#691 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #12 – Durrrr & Blur, Part C – Spades Bracket

Bertrand Grospellier over Fred Collins – Collins, a Pokerstars online qualifier, just wouldn’t let go of Elky, surviving all-in after all-in on his short stack. Finally, Grospellier finished him off in the longest match of the night.

Barry Greenstein over Blandino Gines – I think Barry has cashed in every year but one of the heads-up. Blandino played him tough but Greenstein had the lead most of the way and had a better kicker when they both got it in after the flop with a pair.

John Juanda over Joe Hachem – An excellent match between two consummate professionals, which ended when Juanda got lucky with a dominated hand in an all-in showdown. This was one of the few instances in which Full Tilt’s big guns didn’t take it on the chin. It was so bad for Full Tilt that even former Teamer Clonie Gowen lost and former Full Tilt pros Jonathon Little (lost) and Layne Flack (no-show) weren’t immune. But JJ moves on.

Gabe Kaplan over Chris Ferguson – Kaplan took out the defending champ in another route of Team Full Tilt.

Tom Dwan over Gavin Griffin – I think this should have been the feature match, but the producers picked Hellmuth/Sexton. For all I know, that age group (uh, mine) is the core demographic for the Sunday afternoon broadcasts but this was a great showdown for the younger audience that I assumed was the future for TV poker. After Hellmuth/Sexton finished, these guys moved to the feature table, which was smart of NBC. Unfortunately, my brain wasn’t functioning well enough to understand much of what was going on. Shortly after Tom won and they were talking and chips were being restacked, Barry Greenstein came by and sat next to me. He had already won and would face the winner. “It looks like Tom has a big lead. Is that right?” he asked, just returning from his post-match interview. I was blathering through some answer when I realized the match ended a few minutes earlier, which I already knew. Barry Greenstein doesn’t suffer fools and I can’t say I impressed him during this encounter.

Ilari Sahamies over Gavin Smith – It looked like Gavin had this one almost wrapped up until Sahamies caught a lucky card on the river when they were all-in with Gavin dominating him. Another bad break for Full Tilt and a shame because Gavin is a nice guy, has a great record in the Championship, is a tremendously talented player, and marvelously entertaining to watch. Whenever I see him, I tell him I want to play Gavin Smith in the movie of his life, and I’d want him to play me in the movie version of my life.

Jeffrey Ishbia over Leon Yanovski – Caesars qualifier advances. Does anyone know how Caesars picked its qualifiers? Please e-mail me if you know.

Phil Hellmuth over Mike Sexton – This was the feature match, though it seemed like Phil played to the cameras very little. They got it all in when Mike raised, Phil pushed with A-J, and Mike immediately called with pocket queens. Phil stood up and started making some explanation about being distracted by some commotion off camera, then stopped when he hit an ace on the river. Too bad for Sexton, a great player and class act. But it’s okay that Hellmuth gets lucky. He’s gotten some bad luck in this tournament, too, so he’s entitled to suck out occasionally.

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