Annie Duke Wins National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC

“I finally didn’t come in second on NBC,” Annie Duke exclaimed following her win in the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, whose finale played out on NBC on Sunday. Taking second fiddle to comedian Joan Rivers in the finals of the network’s “Celebrity Apprentice” last year, Duke triumphed over fellow poker pro Erik Seidel to become the first woman to win the annual heads-up contest.

Three hours’ worth of coverage aired on Sunday on NBC and began with the semi-finals. Duke squared off against 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Dennis Phillips, while former Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen battled Seidel. The Final Four had a total of just four wins coming into the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ali Nejad and Craig Hummer had the call and each player began with 320,000 in chips with blinds at 1,500/3,000.

Nejad picked Seidel to face Duke in the finals, where he predicted the UB.com pro would win it all. Nguyen folded hand after hand face up, allowing Seidel to receive extra information. Nejad questioned, “What are you doing, Scotty Nguyen? You think Erik Seidel’s not going to use that information to take you down?” Nguyen and Seidel’s match featured lots of conversation and smaller pots, while Phillips and Duke’s match was relatively quiet and had larger pots pre-flop.

By the second hour, Duke made the call of the tournament with jack-high against Phillips, which caused Nejad to admit, “That’s something you don’t see every day.” Phillips was down to seven big blinds as a result before doubling with K-J of diamonds against Duke’s A-5. Duke eventually polished off the former truck salesman with pocket sevens against A-8 to ensure that a woman would make the finals for the second straight year.

Back at the feature table, Seidel pushed with J-10, but Nguyen folded A-8 after seeing the hand result in the demise of Phillips just minutes earlier. Nejad, however, disagreed with Nguyen’s decision: “As tight as Scotty is, even he pretty much has to call there.” In the final hand of the pairing, Nguyen called all-in with K-9 on a board of 9-10-5-7-9 for trips. However, Seidel held 9-7 for a boat and moved on to the finals.

Duke and Seidel had a combined 1-10 record in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship entering its 2010 installment. In the final match, which was played in a best of three format, Seidel put the pedal to the metal. With the board reading 3-8-K-6, Duke checked holding pocket jacks and Seidel led out for 160,000 with 9-7 for an open-ended straight draw. Duke tanked before electing to fold, leading Nejad to remark, “This is poker on a high level.” However, Duke ultimately took down the first match.

Seidel was up early in the second match of the series, but Duke doubled up after open-shoving with 7-4 and receiving a call from Seidel, who held K-10. The first four cards ran out 9-Q-7-Q, leaving Seidel drawing to 15 outs to take down the second match. However, a five fell and Duke survived. In the final hand of match #2, Duke called all-in with K-5 and Seidel turned over 8-7. The board ran out 6-9-4-5-9, giving the pot to Seidel with a straight and leveling the score at one match each.

In the rubber match, Seidel was off to an early chip lead before Duke made her stand with Q-9 of diamonds. Seidel held A-K of diamonds, having Duke crushed. He was a 2:1 favorite heading to the flop, but Duke flopped a queen and turned a nine to leave Seidel drawing dead to the river. She commented, “My plan to get lucky has come to fruition.” Then, Seidel was all-in with A-2 against Duke’s pocket nines. The board bricked out for the eight-time bracelet winner and Duke captured the win in the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

The finalists hugged and reigning champ Huck Seed presented Duke with a crystal trophy. Cleopatra awarded Duke a gold ring and Caesar offered up a platter holding the $500,000 first place prize. The three-hour finale closed with highlights from the season set to music.

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Poker talk:

FORCED BET - In some stud games a player may be required to make a bet to start the action on the first card. This is similar conceptually to blinds and antes, but in this case is dependent on the cards shown rather than player position. Usually the weakest hand is forced to bet.
FLUSH - A poker hand consisting of five cards all one suit.
PAY OFF - Calling a bet with little expectation of winning, unless the opponent is bluffing.
BRODERICK CRAWFORD - In Hold'em, hole cards of 10-4. From the 1950s TV series "Highway Patrol", starring Broderick Crawford.
CASE - The fourth card of a particular rank, as in "he folded the case 9" when describing where all the 9s were in a hand. Comes from the game of Faro where an employee of the house, called the "case keeper". kept track of the number of each rank of card remaining.
FOURTH STREET - In stud poker, the fourth card dealt to each player. Sometimes used to refer to the fourth community card dealt in Hold'em, although the more common term for this is TURN (q.v.).

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