Annie Duke Wins the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

Submitted by Luckylizzy on Mon, 2010-03-08 15:37

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The 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship has drawn to a close and one lucky lady, Annie Duke, has added her name to the elite list of champions becoming the first female ever to walk away with the title and the $500,000 prize.

Her path to victory wasn’t an easy one. To make it into the top sixteen she had to face off against the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up champion Paul Wasicka in what was called the most exciting single match of the tournament. She also had to beat out such players as Darvin Moon, Jerry Yang and Dennis Phillips to make it to the final two.

For many her win comes as a major surprise. This is her fifth appearance on the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and prior to last weekend’s competition she had only been ever able to walk away from the contest with a single win.

Duke and Seidel who have been known as friends in the past played a best-of-three final match. The first round went to Duke who used her aggressive playing style to back Seidel into a corner, forcing him to go all in on a 8s 6s with Ks Js 7d on the initial flop. Duke held an As Kd and as luck would have it the rest of the flop would reveal a Jh Ah leaving her with pair Aces and an initial lead going into the second round.

In round two, Seidel managed to turn things around however pushing hard and gaining the chip lead early. As the round progressed Seidel continued to build upon his lead until it was apparent that Duke would be forced to go all in. She decided to put it all on the line with a Kh 5d only to lose to a straight on the flop.

It all came to head in the final round which would decide who would walk away with the title and who would be left second best. At the start of the round Seidel took an early lead but after a risky move from Duke she managed to quickly doubled up and take the chip lead. Down to his last few big blinds Seidel made his final misstep putting it all on the line with an Ad 2s only to be trounced by Duke’s pocket 9s.

Seidel may have placed in second but it isn’t all bad news for the professional player his second place finishing of $250,000 not only improved his overall NBC Heads-Up record but it also pushed his career earnings past the $10 million mark.

This is Duke’s third major victory. She is the current owner of one World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet from 2004 and she won the inaugural WSOP Tournament of Champions in that same year. Her total career winnings have now pushed past the $2 million mark hitting $2,247,824.

The final results were as follows:

Annie Duke $500,000
Erik Seidel $250,000
Scotty Nguyen $125,000
Dennis Phillips $125,000
Jerry Yang $75,000
Doyle Brunson $75,000
Jason Mercier $75,000
Peter Eastgate $75,000

Paul Wasicka $25,000
Eli Elezra $25,000
Annette Obrestad $25,000
Barry Greenstein $25,000

Gabe Kaplan $25,000
Phil Laak $25,000

Chris Moneymaker $25,000
Jamie Gold 25,000

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