2010 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

$20,000 Heads-up Championship
Day: 1
Event Info

2010 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
99
Prize
$500,000
Event Info
Buy-in
$20,000
Prize Pool
$1,280,000
Entries
64

Annie Beats Andy in Raggedy Battle

Annie Duke
Annie Duke
Andy Bloch had ceded some ground to his good friend Annie Duke in their match. Bloch raised the button, then called all in when Duke made a large re-raise. They were racing.

Duke: {10-Hearts} {10-Spades}
Bloch: {K-Diamonds} {Q-Diamonds}

Bloch took the lead by pairing kings on the flop, {3-Spades} {3-Clubs} {K-Spades}. The {4-Diamonds} on the turn changed nothing, but a wave of excitement rippled through the crowd when the river fell an unlikely {10-Clubs} to give Duke the pot and the match.

"Oh my," bellowed Mike Matusow. "Annie Duke never hits a card like that. That's not possible."

"Only against Andy Bloch," Duke replied with a laugh.

She walked around the table to give Bloch a hug and then left for a quick exit interview with Leann Tweeden. Duke will return tomorrow; Bloch will not.

Tags: Andy BlochAnnie Duke

Wasicka Wins

Wasicka - moving on to the Round of 32
Wasicka - moving on to the Round of 32
Online qualifier Andrew Wilson played very well to get this far. Unfortunately, he drew former second-place finisher Paul Wasicka in the first round and couldn't find a way to advance.

Wilson raised to start the hand and Wasicka re-raised all in. Wilson called with {Q-Clubs}{J-Clubs} and was only a slight dog to Wasicka's {A-Diamonds}{3-Spades}. The flop was no help to Wilson, coming {9-Diamonds}{4-Hearts}{6-Spades}. The {9-Clubs} on the turn and {10-Spades} on the river also failed to help Wilson who quietly left the room while Wasicka got a congratulatory hug from his sister.

Hansen, Late to Set, Among First to Win

Greg Raymer - busto
Greg Raymer - busto
Gus Hansen showed up to the set late enough that he missed the Diamonds Bracket group photo. But that didn't stop him from taking down Greg Raymer as the second match to end in this group. Gus check-raised the shorter-stacked Raymer all in on a flop of {K-?} {Q-?} {6-?}. Raymer called with an up-and-down straight draw, {J-Hearts} {10-Diamonds}, and discovered he had additional outs against Hansen's {6-Spades} {3-Clubs}, bottom pair. Hansen turned two pair by catching a {3-?}, leaving Raymer drawing only at a straight. He missed it with the river {7-?}.

Hansen comes back tomorrow while Raymer's 2010 Heads-Up tourney ends in the Round of 64.

Tags: Greg RaymerGus Hansen

The Magician Disappears

Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari
In what turned out to be a very short feature table match, Sammy Farha made quick work of Antonio Esfandiari.

Esfandiari moved all in with {A-?}{5-?} and got called by Farha who had him dominated with {A-Hearts}{10-Hearts}. When MOC announced Esfandiari's hand, Mike Matusow mis-heard him.

"Wow, Antonio. You got it in with 8-5?" Matusow asked. Esfandiari quickly corrected him before calling for, "Five, one time!"

Both players caught top pair on a flop of
{A-Spades}{9-Spades}{6-Hearts}. The {9-Hearts} on the turn meant that fives were no longer good for Esfandiari, and he changed his call for a king, queen or jack to chop the pot. "Five's no good," he told someone in the crow.

The {7-Diamonds} held no magic though, and Farha moves on to tomorrow.

Double Bracelet Winner?

Yang's wrist must be strong to sport all that bling.
Yang's wrist must be strong to sport all that bling.
Jerry Yang showed up to the tourney dressed all in black and sporting a lot of bling in the form of his WSOP Main Event bracelet and a second gold bracelet that we can't identify at this time.

Bits of Color

Vanessa's heavily wrapped foot
Vanessa's heavily wrapped foot
While the action heats up, we have a few minutes to make some observations about the players in this round.

The "always well dressed" Sammy Farha showed up for his match in jeans and a gray sweater while his opponent, Antonio Esfandiari, is wearing a pink shirt so bright its likely to blow out the color on your high-def TV next month.

Meanwhile, Vanessa Rousso hobbled to her table with her right ankle bandaged tightly. According to Barry Greenstein's twitter, she fell and sprained it about an hour before the match.

In the Room

A few folks have come out to sweat their friends in this round of the tourney. Familiar faces in the crowd include Shawn Rice and Phil Gordon (both playing in the Spades bracket) who are here sweating Annie Duke and Andy Bloch in their heads-up match. Also cheering Annie on is her boyfriend Joe Reitman.

A crowd of about seven people in neon red and green baseball caps are taking up a chunk of bleacher real estate as they root on Vanessa Rousso in her first-round match against Barry Greenstein.

We're Back

Cards are in the air as players in the Diamonds bracket begin their quest to reach the round of 32.

While this is the second round of play in today's event, it will be the last shown when the NBC National Heads-Up Championship is broadcast next month.

Break Time

The tournament will be on a short break now with the conclusion of the Clubs Bracket Round of 64 matches. When we return at 4pm local time, the Diamonds Bracket players will take their seats. This is the bracket that promises the most Day 1 excitement:

Feature Table

Sam Farha v. Antonio Esfandiari

Outer Tables

Barry Greenstein v. Vanessa Rousso
Jennifer Harman v. Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang v. Mike Matusow
Darvin Moon v. Bill Huntress
Andy Bloch v. Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson v. Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen v. Greg Raymer

Lindgren Survives to End Clubs Matches

Erick Lindgren
Erick Lindgren
A ripple of astonishment went through the crowd when Erick Lindgren and Dan Ramirez finally got all the chips in. Incredibly, both showed up with a premium hand! Lindgren tabled {A-Clubs} {k-Spades} while Ramirez showed down {Q-Clubs} {Q-Spades}.

"I was trapping him," joked Lindgren.

With the crowd on its feet, it was Lindgren who hit the flop, pairing kings {k-Spades} {9-Clubs} {4-Clubs}. He made two pair with the turn {A-Diamonds} and was on to Day 2 when the river bricked {5-Diamonds}. It was a crushing defeat for the qualifier Ramirez, who literally took the tough Lindgren all the way to the wire.