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NBC National Heads-Up Championship |
 During a big game like NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship one would expect to find pro poker players, newly minted poker experts, and the occasional movie star, but not a baseball player. |
 The scene was the 2005 National Heads Up Championship, the first tournament of its kind, where No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker pros faced each other in pairs in a series of single elimination rounds, moving toward the final table, which would determine who would be crowned the first ever Heads Up Champion. |
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Even if you are a seasoned professional, there have to be certain tactics that can rattle your cage from time to time, especially if played on you by a consummate gentleman of the game. |
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Last year Chris Ferguson almost became the first National Heads-Up Texas Holdem champion when he narrowly lost the final match to poker brat Phil Hellmuth in 2005. Ferguson was back again for the second year of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker championship and had made it to the round of 16. In this match he was up against Georgia Josh Arieh, and he showed that, while wears his cowboy hat and glasses for costume effect, Chris knows how to utilize the cowboy motif to his advantage. |
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In the round of 16 during the 2006 NBC National Heads Up Poker championship, two very tricky players sat down to face each other to decide who would move on to the round of eight. It was young gun Scott Fischman versus World Series of Poker champion Huck Seed, a matchup that promised a high level of play. |
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During the 2006 National Heads Up Poker championship, commentator, actor, and professional poker player Gabe Kaplan made an interesting comment during the round of 16 play in the match of World Series of Poker champion Huck Seed and Scott Fischman. During one hand, when Huck made an unusual call, Kaplan said "you can play that if you are Huck Seed, because Huck plays the player instead of his cards." |
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During the 2006 NBC National Heads Up Championship the world’s top pros battled it out to prove who was the best Heads Up Poker player in the land. Last year it came down to a signature battle between poker brat Phil Hellmuth and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, with Phil taking the win. This year there was plenty of repeat action, such as when two old pros, Amir Vahedi and the man they call the Robin Hood of poker, Barry Greenstein tested each other’s heads up powers. |
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In the bracket of 16 at the 2006 NBC National Heads Up Poker championship, two very tricky players faced each other across the felt. Scott Fischman, one of the youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winners faced off against World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Huck Seed. In a display of great professional skill, both players managed to play each other more than the cars they were holding. In fact, Huck often had the best cards but as you’ll see in the next two hands, Scott got the best of Huck. |
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The 2006 National Heads Up Poker Championship on NBC showcased many brilliant match ups of poker talent. As the players moved up in the brackets towards the final heads-up match, where the winner would take home $500,000 as the first-place prize, the number of quality pairings grew. World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Huck Seed was facing off against the Robin Hood of poker, Barry Greenstein. Huck, an unconventional player, was holding his own against the aggression of Barry. |
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During the 2006 National Heads Up Poker Championship there were plenty of interesting pairings between professional poker players. In one such heads-up match poker author James McManus faced off against 2000 World Series of Poker champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, to determine who would move on into the semifinal round. One element of their match that made it more interesting than others was their past relationship. McManus, who made it to the final table in 2000 while researching his book Positively Fifth Street, got to witness and play against Ferguson firsthand the year that he won the World Series of Poker. |
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One of the most interesting aspects of poker, especially No Limit Texas Hold’em, is the wide variety of personalities and styles that wind up facing each other across the felt. Taken one step further, heads up poker is even more interesting when different styles and people try to get into each other’s heads and figure out what they will do in any given situation. As is sometimes said, pro poker players don’t play their hands, they play the other people in the game. At the 2006 National Heads Up Poker Championship two men who seemed similar from the outside worked each other hard to be the one to move on to the next round. $500,000 was at stake, depending on their ability to outplay their opponent. |
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In poker, there is an expression that isn’t very flattering. The expression goes "Walk the Dog" and it refers to letting an opponent bet their way into loosing. If you picture a man walking a dog, the dog is out in front, pulling the man along at the end of the leash. It works the same way in poker; if you have a great hand and your opponent is loose and aggressive, they will bet and build the pot for you; you simply have to smooth call all the way to the showdown. It even happens with the pros. During the 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Huck Seed had been doing it to Barry Greenstein nearly the entire match up. |
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During the 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, televised on NBC, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson was doing his best to at least repeat his performance from the year before, when he found himself at the final table and narrowly missed becoming the first National Heads-Up Poker Champion when he lost to Phil Hellmuth. This time he was doing very well, outlasting a number of brackets to find himself facing Jim McManus. Jim and Chris went back as far as 2000, when Jim faced him at the final table, where, that time, Chris emerged victorious as the champion at the WSOP. |
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James (or Jim) McManus has one of the more interesting stories in the world of poker. A writer by trade, he was assigned the task of infiltrating the World Series of Poker in 2000 and writing the insider’s story of the game. He instead got bitten by the poker bug, bought in to the Main Event, and made it all the way to the final table. He went on to write a book that has become very popular, and has had continued success at final tables ever since. Yet despite this he continues to display a certain lack of awareness that is surprising for someone at his level of the game. In a couple of televised events he only saw one way of interpreting the board and had to be shown how he lost or chopped the pot. |
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Chris "Jesus" Ferguson has done many things that defy the odds. He is a spindly, gaunt PhD holder in artificial intelligence, and a mathematician with a photographic memory - and yet, he is one of the most popular people in his industry. He is a WSOP champion, that itself an accomplishment that requires beating the odds. In the second go round of the NBC National Heads-Up Championship, he beat the odds again when he beat out Jim McManus to move on to the semi-final rounds, making him the most winningest player in the National Heads-Up history. |
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Ted Forrest is known in the poker community as a "spooky" player. He is considered to be spooky good and spooky lucky, as the cards always seem to fall his way whenever he needs them. To hear this kind of quasi superstition coming from the mouths of pro poker players, people who know that it is how you maniupulate your luck that determines your success and not supernatural forces, just shows how good Ted Forrest really is. When he faced off against Sammy Farha in the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, he once again showed his spooky nature as he dodged elimination again and again. |
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Daniel Negreanu is known as the Poker Kid, among other things, and is a chatty person. He loves to meet people and get to know them - especially if that knowledge can be used to win against them in the game of poker. When he moved on to the quarter final rounds at the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, he faced another young poker pro, one who also liked to talk, but was far less friendly. Shawn Sheikan, considered by many to be a bully both at and away from the poker table, was the match up for Daniel, but luckly for Negreanu they knew each other quite well. Daniel used this friendship to his advantage in one of the first hands, where he turned the tables and played the aggressor. |
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During the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, players vied for the chance to become the next Heads-Up champ and the half a million dollars for the first place finish. Each match up promised exciting, or at least interesting, poker, as two poker pros faced each other to see who would move on to the next round. The different playing styles and personalities made each match up a unique event. In this particular match up it was the man considred the best cash game player in the world, Ted Forrest, against a 20 year veteran of the game, a man feared for his aggression with the chips, Sammy Farha. |
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Even professional poker players make mistakes. In fact professional poker players make mistakes all the time -- if they didn’t, no one would ever lose. When your mistake cost you the chance to move on to the final round and a shot at half a million dollars, however, it is a pretty big mistake. When Huck Seed made such a mistake against Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, his dismay was evident. |
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During the NBC 2006 National Heads-Up Championship the quarterfinal rounds held some interesting play, especially between two young guns of poker, Shawn Sheikan and Daniel Negreanu. These two players were both aggressive, although Daniel was known for being more friendly aggressive than Shawn. From the beginning Daniel seemed to put Shawn off his feed by being more talkative and more aggressive. In the following two hands, however, you can see how closely matched these two really were. |
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As said by Gabe Kaplan, poker expert and co-commentator of the NBC 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Shawn Sheikan made the best play in the tournament completely by accident. He was still in broiled in a battle with friend and fellow poker pro Daniel Negreanu when he came upon a suited king four. |
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Ted Forrest is known as a spooky poker player, meaning that no other poker player can really figure out how he plays the game. His strategies don’t seem to follow any particular known past, similar in some ways to such players as Gus Hansen. But unlike him, who everyone knows will play trash cards, Ted still remains a mystery. In the 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, in the most exciting match up of the series, Ted faced off against Sammy Farha, a brilliant player who was known for being able to get inside the head of his opponent. So what happens when someone who is an expert at getting inside other players heads runs in the someone whose head seems to be impenetrable? Lots of action. |
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It seems like the difference between poker players can be fairly slight, especially at the professional level. When you have a table filled with professional poker players all of these men and women are experts at their game. They have all won big events, make a living playing poker, and know all the ins and outs of poker strategy. But if you watch closely, you’ll see differences between the truly great players and the average great players. In a heads-up match of Ted Forrest and Shawn Sheikan, the differences stood out in the missed opportunities. |
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To anyone new to No limit Texas Hold ’em poker it may seem like the entire game is a big ego competition with a bunch of high rollers playing a sedentary game of chicken. In fact the game is filled with great complexity and many times the avenue to winning starts with retreating. In the NBC 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, spooky player and master cash game professional Ted Forrest showed that many times discretion is the better part of valor, especially when you’re risking a significant chunk of your bankroll or tournament chip stack. |
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During the NBC 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson showed why he was on the path towards making the final table for the second year in a row. In his semi final match against fellow World Series of Poker champion Huck Seed, Chris showed an uncanny ability to read his opponent and make just the right move at just right time. In the following two hands you can see that while Chris didn’t necessarily play perfectly throughout the match, he certainly had his reading glasses on here. |
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In poker you are bound to make mistakes. You are also bound to run into bad luck. It is your ability to manage these mistakes and bad luck, and capitalize when you do not make mistakes and when your luck is running averaged to good, that makes you a good poker player. Some of the greatest poker players were on hand during the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, including a semi final match between World Series of Poker champion Huck Seed and fellow champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. In the following two hands we see how evenly matched these two were as each forced the other to fold. |
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Typically in a professional level poker tournament, it is against the rules to discuss your own cards. You would think if you wished to disclose what you were holding that would be all right, considering you would be giving away information that would be hurting yourself; however, the likelihood of a poker player lying about his hand is pretty high. In the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, however, the rules were a little different. If you wished to show your hand or discuss what you held, it was perfectly acceptable. Some players tried to use this technique to elicit extra information out of their opponents. In this particular hand it was poker bully Shawn Sheikan trying to use this technique against spooky poker cash game champion Ted Forrest. It didn’t work. |
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Ted Forrest is known as a spooky poker player. Nobody really understands what his strategy is, which means that when he wins, it seems like he catches the right cards and makes the right moves almost by magic. It can be pretty intimidating, even for a player like Shawn Sheikan, who is used to being intimidating himself. |
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Often times when playing No Limit Texas Hold ’em, luck has to take the front seat and drive you around, putting your skill and knowledge in the back seat for the duration. That is not to say that skill is not a factor: quiet the contrary. Consider the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, an event where Chris "Jesus" Ferguson made the final table two years in a row. He will be the first to tell you how much luck is involved, but without skill Chris would never have made it passed around one. In this particular hand, one of the deciding hands in who would go on to face Chris, Ted Forrest and Shawn Sheikan battled it out with two wired pair and decided to let Lady Luck take the wheel. |
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All the great things about Texas Hold’em is that sometimes the smallest of cards can give you the biggest of wins. In the 2006 NBC National Heands-Up Championship, the man considered the best cash game player in the world showed this to be the case in a pivotal hand in his semifinal match up against poker bully Shawn Sheikan. Ted Forrest is considered to be a spooky player because he always seems to catch the right card at the right moment, and no one can figure out the way he plays. Because his style remains so mysterious he seems to play by magic. His mystique continued to grow in this particular hand. |
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Making the minimum raise in a game like No Limit Texas Hold ’em is almost always seen as a sign of weakness. Sometimes you may make a min raise in order to build a pot when you are on a draw, for example, of if you want to try and take down a pot right there with a semi bluff. In the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship the master of spooky poker, Ted Forrest, showed that sometimes a min raise is just the right way to say "I have a monster hand." |
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When it comes right down to it, you can play poker by the numbers, or by the mind. Ted Forrest, as with all pro poker players, tries to do both. In the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Championship it was down to the final match up between spooky Ted and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, the man who made it to this same seat last year, losing out to Phil Hellmuth in the end. Chris is one of the most aggressive and well respected players in the world, but Forrest is known as well. Chris is primarily a tournament player, and Ted is reputedly the best ring game player in the world. In this hand, Ted let Chris know he did not fear him. |
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In the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship it was down to two of the best players in the world. Ted Forrest, known for his excellence in cash games, was facing off against Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, a master of tournament play who found himself at the final table for the second year in a row. Last year Chris started off with a running lead and this year it looked like he would repeat the performance, as he had already won the first match in a best-of-three format. But so far he had shown his spooky opponent that he would not back down with mediocre hands, calling practically every time Ted put in a bet at the river. So far, Ted had not once bluffed but Chris kept imagining that he would and kept calling. |
 The impression is that the master always knows what you are holding, but as we see in this hand from the latest NBC National Heads-Up Championship, even the best can’t always tell. |
 One poker player that knows a lot about blackjack is Andy Bloch, a former member of the infamous MIT Blackjack team, and that one on one game play helped him prepare for games like the one he played during the most recent NBC National Heads-Up Championship. |
 Many times in poker you don’t have the best hand - but sometimes your opponent doesn’t either. This results in playing the board, which means both players’ pocket cards are all worse than the five cards on the board. |
 During the fourth season of the popular poker show on NBC, the National Heads-Up Championship, Doyle got a chance to play heads-up poker with one of the biggest high stakes players of the day, Frenchman David Benyamine. |
 Much of the game of poker is mental. In addition to knowing the right math and tactics to make the right decisions as often as possible, a poker player had to be able to read his opponent. |
 When two poker players have the same hand, such as a pair of aces, how do you know who wins? Unless you are using some home game rules, it isn’t by the suit, as many think, but rather who has the highest card after the pair. |
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