Jeff Haney on how Paul Wasicka got his groove back in time to capture the top prize in the heads-up tournament

By Jeff Haney

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

Prize money awarded at the third National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which concluded Sunday night at Caesars Palace:

1. Paul Wasicka, Las Vegas, $500,000

2. Chad Brown, Los Angeles, $250,000

3. Shannon Elizabeth, Hollywood, Calif., $125,000

3. Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, $125,000

5. Nam Le, Huntington Beach, Calif., $75,000

5. Humberto Brenes, Miami Lakes, Fla., $75,000

5. Andy Bloch, Las Vegas, $75,000

5. Kristy Gazes, North Hollywood, Calif., $75,000

9. Barry Greenstein, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., $25,000

9. Brad Booth, Yukon Territory, Canada, $25,000

9. Huck Seed, Las Vegas, $25,000

9. T.J. Cloutier, Richardson, Texas, $25,000

9. Scott Fischman, Las Vegas, $25,000

9. Ted Forrest, Las Vegas, $25,000

9. Phil Gordon, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., $25,000

9. Mike Matusow, Las Vegas, $25,000

Three big upsets from the National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars:

Don Cheadle def. Phil Ivey, Rd. 1

Gabe Kaplan def. Todd Brunson, Rd. 1

Shannon Elizabeth def. Barry Greenstein, Rd. 3

Maybe this poker thing isn't for me after all, Paul Wasicka was thinking.

Maybe it's time to step away from the tables, leave the grind of the tournament circuit behind for a while. Maybe for good.

Yeah, I should finally get serious about training for that triathlon, Wasicka thought. Or have some serious fun on the ski slopes.

Then again, there's plenty of good gambling action out on the links these days, and I do have that new set of clubs ...

"It could have been any number of things," Wasicka said. "I'm really a spontaneous person."

It was late last year when Wasicka found himself cold-decked by doubt for the first time in his short but brilliant poker career.

Strangely enough, this was just a few months after Wasicka secured one of the biggest paydays in poker history - more than $6 million for finishing second to Jamie Gold in the World Series of Poker main event at the Rio.

Stranger still, it was a small $50-entry tournament at a casino in the Bahamas that allowed Wasicka to get his groove back.

"It was kind of odd," Wasicka said. "After I finished fifth in that one little tournament, it kind of rekindled the fuel that I know I need to have to play in these things. I was like, man, I really can win."

After regaining his mojo in the islands, Wasicka embarked on a hot streak that cemented his position as one of poker's leading young players.

He cashed for $96,000 Down Under in the Aussie Millions, made the final table of the World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic for another $455,000 and, this past weekend at Caesars Palace, finished atop a field of 64 players to win the third National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

The $20,000 buy-in, invitation-only tournament marked the first time Wasicka had played heads-up with big prize money at stake since his showdown against Gold, and this time he was "a runner-up no more," as tournament emcee Jordan Siegel put it.

Wasicka, 26, earned the $500,000 top prize for beating fellow professional Chad Brown of Los Angeles in Sunday night's best-of-three championship match.

The victory dispelled any lingering internal doubts, Wasicka said.

"I was going through a really rough stretch in November and December," said Wasicka, a Colorado native who moved to Las Vegas nine months ago. "Nothing was going my way. I was second-guessing whether poker is the future for me.

"But down in Melbourne I was extremely confident. I was following all my reads, and mostly I had a desire to get back out there and play my A game. Then, I felt like the LAPC was one of my best tournaments thus far in my career. Even though results-wise I didn't do as well as in the World Series, I felt I made fewer mistakes in the LAPC than in the World Series."

Wasicka won the first two matches against Brown in the title round, which was the lone exception to the tournament's single-elimination, bracket-style format. The game was head-to-head no-limit Texas hold 'em throughout the event.

The first title match was nasty, brutish and long as Wasicka and Brown traded leads while the "blinds," or forced bets, escalated in size. Wasicka prevailed when his pair of 6s held up after Brown pushed all-in with a strong flush draw.

Wasicka made quick work of his opponent in the second match, taking an early lead and clinching it when his hand of jack-queen made a straight on a board of 9-10-king.

Brown, who hosts the syndicated TV show "The Ultimate Poker Challenge," regularly plays high-stakes cash games and made the final table of several major tournaments last year.

"Paul's been having a lot of success lately, too," Brown said. "If you play consistently well, the results are going to come. In the short run there's a lot of luck involved. In the long run the cards are going to break equally, and if you play well you'll finish well or win one.

"Playing heads-up is just a different skill altogether. To finish runner-up in a field like this, I'm very proud of that accomplishment."

Brown beat Las Vegas poker pro Gavin Smith in the semifinals, while Wasicka ousted "Hollywood actress Shannon Elizabeth," as she was referred to, reverently and repeatedly, throughout the weekend.

And why not? After all, she did play Nadia, the nymphomaniac exchange student in "American Pie." (We can only hope Stifler's mom gets invited to next year's tournament.)

Right from last Thursday's bracket-draw party at the Caesars nightclub Pure, the heads-up tournament, which will air Sundays on NBC Sports (KVBC Channel 3) beginning April 8, carried a distinct whiff of glitz and glamour about it.

For instance, poker star Kristy Gazes, who lost to Brown in the quarterfinals, had a side bet with her opponents Clonie Gowen and Isabelle Mercier for a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes.

NBC host Shana Hiatt told them she's also a fan of the fashionable footwear.

So for poker old-schoolers, it was somewhat of a relief to find that Smith - whose perennially untucked shirttail is anything but a fashion statement - didn't know Jimmy Choo from Choo Choo Coleman.

"Nah," Smith said. "I guess they're some fancy shoes or something."