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Vanessa Selbst and Erik Seidel wasted little time getting the chips in the middle a second time. Selbst got her hand caught in the cookie jar a bit when her 
ran into Seidel's 
. Seidel's pre-flop nuts turned into the flopped nuts, 
. Selbst needed running cards to close out the match. The 
turn gave her an inside straight draw, but that draw didn't materialize on the 
river.
Seidel once again has the lead in the match.
Erik Seidel doubled with aces to take the lead, but after dropping a few rounds of very expensive blinds, he was down a few chips to Vanessa Selbst. They saw a 
flop, and Seidel moved all in with 
for top pair. Selbst needed a seven of a king to win with her 
. The 
turn improved Seidel to trips and took away kings from Selbst. That was fortunate for Seidel since the river brought the no-longer-useful 
. Seidel now has a giant lead.
Losing that last pot crippled Vanessa Selbst to about 50,000 in chips. She put them in on the next hand with 
. Erik Seidel made an easy call with 
, then flopped trip aces, 
, to leave Selbst drawing almost dead. The turn 
left Selbst without any outs. She's been eliminated from the tournament here in the quarterfinals and will earn $75,000 and a chance to hurry home and late-register for today's online tournaments.
Seidel has moved to the back table to watch an all-in play out between Andrew Robl and David Benyamine.
Andrew Robl and David Benyamine were all in preflop and stuck waiting for Leeann Tweeden to finish filming her interview with Erik Seidel and Vanessa Selbst. Robl and Benyamine looked pretty calm, while their rails needed a few deep breaths.
Robl had a slight lead in the match and big lead in the hand. His 
needed to hold against Benyamine's for him to advance to the semifinals. The 
flop stole an out from Benyamine. The turn gave him hope for a chop. But the 
on the river made Robl the nuts, locking up his spot in the round of four. Benyamine takes home $75,000.
Four rounds of play at the 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship have produced four kings, one for each suited bracket. 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel beat Melburn Whitmire, Antonio Esfandiari, Ayaz Mahmood and Olivier Busquet to come through the Clubs Bracket. Over in the Spades Bracket, 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker had to get past John Racener, Daniel Cates, Doyle Brunson and David Oppenheim.
On the red side of the ledger, Andrew Robl bested Kara Scott, Emmitt Smith, 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event winner James Bord and David Benyamine in the Hearts Bracket. And in Diamonds, Erik Seidel overcame Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon and Vanessa Selbst to secure his semifinal spot.
The tournament is now on a one-hour break. The crew will return at 3:30pm; we thus anticipate cards in the air for both semifinal matches at about 3:45pm. See you then.
The semifinal matches are underway with Chris Moneymaker v. Jonathan Duhamel on the feature table and Andrew Robl v. Erik Seidel on the other. An extra row of chairs has been added on both sides of the set to allow room for more spectators. Competitors Vanessa Selbst and Greg Raymer are on the rail along with the players family and friends and plenty of poker fans.
Host Leeann Tweeden has been changing outfits for each round of the tournament since each will be aired as a separate episode. For the first three rounds, she stuck to black dresses with various levels of skin and sparkles, but always covered with a shawl or sweater. This morning, Tweeden broke out of the demure attire with an elegant emerald cleavage-baring sleeveless number. But for the semifinals, she is back in mourning garb, albeit with a Vegas twist. She's now wearing a black dress decorated with black sequins that comes up to her neck and has sleeves to her elbows. Better be careful. If NBC takes too much of the sex appeal out of poker, Doyle might retire.
Erik Seidel had fallen behind Andrew Robl early in their match. They saw a 
flop, then Seidel got his whole stack in on the turn. Robl called with to see that his flopped top pair had been out-turned by Seidel's 
. The 
on the river was uneventful and Seidel doubled up. Seidel now leads by around 5-3.
It looks like the battle of WSOP Main Event champions currently favors Chris Moneymaker by at least a 3-1 margin. Jonathan Duhamel is short enough that he recently opted to open-shove his button pre-flop.
"How much is it?" Moneymaker asked. We couldn't hear the response. Moneymaker puffed out his cheeks, sighed and folded.
