Huck Seed Takes Final Pro-Am SeatHe Plays for $500,000 Thursday |
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The Pro-Am Equalizer qualifying tournament that took place Wednesday featured two stars of this year's World Series of Poker, the champion of the main event, Jamie Gold, and the WSOP Player of the Year, Jeff Madsen.
The table also featured pros Huck Seed and David Benyamine, as well as amateur players Shana Hiatt and Jason Alexander, who were given an equalizing $50,000 extra in starting chips.
This was the sixth and last qualifying event of the Pro-Am Equalizer. The winner of this table would take the last seat at the final to be held Thursday, in which the winner receives $500,000. Second place gets $150,000, and the rest of the table gets $25,000.
Seed ended up locking up the final seat in a match that went more than 110 hands and saw the blinds reach $15,000-$30,000.
First out was Alexander, who won the recently concluded Celebrity Poker Showdown. He overplayed A-T with an all-in within the first 20 minutes of the match. Benyamine, sitting directly to his left, instantly called with A-K, and the better kicker played.
Alexander described sitting with the pros as "incredibly intimidating," and said he came into the match prepared to talk it up and try to be entertaining, but decided against it after he saw how serious the pros were.
The pros got even more serious after Hiatt was eliminated. The former World Poker Tour host and American beauty lightened the table, but she really had no chance against the field.
She was eliminated after ordering a vodka and soda. Dealt pocket tens, she pushed, only to be called by Gold's pocket aces.
"Will at least I got to see everybody again," Hiatt said. "I didn't even get my drink."
With the four pros at the table, action slowed down considerably. Most of the time, any form of aggression took down the pot. Play crawled along as the players stuck and jabbed, and then Benyamine was eliminated.
First, Benyamine called an all-in move by Seed with A
J, and Seed's A-K held. A few hands later, Benyamine pushed his short stack in with A-8. Madsen called with K-8, and a king on the flop ended the argument and sent the Frenchman back home.
A few hands later, it looked like Seed would be going home. With blinds at $8,000-$16,000, Seed pushed with pocket sevens. Gold called with pocket queens. Both a queen and a seven hit the flop, dropping Seed to about $65,000 in chips.
The very next hand, though, Gold called Seed's all-in with A-K. Seed held 8-7, but, because poker is a sick game, the flop came 6-8-9, keeping Seed in the game.
Gold was the next player to go home. Seed knocked him out after calling all in with A-K. Gold held A-7 and the flop gave neither of the players help.
Blinds eventually hit $15,000-$30,000 when the final hand come up. Madsen moved all in with T-9 offsuit, and when Seed squeezed the cards, he said, "Ooo, this is pretty bad for you," and flipped over pocket kings and that was the ballgame.
The show will air on ABC weekends starting Nov. 11, for a total of 14 hours of poker action. The broadcast schedule is as follows (all times are EST): Saturday, Nov. 11, 2-3 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 12, 1:30-3:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 18, 2-3 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 19, 4-6 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 3, 4-6 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 17, 1-3 p.m.; and the final takes place Saturday, Dec. 23, 2-4 p.m.
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