NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

The final eight players in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship met yesterday at Caesars Palace to play down to a single winner for the $500,000 first place prize. The first four matches determined the winner in each individual bracket and a trip to the final four. 

In the first set of matches, Huck Seed took out David Oppenheim to advance. David Williams got all of his money in on a board of Q-Q-6-4-10 against Sam Farha and showed Q-6 for a flopped full house. However, Farha turned up Q-10 for a rivered better full house. Farha had Williams covered and moved on the next round.

The final two matches of the elite eight saw poker superstars Daniel Negreanu and Phil Helmuth trying to advance against their respective opponents. However, neither one of them was able to move on. Helmuth was knocked out on only the fifth hand of heads-up play when he moved all in with pocket queens only to get a call from Bertrand Grospellier and his pocket aces. Grospelliers aces held and he advanced on. Negreanu was eliminated when his two pair could not improve against the full house of Vanessa Rousso. The players eliminated in the round of eight earned $75,000.

Rousso continued her hot streak in the final four by taking out Grospellier. Meanwhile, Seed and Farha traded chips back and forth until Seed was finally and to take out Farha to earn a spot in the final two. Grospellier and Farha went home with $125,000 extra dollars.

Vannesa Rousso and Huck Seed then squared off in a best of three heads-up match. Seed took the first match after a short-stacked Rousso moved in with Q-J. Seed made the call with K-J and his king high played. The second match didn’t go much better for PokerStar.net pro Rousso. In less than an hour, Seed proceeded to whittle her down until he finally eliminated her with top pair against Rousso’s second pair.

Huck Seed adds another prestigious win to his resume to go along with his 1996 WSOP Main Event title and four WSOP bracelets. He earns the title of National Heads-Up Champion and $500,000. Vanessa Rousso takes home $250,000 for her runner-up finish.