NBC Heads Up: It didn’t last quite as long as I would have liked it to

The NBC Heads Up tournament was a pretty amazing experience. Not to give anything away (although the results have been posted pretty much everywhere online already), but it didn’t last quite as long as I would have liked it to!

It was a real honour to be invited to be part of the 64 poker players taking part. The night before the tournament started we had a big red carpet and a drawing party at Pure in Caesars Palace to set the brackets.

My nerve failed me in the live environment

I drew the hearts bracket and my first opponent was Dennis Phillips. He’s a really lovely man and he does a lot of work lobbying to have poker recognised as a skill game and thus have appropriate legislation in the USA so we definitely didn’t run out of conversation!

He also knows a thing or two about heads up poker. Our game had little swings back and forth throughout but generally it was pretty standard heads up play – both playing around 80-90% of our buttons and always with a raise and a fair number of three bet pots. I do think that there were a couple of pots where my nerve failed me in the live environment and I didn’t pull the trigger on the river which lost me a few chips here and there.

It’ll be just what the doctor ordered

Ultimately though, the money went into the middle preflop in a very standard way… I won’t say anything else as the TV company may use a clip from it and I’d hate to ruin it!

Once I was done in Vegas, I headed back home to get some rest and catch up on paperwork. I seem to spend a lot of my time away so there are always a million things to catch up on when I arrive home. I have a friend coming to visit from England in a few days and can’t wait. It’ll be my first real visit from a UK friend and as I’ve been a bit homesick, it’ll be just what the doctor ordered.