Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 09 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

Annie Duke, sister of the ever-expanding Howard Lederer, has become the first female player to win the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship in its six year history by beating a host of poker stars including finalist Erik Seidel.

Mother of four Duke, who has one World Series of Poker bracelet to her name, had only managed to progress past the first round on one occasion in five attempts, whilst Seidel, an eight-time WSOP winner, had never won a match at the championships.

Duke's first victim was her close friend Andy Bloch before moving on to face Paul Wasicka, the 2006 WSOP Main Event runner-up and 2007 NBC Heads-Up Championship winner. Duke certainly rode her luck in this contest, hitting a straight on the river with Ace-ten to crack Wasicka's aces and stay alive in the competition. She also cracked his jacks with 8d5d to win the match!

Jerry Yang was next to go to battle with Duke and he showed the kind of good fortune that saw his opponent progress against Wasicka. First his A4o triumphed against Duke's Ako, his 63s bested K9o but his Jack-three could not outdraw Duke's Ace-eight despite flopping a pair on an A-J-2 flop, with the turn and river being a ten and a nine respectively.

In the semi-finals, Duke took on the 2008 November Nine member, Dennis Phillips in a long, hard-fought encounter. The chip lead swung both ways before both players were all-in preflop, Duke's pocket sevens slightly in front of Phillips' Ace-eight. By the river the board read 9-3-2-6-4 and Duke was through to the final.

Seidel went into the final battle as a substantial favourite in the best-of-three match but he quickly came unstuck as was all in with a flush draw on an K-J-7 flop against Duke's top pair, top kicker. Seidel had his revenge in the second game when he flopped an open-ended straight draw, which hit on the turn, to make it one game apiece.

The final match drew to a close when Duke's pocket nines prevailed against Seidel's Ace-two to give her the title and $500,000 in prize money. Seidel had to make do with the $250,000 consolation prize. The win puts Duke's lifetime tournament winnings past the $4,200,000 mark, putting a cushion between her and Annette Obrestad in the women's standings but she is still $1,400,000 behind Kathy Leibert.

NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship Results

1st - Annie Duke - $500,000

2nd - Erik Seidel - $250,000

3rd - Scotty Nguyen - $125,000

4th - Dennis Phillips - $125,000

5th - Jerry Yang - $75,000

6th - Doyle Brunson - $75,000

7th - Jason Mercier - $75,000

8th - Peter Eastgate - $75,000

9th - Paul Wasika - $25,000

10th - Eli Elezra - $25,000

11th - Annette Obrestad - $25,000

12th - Barry Greenstein - $25,000

13th - Gabe Kaplan - $25,000

14th - Phil Laak - $25,000

15th - Chris Moneymaker - $25,000

16th - Jamie Gold - $25,000

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comment: