Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jeff Haney on the personal format of the Heads-Up Poker Championship, set for this weekend at Caesars Palace

Top players to watch at this weekend's National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars Palace, with our odds to win (odds created by Jeff Haney for entertainment purposes only):

1. Chris Ferguson, 21-1

2. Barry Greenstein, 23-1

3. Allen Cunningham, 23-1

4. Andy Bloch, 24-1

5. Chip Reese, 24-1

6. Howard Lederer, 25-1

7. Phil Hellmuth, 25-1

8. Phil Ivey, 25-1

9. Johnny Chan, 27-1

10. Ted Forrest, 27-1

11. Todd Brunson, 30-1

12. Daniel Negreanu, 30-1

13. Huck Seed, 31-1

14. Tuan Le, 33-1

A poker tournament based on a series of head-to-head matches carries a more intimate feel than a traditional event, along with a unique set of challenges.

It's still business, but it's also personal.

"It's a very special kind of format," professional poker player Chris Ferguson said. "It's different because of the way you can prepare for heads-up poker.

"You can think about what your opponent is going to do in a particular situation, and how you'll react to that. If you know something about the type of game your opponent is going to bring to the table, you can actually plan ahead."

Ferguson owns a superb record in poker's biggest annual heads-up event, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, having finished second in a field of 64 for two consecutive years.

Back-to-back second-place finishes in such a rugged field is considered a more impressive feat than winning once and running out of money the other time.

Ferguson will take another shot at the elusive title this weekend at the third National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars Palace.

The field of 64 that includes many top professionals will compete Friday through Sunday in a bracket-style, single-elimination no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament expected to award a top prize of $500,000. Only the best-of-three championship match breaks the single-elimination format.

The tournament will be taped for broadcast on NBC Sports (KVBC Channel 3) on seven consecutive Sundays in April and May. The viewing gallery at the Caesars Palace poker room will be open to spectators on a first-come, first-served basis.

"I'm extremely proud of my results," said Ferguson, who lost to Ted Forrest in last year's final round at Caesars and to Phil Hellmuth in 2005. "It's not easy to finish second in this field."

With the exception of three slots filled by Caesars tournament qualifiers and a contest winner, entry into the event, which carries a $20,000 buy in for all players, was by invitation only.

The bracket draw takes place at Caesars on Thursday night, when players find out whether their first-round opponent will be one of the handful of celebrity amateurs in the field, or one of poker's most fearsome pros.

"I mean, really, who wants to play Phil Ivey heads-up?" poker pro Annie Duke said.

For Duke, there's also a possibility she could find herself matched up against her brother Howard Lederer, who ranks among the leading contenders to win the tournament.

"My brother is without question a better poker player than me," Duke said. "But because of a weird stroke of luck, he has never beaten me (directly) in a major tournament.

"I'd play him like any other opponent, but if I beat him I'd probably get a sad call from my mom - 'How could you knock your brother out?' I always have to explain to her: It's a poker tournament; one of us or the other is going to get knocked out."

Lederer called Ferguson, who rigorously studied heads-up poker while earning a doctorate in computer science at UCLA, a front-runner for the title.

"Chris Ferguson wrote the book on heads-up no-limit hold 'em, literally, with his work on hand values as he was getting his Ph.D.," said Lederer, who like Ferguson is affiliated with the Full Tilt Poker group. "He gives nothing away. You cannot read him."

Ferguson, whose final match against Forrest was seen by 6 million TV viewers, according to NBC, said his advantage comes not only from his academic work but also from the massive amount of heads-up experience he brings to the table.

"I have a lot experience playing heads-up, and most of it has come online, where you can see many more hands per hour than you can live," Ferguson said. "I've been playing online since 1989, when I began playing on the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) poker network. That was well before any of the major commercial online sites were created."

As with most poker events, the heads-up tournament presents a delicate balance of psychology, mathematical acumen and sometimes excruciating turns of luck - as Duke discovered in last year's first round.

After the flop, or first three community cards, Duke held top pair (8s) against Mike Sexton's middle pair (6s). She decided that going "all-in" would be the best way to entice Sexton to commit all of his chips as a sizable underdog.

"I thought he had something, and I thought he would think I was bluffing if I went all-in," Duke said. "As he was thinking about what to do, he actually said this out loud, and then he called with second pair."

Another 6 came on fourth street, though, followed by yet another 6 on the river to give Sexton "quads" (four of a kind) and send Duke to the rail.

"I don't like to complain, but I think that was a really bad thing to have happen," Duke said.

Lederer, for his part, would relish a high-profile, televised heads-up match against his sister.

"Annie and I have been very competitive for a long time, since before we were professional poker players," Lederer said. "Obviously, I like my chances."

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