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#976 – 2010 NBC Heads-Up Championship #2 – Day of the Dog, Part I

Posted by Editor | Filed under 2010 NBC Heads-Up Championship, Dario Minieri, Erik Seidel, Heads-Up, Huckleberry Seed, Jaime Gold

At the Pairings Party for the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, there was general laughter at the announced pairing of Huckleberry Seed and Erik Seidel. Seidel has eight World Series of Poker bracelets, a WPT championship, and is generally regarded as one of the most successful tournament poker players of all-time. Because he keeps his superb intellect and wry sense of humor out of the spotlight, you rarely hear laughter at his expense.

But the Heads-Up Championship has been his Achilles Heel. Erik had the distinction of having played in each of the first five HUCs without ever winning a match, never making it past the Round of 64. In 2005, he lost to Dennis Wagner, a poker unknown who qualified through one of the sponsors. After that, the random draw did him no favors. In 2006, his first-round loss came to Ted Forrest, who went on to win the Championship. In 2007, he drew Humberto Brenes, who went on to finish in the money. He lost to Jonathon Little in 2008, before Little made it to the quarterfinals. In 2009, John Phan defeated him en route to a third-round cash.

I always thought it was a little impolite to talk about sluggards in the Heads-Up Championship. Just by virtue of being invited (with the exception of celebrity and sponsor invites, who generally win or disappear), the players are all accomplished – Erik Seidel perhaps more than anybody. No one would seriously suggest Erik’s record indicated some flaw in his game.

But they hold the Pairings Party at PURE, Caesars’ nightclub. The crowd is full of boisterous insiders and the drinks flow freely. Ali Nejad presides over a roast-style draw, peppering jabs with the frequency – if not the aim – of a famous boxer who shares half a name.

Once again, it looked like the Luck was lifting its leg and urinating on Seidel. His first match would be against Huckleberry Seed, who was not only the defending champion but at 19-4 possessed the best record in the history of the HUC. Huck, another brilliant intellect toiling in the fields of poker, typically shuns the spotlight, or mutters something forgettable when called on to speak.

But Seed didn’t play to form on the PURE stage. Perhaps smarting at the comparisons between his fashion choices and an unmade bed, he joked at Seidel, suggesting Erik would have to win two consecutive championships, while Huck busted twice in the first round, for their records to equalize. (Actually, even that wouldn’t do it. It would take THREE consecutive HUCs for Seidel’s record to reach 18-5; three first-round losses for Seed would drop him to 19-7.)

I told anybody who would listen that I would bet on Seidel to win that match. Seed is a great poker player, especially heads-up, but so is Seidel. Any rendering of the odds based on HUC records would provide tremendous value to anyone willing to bet on Erik. Tellingly, no one offered me action.

Although Erik Seidel’s first-round victory over Huck Seed was no surprise to me, it signaled that Friday would be, especially for the first two brackets, The Day of the Dog. Prior HUC experience proved to be a contra-indicator of 2010 first-round performance. Chris Moneymaker set the tone in the Clubs bracket by avenging is five consecutive losses – his only prior victory coming in the first round of 2005 against Eli Elezra – by dispatching Patrik Antonius in just twenty-three minutes.

Seven minutes later, Jamie Gold further stomped on the bias against “amateur” Main Event champions by busting Dario Minieri. Dario, who I profiled in the process of getting married twice in one day in Las Vegas last summer, is supposedly finding that marriage is an even harder institution to maintain than it is to initiate. One friend told me, “I asked him why he didn’t get divorced and he told me it was because he has no time.” Now facing a weekend in America without plans, divorce lawyers with an eye on the progress of the Heads-Up Championship were practically revving up their engines in a rush to Caesars Palace.

Seated right in front of me were Huck Seed and Erik Seidel. They played a long, close match. As you would imagine from their skills and not their records in the HUC, it was fiercely contested at a high level. Because of my proximity, I was able to watch Seidel play more than I had since my thousand viewings of his heads-up against Johnny Chan at the end of the 1988 World Series of Poker.

Erik Seidel has the perpetual look of a traveling businessman who has just been told his flight has been delayed indefinitely. There is a lot going on in there, but all he wants to show is a vague, Job-like expression of suffering. This is what he looked like when Seed doubled up against him: