each player perhaps wary of being knocked out first on national TV. Prahlad Friedman received that dubious honor, however; busted after forty minutes by Sam Farha.

Notable early exits included Doyle Brunson, busted in round one by fellow old-timer Billy Baxter. Towards the end of the game, a short-stacked Doyle called Billy’s all-in raise, announcing: “This one’s a cinch,” before showing his trademark hand, 10-2 (the Texas-Dolly), with a 10 high flop on the board. He took the hand to stay alive, but was eventually eliminated when he failed to improve on his flush draw against Baxter’s high pair.

The biggest upset of the first day was Eric Seidel’s defeat at the hands of wild card Dennis Wager, a high rolling craps and blackjack player at the Golden Nugget. It seems we are destined to live out our names, as fellow contestant Chris Moneymaker would attest.

Among the other wild cards was film star James Woods who, as Bluff’s first ever cover star, always has a special place in our hearts. (Moreover, the movie Cop was on TV recently, reminding us how much he kicks ass.) But how would he fair against two-time world champion Johnny Chan? “If Matt Damon can beat him then I can,” declared Woods, referring to the scene in Rounders, when Damon’s character takes a pot from Chan. Fiction could have easily become reality as Woods hung tough against the Oriental Express for over two riveting hours. At one point, Chan faced elimination with a flush draw and only the river to go, but ‘got there’ (as world champions tend to do) to extend the match and eventually muscle his way to victory. Midway through the game, Chan placed his trademark lucky orange on the table, only for Woods to yell: “I raise!” To the delight of the crowd, he produced a grapefruit and set it by his chip stack. Woods played brilliantly and almost pulled off a huge upset in the first round. Mr. Woods, we salute you.

With the NBC cameras rolling, it seemed showmanship was the order of the day. Daniel Negreanu’s first round opponent was another amateur, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss. Halfway through the first hand, Negreanu suddenly declared, “Poker is about psychological warfare!” and unzipped his jacket to reveal a Detroit Pistons jersey. Buss, however, was quick to point out that the Lakers are nine-time world champions. Being a stand-up guy, Negreanu agreed that if he won, he would wear a Lakers jersey in the next round. Negreanu did indeed win, but he and his Lakers jersey were eliminated in round two by Antonio Esfandiari.

Is there a player on the circuit with a keener sense of irony than Paul Phillips, we wonder? Sporting his new ‘Grizzly Adams’ look, Paul showed up for his second round match against Phil Hellmuth wearing a Phil Hellmuth jersey. When the commentator introduced Hellmuth as the winner of nine WSOP championship bracelets, Phillips asked whether he could announce that they have a ‘combined nine WSOP championship bracelets between them’ and leave it at that. A no-holds-barred battle ensued, with Hellmuth eventually getting the better of his opponent.

Sam Farha also came unstuck in Round 2. It was getting late on day one and Farha, with a chip lead of 77,000 to 3,000 over Hassan Habib, was playing the crowd and making no secret that he was ready to go home. But Farha’s complacency was his undoing. Somehow, Habib fought back and won.

Day two, round three and, in one of the longer matches of the tournament, after several swings back and forth, Hellmuth had Huck Seed against the ropes. Phil had a 148,500 to 11,500 chip lead and, with the blinds at 6,000- 12,000, it wasn’t looking too good for Huck. He proceeded to go all-in three times with the weaker hand, winning each time. Hellmuth was visibly irritated and, with only a slight lead now, went all-in with K-5. Huck called with pocket jacks. There was no help for Phil on the flop and, sensing the mother of all Hellmuth meltdowns, all cameras zoomed in. However, a king on the turn saved Phil, spared us a tantrum and eliminated Seed in the process.

Round four, and it’s down to the final eight. The action is fast and furious. Hellmuth knocks out Lyle Berman with a nut full house. Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson needed divine intervention, when, pushing all in with  Q 4, he ran into Mike Sexton’s A-A. The Lord moves in mysterious ways: in this case in the form of a flush on the river. Chris had slipped through by the skin of his teeth. Elsewhere John Juanda, his stack crippled by an earlier bad beat, is forced all-in by the blinds, only for his A-10 to succumb to TJ Cloutier’s trip sevens on the turn. And Antonio Esfandiari takes out Scott Fischman to meet Hellmuth in the next round.

With possibly the toughest path to the final four, Esfandiari really brought his A-Game to this tournament. After making a seemingly impossible comeback from 900 chips versus 39,100 for Howard Lederer, the ‘Magician’ not only felted the ‘Professor’, but also Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, and Fischman to make it to round five. However, Houdini couldn’t have escaped the set of fours Hellmuth flopped against Esfandiari’s top pair in their semi-final match up, putting an end to the Magician’s run. Antonio must be one popular guy, as his cheering section was one of the largest, and included Hollywood hottie and personal friend, Shannon Elizabeth. Antonio went away with a cool $125,000 for his efforts and Hellmuth went through to the final.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Chris Ferguson took two and a half hours to bust out TJ Cloutier in a meeting reminiscent of the their battle for the 2000 WSOP title, joining Hellmuth at the Championship table.

The final kicked off around 2.00am and the crowd, which was overwhelmingly behind Ferguson, was moved around the table so they could view the action from close quarters. The players would play for the best out of three games, in what well may become one of the classic all-time showdowns. Phil won the first match relatively easily, but flipped out completely after losing the second on a 4-outer, when Chris made a boat on the river to top Phil’s nut straight. More divine intervention? It was enough to make Hellmuth fall out of his seat. Fuming, he picked himself, stormed off the set and appeared to go missing, prompting some intense nail biting from the show’s producers. Several minutes later, he was retrieved by the TV crew and persuaded to retake his seat for the final showdown.

Chris quickly took a decisive lead in the third set, working his chip count up to over a million to Phil’s 200k, but Phil ground his way back through sheer determination. Phil seemed to be cheering up – enjoying himself, even. After forcing Chris to fold with an all-in bet, he flashed his rags to Gus Hansen, who quipped, “Now you’re learning.” Later, Phil would show Gus an 8-4 offsuit, the very hand with which Gus had eliminated Curtis Bibb by catching a flush. Hansen complained: “Those are my cards; you don’t know how to play those cards.”

Soon Phil had taken a big lead. With his stack dwindling, Chris went all-in on pocket twos. Phil decided to call with 6-4 offsuit, and caught a six on the board with only the river to go. NBC were busy making out the $500,000 check to P. Hellmuth, esq., when Jesus caught another miracle two on the river. ‘Jesus Christ!’ thinks Phil…

Everybody went crazy, except, for once, Phil. “I knew he had the better hand going in, even if I had the advantage on the turn, so it’s not going to upset me,” he shrugged philosophically.

A few hands later Chris went all-in again with A-J, but Phil had the better hand, A-Q, and this time it held up. Hellmuth erupted. You could sense his relief as he leapt over to shake Ferguson’s hand. It’s been a while coming, but the enfant terrible (these days less of the enfant but still terrible) of the poker world is back, and Phil Hellmuth is crowned National Heads-up King. “I was beginning to think the poker world had forgotten about me,” he said later, after buying bottles of Dom Perignon for the audience.

How could we ever forget you, Phil?

We admit we were a little sceptical about the idea at first, but Bluff declares the first ever NBC National Heads-up Poker Championships to be a resounding success. The excitement of the format and the professionalism with which the event was produced blew us away. What is interesting is to see how TV develops new concepts – this is poker
distilled into its most watchable, entertaining form – personality-driven and packed full of incident, it’s unmissable.

For information, visit www.headsuppokerchamp.com. The tournament is scheduled to begin airing on NBC on Sunday May 1, 2005.

Sunday, May 1 • 12:00 - 1:00pm ET
Saturday, May 7 • 3:30 - 5:00pm ET
Sunday, May 8 • 12:00 - 1:00pm ET
Sunday, May 15 • 12:00 - 1:00pm ET
Saturday, May 21 • 3:30 - 5:00pm ET
Sunday, May 22 • 1:00 - 3:00pm ET

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