Please download the latest Flash Player. Also make sure you have javascript enabled in your browser.
Beat Howard Lederer in the 1st round of the National Heads-Up Championship
THE LINEUP
The tournament started diplomatically, but some bad beats threatened to cause an international incident. The first skirmish was between Benyamine and Phan. Benyamine flopped a set of nines and eventually raised the pot to almost $30K. Phan had three nines too and the better kicker. He crippled Benyamine and became the overwhelming chip leader. Phan eventually lost most of his chips to Cunningham because he wasn’t more trusting. “Clever Piggy” actually told Phan that he had flopped quad fours but Phan didn’t believe him. Booth took a medium pot from Cunningham, then when on tilt because he didn’t extract more chips. He was eventually ejected in fourth place. Cunningham went from short stack to chip leader thanks to Demidov, then lost everything to Juanda two hands later. Demidov’s patient play allowed him to make it to heads up, but he had less than a fifth of Juanda’s chips. Demidov loosened things up, but it was a case of too little too late.
