March 2009 Archives

Vanessa Rousso had pocket 7s and they held as she beat ElkY and advanced to the finals. Rousso is the first female player to reach the Heads-Up final.

Another office pool has started up for those of us who were basically useless during the main pool. The talented Mr. JH, aka our Commissioner, has made some strict rules for this one with time ending and amount of games played in the finals being a tiebreaker.

I've gone with Farha over ElkY in two games and ending at 8:52. Our commissioner doesn't participate in pools he runs... but that's a story for another time.

Matches to start around 3:45 p.m. PT

Grospellier vs. Rousso
Farha vs. Seed

ElkY's pocket rockets held up against Hellmuth's pocket queens. It happened in the fifth hand. Last year Hellmuth's pocket aces didn't hold up against Tom Dwan's pocket 10s in the first round. That match lasted three hands.

Grospellier advances to the Semifinals to face the winner of Rousso - Negreanu.

Two solid matchups with Vanessa Rousso facing Negreanu and ElkY taking on Hellmuth.

Hellmuth's the winner of the inaugural Heads-Up Championship, while Rousso looks to be the second woman to make the semifinals.

In another quick match, Heads-Up's most consistent player, Huck Seed, defeated David Oppenheim when he pulled trip 8s on the turn. Seed now faces Sam Farha in the Semis.

Quarterfinals in the Hearts and Diamonds bracket is about to begin.

Of note... in the office pool of 26 players, run by the often imitated and absolutely never duplicated Commissioner extraordinaire JH, no one picked Hellmuth to win it all. Actually, of the players left... one person picked Seed and one took Negreanu. Everyone else's champ is gone.

11 a.m. PT
Hearts and Diamonds
David Williams vs. Sam Farha
David Oppenheim vs. Huck Seed

1:30 p.m. PT
Clubs and Spades
Vanessa Rousso vs. Daniel Negreanu
Bertrand Grospellier vs. Phil Hellmuth

Newly-named GoDaddy.com girl Vanessa Rousso continued her strong run, taking out 2007 Heads-Up champ Paul Wasicka. Rousso will play Daniel Negreanu in the Quarterfinals.

Rousso's gotten through a tough road, beating Hall of Famer Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and now Wasicka.

Daniel Negreanu makes a grand appearance to his Round of 16 match as he comes dressed as his opponent, Scotty Nguyen.

Kid Poker's dressed in the white suit with a wig, glasses and suit to match. Plus, he has Scotty's traditional gold chains draped around his neck and throwing out a lot of "Baby's". Everyone's enjoying the show and no one more than Scotty himself.

Featured table
Phil Hellmuth vs. Tom Dwan (Spades) - rematch of last year's first round match in which Dwan went all-in pre-flop with pocket 10s and Hellmuth called with pocket rockets. Dwan sucked out and knocked out Hellmuth.

Clubs
Wasicka vs. Rousso
Nguyen vs. Negreanu

Spades
Juanda vs. Grospellier

Quarterfinals

Hearts
Williams vs. Farha

Diamonds
Oppenheim vs. Seed

Here are the upcoming matchups, starting at 7 p.m. PT

Hearts
Lindgren vs. Williams
Phan vs. Farha

Diamonds
Tran vs. Oppenheim
Seed vs. Chorny

Erick and David will be at the featured table. Meanwhile, Seed is the only player in Heads-Up Championship history to cash in all five events.

Matchups for the third round of the Clubs and Spades bracket:

Clubs
Wasicka vs. Rousso
Nguyen vs. Negreanu

Spades
Juanda vs. Grospellier
Hellmuth vs. Dwan

Updated Brackets

Phil Hellmuth handled qualifier Jeffrey Ishbia, John Juanda beat Gabe Kaplan and Scotty Nguyen got the best of Ted Forrest.

The Hellmuth win sets up a rematch of last year's memorable first-round matchup as Tom Dwan beat Phil Hellmuth as his pocket 10s beat Hellmuth's pocket aces.

Daniel Negreanu finished off Dario Minieri and Bernard (ElkY) Grospellier defeated Ilari Sahamies to get into the third round.

Negreanu will face the winner of Nguyen - Forrest while ElkY will play the Kaplan - Juanda winner.

Daniel Negreanu faces Dario Minieri in the Clubs bracket at the featured table which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. PT. Other matches are:

Clubs
Cheadle vs. Wasicka
Ivey vs. Rousso
Nguyen vs. Forrest

Spades
Kaplan vs. Juanda
Sahamies vs. Grospellier
Ishbia vs. Hellmuth
Dwan vs. Greenstein

David Williams defeated Scott Fischman and advanced to the Round of 16. Here are the third round matchups in the Hearts and Diamonds brackets.

Hearts
Lindgren vs. Williams
J. Phan vs. Farha

Diamonds
K. Tran vs. Oppenheim
Seed vs. Chorny

Updated brackets

Gus Hansen, Phil Laak and Jerry Yang were the first losers on Day 2. Hansen lost to Huck Seed, Laak to David Oppenheim and Yang lost to John Phan. Seed has now cashed in all five Heads-Up Championships.

Play is almost underway with Gus Hansen and Huck Seed playing at the featured table in the Diamonds bracket.

Other early second-round matches:

Diamonds
Brad Garrett vs. Glen Chorny
David Oppenheim vs. Phil Laak
Kenny Tran vs. Antonio Esfandiari

Hearts
Eli Elezra vs. Erick Lindgren
David Williams vs. Scott Fischman
John Phan vs. Jerry Yang
Sam Farha vs. Peter Eastgate

Second Round

Hearts and Diamonds: 1:30 p.m. PT

Clubs and Spades: 4 p.m. PT

Round of 16

Hearts and Diamonds: 7 p.m. PT

Clubs and Spades: 9:30 p.m. PT

Actor/comedian/poker pro Gabe Kaplan beat 2008 Heads-Up Champion Chris Ferguson. Kaplan will face John Juanda in the second round.

Ilari Sahmies took out Gavin Smith and Barry Greenstein defeated Blandino Gines as both advance to the second round.

In a matchup of qualifiers, Jeffrey Ishbia beat Leon Yanovski.

Phil Hellmuth faces Mike Matusow at the featured table... here's the rest of the matchups as the bracket is about to begin.

Kaplan vs. Ferguson
Juanda vs. Hachem
Sahamies vs. G. Smith
Collins vs. Grospellier
Ishbia vs. Yanovski
Griffin vs. Dwan
Greenstein vs. Gines

Here are the matchups for Friday's second round of the Clubs bracket:

Cheadle vs. Wasicka
Ivey vs. Rousso
Nguyen vs. Forrest
Negreanu vs. Minieri

Mike Matusow couldn't find a way to get past Italy's Dario Minieri. Minieri advances to the second round and will now play Daniel Negreanu.

2006 Heads-Up Champion Ted Forrest took out last year's surprise of the tournament, former MLB pitcher Orel Hershiser. Forrest will take on the winner of Scotty Nguyen and Hevad Khan.

In the Clubs bracket, Phil Ivey took out Jennifer Tilly and Vanessa Rousso finished off Doyle Brunson. Ivey and Rousso will now play in the second round.

Huge names take center stage in the first round of the Clubs bracket.

Here's the matchups:

Cheadle vs. D. Pham
Wasicka vs. N. Joy
Tilly vs. Ivey
Brunson vs. Rousso
Khan vs. Nguyen
Forrest vs. Hershiser
Negreanu vs. Moneymaker
Matusow vs. Minieri

Here's the second round matchups for the Diamonds bracket:

K. Tran vs. Harman
Laak vs. Oppenheim
Hansen vs. Seed
Chorny vs. Garrett

In one of the most entertaining matches to this point, Phil Laak outlasted online qualifier Kenny Yeh. Yeh got animated, had the crowd rolling and had a big chip lead at one point until Laak's two pair (kings and queens) held out.

Actor/comedian Brad Garrett defeated poker pro and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Annie Duke in the featured match in the first round of the Diamonds bracket.

Also advancing was Gus Hansen who defeated David Benyamine.

Here we go with the second bracket will the Brad Garrett - Annie Duke matchup as the obvious headline match, plus Kenny Tran vs. Antonio Esfandiari.

K. Tran vs. Esfandari
Raymer vs. Harman
Yeh vs. Laak
Selbst vs. Oppenheim
Benyamine vs. Hansen
Seed vs. Little
C. Brown vs. Chorny
Garrett vs. Duke

David Williams moved on past J.C. Tran and that match ended the first round of the Hearts bracket.

Hearts 2nd round matches:

Elezra vs. Lindgren
David Williams vs. Scott Fischman
John Phan vs. Jerry Yang
Sam Farha vs. Peter Eastgate

Diamonds bracket scheduled to start at 4 p.m. PT.

Scott Fischman held off Jamie Gold to keep alive his hopes of cashing for the fifth straight Heads-Up Championship.

In another match, Clonie Gowen went all in with 10, 3 and Jerry Yang called with Ace, 8... and that was the end of that. Yang now faces John Phan in the second round.

Advancing...

Elezra, Lindgren, J. Phan, Farha and Eastgate.

Remaining tables...

J.C. Tran vs. David Williams
Jamie Gold vs. Scott Fischman
Jerry Yang vs. Clonie Gowen

Johnny Chan and Eli Elezra make up the feature table in a matchup of a couple of veterans. Here's the rest of the Hearts bracket.

Lindgren vs. Lederer
Gold vs. Fischman
J.C. Tran vs. D. Williams
Seidel vs. J. Phan
Yang vs. Gowen
Cunningham vs. Farha
Bloch vs. Eastgate

Didn't get to go to the Godaddy.com Draw Party at PURE. Check out some of what you've missed.

Draw Party images

The Hearts Bracket begins the Championship. Check out the times (approximate).
Friday's first-round times:

Hearts: 1:30 p.m. PT
Diamonds: 4 p.m. PT
Clubs: 7 p.m. PT
Spades: 9:30 p.m. PT

Complete Brackets

Television star Brad Garrett will face Apprentice constestant Annie Duke in the Diamonds bracket of the first round.

Other notable matches:

Clubs Bracket
Brunson vs. Rousso
Negreanu vs. Moneymaker
Forrest vs. Hershiser
Matusow vs. Minieri

Spades Bracket
Kaplan vs. Ferguson
Juanda vs. Hachem
Sexton vs. Hellmuth

Hearts Bracket
Chan vs. Elezra
Lindgren vs. Lederer
Gold vs. Fischman
J.C. Tran vs. D. Williams

Diamonds Bracket
Raymer vs. Harman
Benyamine vs. Hansen
K. Tran vs. Esfandiari

Complete Brackets

Watch it live and then then check back when it's over for complete brackets.

The party's at PURE in Caesars Palace and should make for an entertaining night. Steam goes from 10 p.m. PT until the brackets are filled and the party is over.

LIVE Draw Party

Hard to forget Hevad Khan from the 2007 World Series Main Event. And now we'll see if he uses those antics in Heads-Up as he'll replace Ivan Demidov.

More on Khan