World Heads Up Poker Champion

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EDLER THE NEW HEADS UP CHAMP

Top 64 players battle it out for 3 days


Las Vegas poker pro Bill Edler proved that expertise travels well when he took the World Heads Up Poker Champion title at the beautifully renovated Crystal Casino in Los Angeles this week, beating a series of top opponents drawn from a pool of 64 top players on the way.

It took three days to decide the top dog in a competition that showcased the skill and character of many of the world's leading poker players, with Edler finally dominating the deciding confrontation with Barry Greenstein. On the way to the top Edler initially beat More Eskandani and Kristy Gazes, and prevailed against Brad 'Yukon' Booth in the quarter finals, leaving only Jose Tavares in the semi-final before he went up against Greenstein.

Greenstein himself has some tough opposition as he went after the money - Trish LeBlanc and Patrik Antonius, Dustin Woolf at the quarter final level and finally 2006 Player of the Year Michael Mizrachi in the semis before he sat across the final table with Edler.

But it was Edler's day, and the Las Vegas player left the room with the winner's paycheck of $215 000 in his pocket, leaving Greenstein with a consolatory $107 500.

The $10 000 buy-in series of heads-up (one-on-one) Texas Hold’em matches met everyone's expectations, as players representing four international regions went after the “World Heads up Champion” title. The star-studded poker-pro tournament launched with a live pairing party on Monday, February 5th, hosted at the nearby Yosh’s Sushi Bar in the legendary Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens.

Following Monday evening’s pairing party, the event moved down the street to the newly renovated Crystal Casino & Hotel Event Centre, with the first round beginning at 2:00pm Tuesday. The final day’s events culminated on February 8th.

Players were divided into 4 brackets (regions) and advanced by winning their heads up matches against randomly drawn opponents.

Produced by Joker Gaming, LLC, the event will be televised and was broadcast live via the Internet on Liveatthebike.com and PokerNetcast.com.

The heads up format attracts the most ferocious and aggressive poker players seeking fame and a slice of a prize pool that this year reached $640 000, bringing a stellar cast of players to the tables that included Chris Ferguson, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Mizrachi, Gabe Kaplan, Cyndy Violette, Erick Lindgren, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, John Phan, Huck Seed, Yosh Nakano, Gavin Smith, JJ Liu, Jennifer Harman, Joe Sebok, Mo Fathipour, and Lakers’ own Jerry Buss and Frank Mariani.