The Sweet 16 - The National Heads-Up Poker Championship

In my last two columns, I wrote about my first two matches in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. With an NCAA basketball tournament "bracket" structure, 64 players started and 16 made it to the third round, which is where this column begins. After defeating Men Nguyen in round one and Paul Phillips in round two, I was staring at 1996 World Champion of Poker Huck Seed.

For about three straight years in the late 1990s, Huck was considered the best no-limit hold'em player in the world, and I knew from experience that he would be a tough opponent. In 1999, after dusting off 250 other players, we found ourselves heads up in one of the year's major tournaments, at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. That time around, Huck beat me.

In the very first hand of our match, I called with the A 4, and the flop came down A 10 8. Huck made a big bet, and I called. The 5 on the turn gave me the ace-high flush draw, and I still had my pair of aces. Now, I bet out, and Huck made a big raise. After taking a moment to consider moving all in, raising, or merely calling, I decided to call. My aces may or may not have been the best hand, but one thing was certain: I needed a diamond to make the ace-high flush.

When the J came off, I checked and Huck bet $20,000 (we both had started with $80,000). After a long study, I decided to fold my pair of aces, even though I had seen Huck make some big bluffs – for example, against Johnny Chan at a World Series of Poker final table a few years back – and was expecting him to try a few on me. (After an hour or so had passed, I felt fairly certain, on the strength of his conservative non-bluffing style, that Huckleberry did in fact have a flush or an equally strong hand. In fact, after the match ended, he told me that he did indeed have a flush!)

Another interesting hand came up when I called with the 2 2 and the flop came J 3 2. Seed checked, I bet $2,000, and then he made it $11,000 to go. I pondered what to do. I wanted to win the maximum amount with this hand, and I believed he would bet big if any non-spade came off the deck on the next card. But if he had a strong hand, my best play was to reraise it right then and there. Finally, I decided to just call.

As it turned out, this was a big mistake, one that nearly cost me the match. You see, Seed had the J 3, which was top two pair. The next card was the K (the flush card), and we both checked. On the river, the 8 hit (now there were four spades on the board), and we both checked again. I won the pot, but it was evident to me that had I reraised on the flop, Seed would have moved all in and I would have won the match on this hand.

This kind of thing can get under my skin, and I struggled to forget that I had just blown an opportunity to win the match. Somehow, after a long battle – with neither of us willing to give an inch – I found a way to win, but not until some crazy hands came up along the way.

First, I had Huck all in with my K 7 against his J 9, but he outdrew me to extend the match. Second, I had Huck all in with my K-10 against his J-8, but again he outdrew me to extend the match. Third, he had me all in for more than 80 percent of the chips with his Q-8 against my A-10 – but my hand held up that time! Fourth, he was all in one more time – 85 percent of the chips were in this pot – with his J-J against my K-6. The flop came down 4-3-2, and the turn brought a king! When a blank hit the river, I was in the Elite Eight.

This was one of the toughest heads-up matches of my life, and it sure made for some exceptional television viewing, but it wasn't easy to play! In any case, I was now looking at Lyle Berman in the elite eight.

Part I and Part II of this series can be found at www.cardplayer.com.