NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

The popular NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship began airing on Sunday, April 12, on NBC. There were 32 first-round matches, with 16 televised on April 12 and 16 on April 19. In my first-round match, I drew WPT (World Poker Tour) host Mike Sexton. Most people know Sexton as an announcer, but I know him as a grizzled veteran of the poker tour, and I have faced him repeatedly since the 1980s. I knew that he would not give away a nickel in our match; I knew that he would not give up if he was short on chips; I knew that he would not let his guard down if I was short on chips; and, finally, I knew that he would fight hard from start to finish.

The buy-in was $20,000, so we each started with 20,000 in chips. After some sparring back and forth, I felt like I had a good read on him. I seemed to sense when he was weak, and when he was strong. By raising when he was weak and folding when he was strong, I took an early lead when I hit 25,000 in chips to his 15,000.

Sexton had just made a comeback to around 18,000 when the producer of the show, Mori Eskandani — a beloved former professional poker player — came to center stage as the cards were being dealt and said, “Phil, I’m sorry, you cannot wear your ‘UltimateBet’ hat anymore. You need to switch to a hat that says ‘UltimateBet.net’ on it; NBC really needs the ‘.net.’”

Sexton then told Eskandani, “Don’t piss Phil off or he’ll raise it this hand!”
I then proceeded to look down at the A J, with the blinds at 300-600, and thought, “This is a pretty nice hand, especially because Sexton expects me to raise with anything! This is a great situation for me.” I opened for 2,100. Then, Sexton made it 5,500 to go, and I was confused. I mean, I half expected him to reraise, because I thought that he thought that I would raise with any two cards as a result of being mad about the requested hat change; but did he have a real hand?

I decided to use one of my biggest weapons in poker: I would get Sexton talking to me, and his talking would reveal more information about the strength of his hand. I asked him, “What will you do if I move all in?” No answer. For some reason, I kept thinking that he had a queen in his hand, but I also thought that he might have 10-10 or 9-9. Again, I asked him, “What are you going to do if I move all in?”

When he finally answered, “You have to do what you have to do,” I read him to be extremely strong. At that point, I thought, “Does he have Q-Q?” Now, two or three minutes had passed, and I finally decided that I was over-thinking this situation. Yes, I read strength, but what were the chances of him having a hand that was so strong that he could call an 18,000 all-in move? I went with this line of logic, and decided to move all in.

Immediately, Sexton checked his holecards one more time and said, “I call.”

Then, I immediately asked, “Queens?”

Sexton said, “Yes.”

Damn! I strongly suspected that he had pocket queens, and I moved all in anyway. What was I thinking? I, the “Poker Brat,” was disappointed with the way that I had played the hand, and my emotions started to rise, but Sexton is a classy guy, and I, the “New Phil,” was determined not to whine and show a sour-grapes attitude — and hopefully show some serious class. Win or lose, the New Phil was going to make his debut at the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship!

The flop came down J 9 8, and I said, “Give me a heart so that I have some outs going to the last card.” The turn card was the 4, and now I knew that I was in real trouble, as I needed an ace or a jack on the last card. I was stunned to see that the river card was the A! On air, I gave Sexton credit for having the best hand. I mean, if I’m going to whine when opponents suck out, I should praise them when they have the best hand and I suck out!

I then started to think about my second-round opponent, Internet qualifier Jeffrey Ishbia.

Learn more about Phil by going to his website, www.PhilHellmuth.com, and visit his webstore at www.PokerBrat.com.