The Championship match has brought a number of notable names back to the tournament room, including Andy Bloch, Huck Seed, Allen Cunningham, Melissa Hayden, Joe Reitman, and Emily Jillette.
It doesn't appear that anyone in this crowd is rooting for one player over another. Instead, they seem to be rooting equally for both Annie Duke and Erik Seidel.
We're all square after the first two matches in this best of three battle for the championship, which means we're down to our final confrontation of the tournament. The winner here will walk away with the title and $500,000 in prize money while the second-place finisher will leave with memories of what could have been and a $250,000 consolation prize.
Well, we're going to the rubber match here at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. A short-stacked Annie Duke moved all in with and was called by Erik Seidel, who showed .
The audience members sprang to their feet and rushed the stage to watch the dealer produce a flop of of . Duke was still in the lead with king-high but Seidel had an up-and-down straight draw. That draw filled when the turn came , but Duke picked up a draw of her own to a flush. She needed a heart to continue Match No. 2, but the river fell . Seidel has knotted the finals at one match apiece.
Annie Duke moved all in preflop holding and got called by Erik Seidel who held .
Duke then out-flopped Seidel when the board came , giving her a pair and putting her in the lead. The on the turn gave her two pair and the meaningless on the river gave her the pot and a crucial double up.
Annie Duke has just been crippled in this second match. Both she and Erik Seidel checked a flop of . On the turn Duke led out with a bet that Seidel raised. Duke pondered her action for a few seconds before calling.
On the river Duke checked, leading Seidel to make a big bet. Duke held her head in her hands and tanked for more than a minute before calling. Seidel showed for trip deuces to take down the pot.
Without anyone announcing the action and the monitors turned off while Leann Tweeden filmed an interview with Andy Bloch, it's been almost impossible for us to keep up with the action over the past 10 minutes.
From what we can tell, Seidel has won the majority of the hands as his chip lead looks to have increased significantly over a now short-stacked Duke.
At the moment there's nobody announcing the action on the stage, which is making it difficult for us to follow what's going on. But Annie Duke and Erik Seidel went to another showdown, and when all was said and done the pot was pushed to Seidel. He appears to have opened up a 2-to-1 chip lead on Annie Duke in this second match.
Producers are wasting no time between matches here at the final table. After a short five-minute break for the players - and the Centurions - players have returned for what may be our final heads-up battle of the day.