National Heads-Up Poker Championship Goes From Elite Eight To The Last Two

Today featured more tense stand-offs between the last sixteen (then eight, then four) NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship competitors. The obvious result was a handful of worthy victors and a whole roomful of equally worthy losers. In the beginning of the tournament, the 64 entrants were divided into four brackets, with each attached to a specific suit of cards. As of today, we now knowwhich pro is representing each bracket.

Here’s how the Round 3 match-ups went down. In the clubs bracket, it was Olivier Busquet vs Jason Mercier and Ayaz Mahmood vs Jonathan Duhamel. Busquet and Duhamel won their matches and then faced off to represent the clubs bracket Next was the spades bracket which saw two of the round’s most exciting match-ups: Doyle Brunson against Chris Moneymaker and David Oppenheim against Eugene Katchalov. Moneymaker dealt Texas Dolly a surprise upset and went on to compete against Oppenheim.

Now for the red brackets. In the hearts bracket Andrew Robl eliminated James Bord to go up against David Benyamine who also had a serious score against Michael Mizrachi. The diamonds bracket was also one to watch with last lady standing Vanessa Selbst squaring up against Phil Galfond and with last year’s runner-up Erik Seidel taking on Phil Gordon. Selbst and Seidel both emerged victorious and then were set against each other. Round three’s eight eliminated players received $30,000 for their efforts while the remaining quarterfinalists played into the night to determine the final four.

This afternoon we saw the Elite Eight whittled down to four and then just two. In the diamonds bracket Erik Seidel defeated Vanessa Selbst in the day’s featured match. Meanwhile Andrew Robl dealt David Benyamine an equally sorry loss to win the hearts bracket. In the spades bracket Moneymaker continued to gain momentum, putting David Oppenheim’s heads-up hopes to rest while in the clubs bracket Duhamel bested Busquet.

Already now the final four have become just two. Chris Moneymaker, representing the spades bracket, continued to dominate and will now represent the black brackets after downing clubs bracket winner Jonathan Duhamel. On the other side of the board it was diamonds bracket winner and tournament favorite Erik Seidel against hearts bracket winner Andrew Robl. No offense to Robl, but Seidel’s victory in this match seemed obvious. Now it’s David vs Goliath as underdog Chris Moneymaker faces off against tried and true Erik Seidel for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship title and $750,000 in prize money.

Related Entries