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 Fergi
Wins Poker
Tournament!
After three days of
intense game play at
Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas, Chris
Ferguson defeated
Andy Bloch in the
final round and
emerged as the 2008
National Heads-Up
Poker Champion. In
order to claim
victory, Ferguson
had to fight his way
through a field of
63 other poker
players, including
not only the top
professionals in the
world, but also
several skilled
celebrities. He will
collect 500,000
dollars out of the
total 1.5 million
dollar prize money
for his win. In the
best of three final,
Bloch won the first
game and Ferguson
came back to take
both the second and
the third. In the
semifinals, Andy
Bloch defeated Huck
Seed and Chris
Ferguson beat Phil
Ivey, who had just
won 1.6 million
dollars three days
earlier at the L.A
Poker Classic.
The two finalists
are both highly
educated, with
Ferguson holding a
Ph.D. in computer
science from UCLA
and Bloch holding
two electrical
engineering degrees
from MIT and a JD
from Harvard Law
School. Bloch was
part of the MIT
Blackjack Team
featured in the
non-fiction book
Bringing Down the
House: The Inside
Story of Six MIT
Students Who Took
Vegas for Millions.
This is only Bloch’s
second time playing
in the National
Heads-Up Poker
Championship (NHPC)
– in 2007 he
advanced to the
quarterfinals before
being defeated.
Ferguson, on the
other hand, has
reached the finals
in three out of the
four NHPCs, but this
is his first win,
putting him first
place in total money
won with 1 million
dollars.
The Championship was
full of surprises
from the beginning,
with first round
upsets including
2007 NHPC champion
Paul Wasicka losing
to Freddy Deeb;
“Poker Brat” Phil
Hellmuth going all
in with pocket aces
- and losing –
against online poker
phenomenon Tom Dwan
on the third hand;
and Shannon
Elizabeth, the
Cinderella story of
last year’s
tournament, getting
knocked out by
Bloch. Other poker
heavyweights
eliminated in the
first round were
Howard Lederer,
Daniel Negreanu, and
2007 NHPC runner-up
Chad Brown.
The talk of the
tournament came from
perhaps the most
unlikely of places –
baseball legend Orel
Hershiser. Hershiser
stunned the crowd
when, in true
‘Bulldog’ fashion,
he simply outplayed
his opponents and
advanced to the
quarterfinals. Left
in his wake were
five-time WSOP
bracelet winner Ted
Forrest, five-time
WSOP winner Allen
Cunningham and
two-time WSOP
bracelet winner
Freddy Deeb. Just
when it seemed he
could not be beat,
Hershiser was
finally stopped by
Bloch.
“This has truly been
the best year ever
for the National
Heads-Up Poker
Championship,”
offered Jon Miller,
Executive VP of NBC
Sports. “The players
were better than
ever, Orel Hershiser
provided a great
deal of excitement
and buzz, we had a
superb final four
players and a
genuinely exciting
finale.”
Celebrity
participants
included Jason
Alexander, Don
Cheadle, Jennifer
Tilly and Shannon
Elizabeth. Cheadle,
Tilly and Elizabeth
were all in last
year’s tournament,
where Cheadle scored
a massive upset of
Phil Ivey, and
Elizabeth advanced
to the semi-finals.
This year, they were
all defeated in the
first round.
The
single-elimination
competition began
Friday morning,
February 29 and
continued through
Sunday, March 2,
when a best of three
championship match
determined the
winner. The
tournament was taped
for broadcast and
will air on NBC over
six consecutive
Sundays in April and
May, beginning on
April 13. New to the
championship was
model and television
personality Leeann
Tweeden, who served
as the sideline
reporter/interviewer.
The National
Heads-Up Poker
Championship
features 64 poker
players competing in
a series of heads-up
(one-on-one games of
No Limit Texas
Hold'em) matches to
determine the best
heads-up poker
player in the world.
This tournament has
a unique,
single-elimination,
bracket-style format
modeled after
college basketball’s
championship
tournament, except
that the finals are
the best of three.
The brackets are set
during the
tournament’s draw
party held at PURE
Nightclub the
Thursday before the
Championship begins
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