Country Watches Ted Forrest Win Heads-Up ChampionshipHe Earns $500,000 and the Title of 'Spooky' |
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Chris Ferguson found himself in the same position as last year, one of two players standing at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and although the opponent was different, the result would be the same.
The country saw Ted Forrest defeat Ferguson to win this year's championship and its $500,000 prize. The tournament took place March 4-6 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The buy-in was $20,000.
CardPlayer.com was there for all three days of the tournament and provided live tournament updates as the action went on. The hand-to-hand updates, as well as a complete bracket and profiles of many of the participants, can be found here.
Ferguson earned $250,000 for finishing second. Last year, Phil Hellmuth defeated Ferguson to win the championship. Hellmuth was eliminated in the first round of this year's contest.
After Ferguson won the first in the best-of-three matches, Forrest swept the final two matches to take home the championship.
NBC showed the final four players battle Sunday. To advance to the finals, Forrest had to beat Shawn Sheikhan and Ferguson had to slip by Huck Seed. But before Forrest faced Sheikhan, he was involved in a three-hour match with Sam Farha, the longest match in the event's short history. It wasn't until Forrest won back-to-back races holding 5-5 and 9-9 against Farha's overcards that the match was decided.
In a segment about how the players look at Forrest as a "spooky" player - that is, spooky good and spooky lucky - Farha complained later that he had Forrest in bad shape about 10 times, but that Forrest either came from behind or earned splits. Forrest, for one, takes the label as a compliment.
"I think they mean I'm spooky lucky," Forrest said.
All players who made it to the round of 16 received a payday of at least $25,000. The top eight received at least $75,000 and the top four $125,000.
In the post-tournament interview, Forrest mentioned that the last "serious" poker he played before the tournament was against billionaire Andy Beal. Forrest said he was up $7 million on Beal before the banker won it all back, plus another $3.8 million.
"So it was really important for me to have a strong showing in this tournament and kind of get my confidence back," Forrest said.
Forrest beat Erik Seidel, Chad Brown, Ernie Dureck, Farha, Seed, and Ferguson to win this event. Card Player Magazine put him on the cover of the May 2 issue in after his victory. Archives of that issue can be found here.
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