April 2007 Archives

NBC will present taped coverage of the fourth installment of its ultimate big-stakes poker showdown, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by Outback Steakhouse, from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas Sunday at Noon ET/ 3 p.m. PT. The show will feature a match up between two of pokers most decorated and entertaining players "The Godfather of Costa Rican Players" Humberto Brenes and "The Unabomber" Phil Laak.

The other feature tables will include Bluff Magazine's 2006 Player of the Year Chad Brown; 2006 Toyota World Series of Poker Player of the Year Jeff Madsen; World Poker Tour invitational winner Scott Fischman; along with Ocean's Eleven actor Don Cheadle and American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth; both are the first celebrities in National Heads-Up Poker history to advance past the first round.

Remaining 2007 National Heads Up Poker Schedule:
April 29: Noon-2 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 6: Noon- 2 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 13: Noon- 2 p.m.ET (4 p.m. PT)
May 20: Noon-3 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is a unique, head-to-head, single-elimination tournament with 64 players competing for the $1.5 million purse.

By Dennis Oehring

In what turned out to be the longest match of the first season of Poker After Dark, John Juanda emerged victorious by besting five other top players over the course of roughly seven hours. The heads-up play between Juanda and Allen Cunningham alone lasted more than two hours, with the blinds reaching $4000/$8000, unprecedented in any previous match, before Juanda finally was able to deliver the knockout blow and win the $120,000 winner-take-all prize.

The match began with an interesting mix of six players, but by the end of the second episode, only three remained. Joining Juanda and Cunningham at the table were David Benyamine, Barry Greenstein, Shawn Sheikhan, and Mike Matusow, formidable competitors all with contrasting personalities and styles of play.

The first player to exit was Greenstein, who found himself all in preflop holding an A Q against Cunningham's pocket kings. Barry did not improve, and the match quickly became five-handed.

Matusow then put all his chips in the middle after flopping top pair (jacks) against Cunningham's pocket nines. A 91% favorite to win the hand at that point, Matusow showed why he sometimes believes he's the unluckiest player in the world when a nine fell on the turn to give Cunningham a set, leaving Matusow drawing dead. Allen had now eliminated two players with the blinds still at $150/$300.

One of the match's most interesting hands occurred between Benyamine and Sheikhan. With the blinds at $200/$400, David limped in from the small blind with the 10 5 of spades, and Sheikhan checked in the big blind with an offsuit Q 2. The flop was Q 10 10, pairing Sheiky's queen but giving Benyamine trip tens. Benyamine looked to be in great shape after a round of betting and raising between the two players, but another queen on the turn gave Sheikhan queens full and David was dead to the case ten. Both players checked the turn, and unbelievably the case queen fell on the river giving Sheiky quads. David moved all in, and Sheikhan instantly called flipping over his queen to send Benyamine out in 4th place.

Sheikhan now had the chip lead, but over the course of the next two episodes, that lead would erode as both Juanda and Cunningham whittled away at Sheiky's chips and took turns having the chip advantage. Sheiky would eventually be eliminated by Juanda, leaving John and Allen to battle heads-up for the $120,000.

Juanda found himself with a commanding 5:1 chip lead over Cunningham early in their heads-up battle, only to see Allen rally back and later reclaim the lead. Momentum, however, shifted back to Juanda, and he eventually forced Cunningham to put all of his remaining chips in the middle preflop while holding a Q 4 to John's K 5. A king on the flop turned out to be all Juanda needed to seal the victory.

NBC will present taped coverage of the third installment of its ultimate big-stakes poker showdown, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by Outback Steakhouse, from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas Sunday at Noon ET/ 3 p.m. PT.

The show will feature several top name poker pros including 2003 World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker; 2007 Aussie Millions winner Gus Hansen; 2004 World Series of Poker champion Greg Raymer; Poker Hall of Famer Chip Reese; 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem; and poker's best dressed player Sam Farha along with American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth and Rene Angelil, husband and manager of pop superstar Celine Dion.

Remaining 2007 National Heads Up Poker Schedule:
April 22: Noon-1 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
April 29: Noon-1 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 6: Noon- 2 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 13: Noon- 2 p.m.ET (4 p.m. PT)
May 20: Noon-3 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is a unique, head-to-head, single-elimination tournament with 64 players competing for the $1.5 million purse.

NBC will present the taped coverage of the second installment of its ultimate big-stakes poker showdown - the National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by Outback Steakhouse from Caesars Palace, Las Vegas this Sunday at Noon ET, 3 p.m. PT. This show will kick off the Diamonds Bracket featuring several top name poker pros including 2005 and 2006 Heads-Up Poker runner up Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, five-time World Series of Poker winner Phil Ivey, and highly regarded television poker commentator and analyst Howard Lederer, along with Academy Award and Golden Globe Nominated Actor Don Cheadle and comedian/poker analyst Gabe Kaplan, Mr. Kotter, from TVs "Welcome Back, Kotter."

This week will also highlight the first-ever female match up in National Heads-Up Poker history between two of poker's leading ladies, Kristy Gazes and Clonie Gowen.

Remaining 2007 National Heads Up Poker Schedule:
April15: Noon-1 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
April 22: Noon-1 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
April 29 from Noon-1 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 6 from Noon- 2 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)
May 13 from Noon- 2p.m.ET (4 p.m. PT)
May 20 from 12-3 p.m. ET (3 p.m. PT)

In this week's first episode of NBC's National Heads-Up Championship, Daniel Negreanu faces Mike Matusow in a classic first round match.

In other matches this Sunday (Noon ET/3 pm PT on NBC), Johnny Chan goes up against J.C. Tran, Jennifer Tilly vs. Jamie Gold, Mike Mizrachi vs. John Juanda and much more.