Ted Forrest Wins NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

Sixty-four of the world's best poker players were invited to participate in the $20,000 buy-in NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. It was structured like the NCAA basketball tournament. If you lost, you went home, and if you won, you moved on to the next round. Jamie Horowitz and John Miller from NBC, consultants Mori Eskandani and Eric Drache, and Caesars Palace put on an amazing event, which started with pairing the players in 32 matches. I drew T.J. Cloutier for my first match and lost, so I was out.

There are a few things about heads-up play that make it different than normal poker. First of all, nobody is a huge favorite. The best poker pro isn't that much of a favorite over another pro. In this specific event, no one should be more than a 7-5 favorite over anyone else. As Mike Sexton said on CardPlayer.com's radio show The Circuit, most matches will come down to a race situation for most of the chips, and most of the time, a pair will be a 6-5 favorite versus two overcards. Until that point, it is like a boxing match, with stealing blinds being like trading jabs. Another point that I would like to make is that there is much more pressure. In a standard tournament you can sit back if you feel like it, and by the time you get heads up, you already have been playing with the opponent for hours, if not days. When playing in a heads-up event, it is a battle from the first hand, and there is not any time to sit around or else you'll be out. The intensity is awesome, and everything seems personal because you are involved in every hand. There is absolutely no room for going on tilt, not even for a hand (unless you tilt your way to a winning hand that ends your tilt on the spot).

The final 16 players made the money, and the final eight made the final day. The quarterfinal matches were Daniel Negreanu versus Sean Sheikhan, Ted Forrest versus Sammy Farha, Huck Seed versus Barry Greenstein, and Chris Ferguson versus Jim McManus. Sean and Ted advanced to the semifinals, as did Chris and Huck. Chris beat Huck and Ted beat Sean to set the stage for the finals. How can a poker fan ask for more? Chris made it to the championship last year, which he lost to Phil Hellmuth. Also, his tournament results are tremendous, as evidenced by his record when getting heads up in big events. Thus, advancing to the championship two years in a row is worthy of a standing ovation. Ted, on the other hand, has been great at heads-up live play for years, and has his fair share of tournament wins. The best-of-three match started with a win for Chris, but Ted did not give up and won two games in a row to become the champion. This has to be more satisfying than winning a normal tournament, because the winner is personally responsible for eliminating all opponents.