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Rousso makes history at NBC Heads Up Championship

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso has just done something no other person has done before.

Rousso went to the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas and faced, without question, the toughest path to the finals as any player ever. After beating the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and ElkY, Rousso made it deeper in the 64-player person field than any woman ever has.

Rousso's blitz through poker's legends gained her even more respect. Her seat at the final table put her in the history books. Though she couldn't take down the championship, she still proved her place in the poker world. For her efforts, she will take home $250,000.

Full results from the Team PokerStars Pro players are below. Congrats to all of them for their big finishes.

2. Vanessa Rousso -- $ 250,000
4. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier -- $125,000
5. Daniel Negreanu -- $ 75,000

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, Vanessa Rousso, nbcheadsupchampionship, vanessarousso | Comments Off

Negreanu, ElkY, Rousso fight for NBC heads up title

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

By Sunday's end, a member of Team PokerStars Pro could very well be the NBC Heads Up Poker Champion.

Daniel Negreanu, ElkY, and Vanessa Rousso have all made it to today's quarter finals. While all three have a shot at the title, only one of them can make it to the finals.

The first match will put Negreanu up against Rousso in the finals of the Clubs bracket. Rousso has already beat Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, and Paul Wasicka and likely has had the toughest road to the quarter finals of anyone in the field. Negreanu will be her final challenge in the original bracket. Whoever wins will go on to play the winner of the Spades bracket.

And that is where it gets interesting.

The Spades bracket final will see Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier fighting against poker brat Phil Hellmuth. As you're aware, ElkY is no slouch heads up. He finished runner up in the last WCOOP high roller heads-up event and has tons of heads up experience otherwise. Hellmuth seems on a roll this year, however, and doesn't look to be an easy mark.

On the other side of the bracket, David Williams will play Sammy Farha and David Oppenheim will take on Huck Seed.

Whoever wins will have to win their next three matches. It all happens today in Las Vegas where a winner will be crowned this evening.

Good luck to Negreanu, ElkY, and Rousso.

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

Team PokerStars Pro still alive in NBC Heads Up Championship

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

If you had a chalk bracket going into day 1 of the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship, find a bird cage to line, because it's pretty much worthless today. Well, not entirely. Several matches went the way the experts predicted, but the last year's champion and runner-up (and favorites to go deep this year) both went out in during round 1. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Andy Bloch will spending the rest of the weekend doing something else.

Several members of Team PokerStars made it through to the second round and now have their chance to take the national heads-up title.

Vanessa Rousso defeated poker legend Doyle Brunson in the first round and will now have another huge hill to climb. She now goes up against Phil Ivey.

After beating Chris Moneymaker in round 1, Daniel Negreanu will now have to face another member of Team PokerStars Pro. Round 2 in the clubs bracket will pit Negreanu against Dario Minieri. If that's not a TV table, I don't know what is.

In the spades bracket, ElkY and Barry Greenstein will have a chance to move onto the third round. Both men beat PokerStars qualifiers in the first round. Now ElkY with face Ilari Sahamies. Greenstein will go up against the formidable Tom Dwan.

Good luck to the remaining members of Team Pokerstars Pro in Round 2.

The full list of match-ups is below.

Hearts bracket

Eli Elezra v. Erick Lindgren
David Williams v. Scott Fischman
John Phan v. Jerry Yang
Sam Farha v. Peter Eastgate

Diamonds bracket

Kenny Tran v. Jen Harman
Phil Laak v. David Oppenheim
Gus Hansen v. Huck Seed
Glen Chorny v. Brad Garrett

Clubs bracket

Don Cheadle v. Paul Wasicka
Phil Ivey v. Vanessa Rousso
Scotty Nguyen v. Ted Forrest
Daniel Negreanu v. Dario Minieri

Spades bracket

Gabe Kaplan v. John Juanda
Ilari Sahamies v. Bertrand Grospellier
Jeffrey Ishbia v. Phil Hellmuth
Tom Dwan v. Barry Greenstein

Photo credit: Stephanie Moore -- NBC Sports

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

NBC Heads Up Championship begins today

Friday, March 6th, 2009

In less than six hours, the 2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship begins and now we know who will face each other in the first round.

As we mentioned yesterday, a host of Team PokerStars Pros, one Friend of PokerStars and a PokerStars NBC Heads Up Qualifier are in Las Vegas for the $20,000 buy-in 64-player heads-up event.

Last night, the players went to the draw party at Pure and learned who they will play today. The first round only sees one match-up that pits a Team PokerStars Pro versus another. In the Clubs bracket, Daniel Negreanu will play Chris Moneymaker. The winner of that match will go on to face the winner of the match between Dario Minieri and Mike Matusow. Elsewhere in the Clubs bracket, Vanessa Rousso will sit down across the small felt from the godfather of poker, Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson,

The Clubs bracket will also see a repeat of a match-up from 2008. Last year Friend of PokerStars Orel Hershiser defeated Ted Forrest in round one before going on to make it to the quarter finals and a $75,000 win. Finally in the Clubs bracket, Hevad Khan will have a shot against Prince of Poker Scotty Nguyen. Khan was a late add to the field of 64 after Ivan Demidov could not make it Vegas.

PokerStars qualifier Blandino Gines already has his work cut out for him. He drew Barry Greenstein in the first round of the Spades bracket. The Spades bracket will also see 2005 World Series Champion Joe Hachem go up against John Juanda and Gavin Griffin play Tom Dwan. Finally, we know ElkY is playing a man named Fred Collins. Collins qualified on PokerStars but we are not yet 100% sure he showed up in Vegas. More to come on this as the event progresses.

The Diamonds division rounds out the field and puts 2004 World Series champion Greg Raymer up against Jennifer Harman and Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown against 2008 EPT Grand Final champion Glen Chorny.

The full brackets are below. Good luck to everybody today.

Clubs Bracket

Don Cheadle vs. David Pham
Paul Wasicka vs. Nicholas Joy
Jennifer Tilly vs. Phil Ivey
Doyle Brunson vs. Vanessa Rousso
Hevad Khan vs. Scotty Nguyen
Ted Forrest vs. Orel Hershiser
Daniel Negreanu vs. Chris Moneymaker
Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri

Hearts Bracket

Johnny Chan vs. Eli Elezra
Erick Lindgren vs. Howard Lederer
JC Tran vs. David Williams
Jamie Gold vs. Scott Fischman
Erik Seidel vs. John Phan
Jerry Yang vs. Clonie Gowen
Allen Cunningham vs. Sam Farha
Andy Bloch vs. Peter Eastgate

Spades Bracket

Gabe Kaplan vs. Chris Ferguson
John Juanda vs. Joe Hachem
Ilari Sahamies vs. Gavin Smith
Fred Collins vs. Bertrand Grospellier
Jeffrey Ishbia vs. Leon Yanovski
Mike Sexton vs. Phil Hellmuth
Gavin Griffin vs. Tom Dwan
Barry Greenstein vs. Blandino Gines

Diamonds Bracket

Kenny Tran vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Greg Raymer vs. Jennifer Harman
Kenny Yeh vs. Phil Laak
Vanessa Selbst vs. Layne Flack
David Benyamine vs. Gus Hansen
Huck Seed vs. Jonathan Little
Chad Brown vs. Glen Chorny
Annie Duke vs. Brad Garrett

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, blandinogines, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

PokerStars qualifier in Vegas for NBC Heads Up Championship

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

At 19 years old, Blandino Gines had just come to America. He picked grapes for a living in California. He moved to Alaska and canned salmon. He taught himself to weld and moved to Seattle for another job.

Now, he is unemployed, a victim of layoffs and the tough economy. By the end of this weekend, Gines will have faced off against the best poker players in the world for a chance at half a million bucks in the NBC Heads Up Championship.

Blines qualified for his seat through a series of freerolls on PokerStars. When it was over, he was happy to have won the $1,000 travel money. He wasn't exactly clear on the implications of his success.

"I didn't think it was real when they first called me," Gines said. "I thought I just won $1,000. I didn't know that they were going to send me to Vegas to play in NBC Heads-Up. This is unbelievable. I am still in shock."

Originally from the Philippines, the father of three now spends a lot of time playing poker.

"I fell in love with the game," he said. "It's challenging. Later I learned some skills, then I started to play online and won some tournaments. I now have my chance to play in this tournament. I'm so excited."

In early February, Gines entered PokerStars' National Heads-Up Poker Championship promotion and survived 590,000 players through three rounds to win his seat. Gines first started playing poker two and a half years ago after watching poker on TV. He immediately created an account on PokerStars, and has been playing online ever since.

"I can't believe I might have the chance to play against Daniel Negreanu and Greg Raymer," Gines said.

He has that chance. The $20,000 buy-in will host Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, and Vanessa Rousso. Friend of PokerStars Orel Hershiser will also be among the runners.

Tonight, the Team Pros, Hershiser, and Gines will attend the draw party at the Pure nightclub and learn who they will face in the first round on Friday.

Keep it here for all the news on how they do.

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, blandinogines, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

Team PokerStars Pros, qualifiers to go heads-up on NBC

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

When March rolls around, most right-thinking folks' minds drift to March Madness, the Big Dance, the Final Four, and all things related to NCAA basketball. At least, that's how it goes in America. Elsewhere, March may mean nothing of the kind. When it comes to poker, however, March means something else entirely, and this event has worldwide appeal.

Next week, Team PokerStars Pro, a Friend of PokerStars, and two PokerStars online qualifiers will be heading to Las Vegas for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

The $20,000 buy-in invitation-only event is a tournament coveted by the world's top pros. Only a select few get in. This year, Team PokerStars Pro is well-represented in the field. Among the field of 64 will be Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, and Vanessa Rousso.

Joining the Team at the event will be Friend of PokerStars, Orel Hershiser. You might remember Hershiser shocked the tournament field last year when he made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the event. On his way, Hershiser beat out Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, and Freddy Deeb, before falling to eventual runner-up Andy Bloch. Hershiser won $75,000 for his performance. He went on to make a WCOOP final table in 2008.

PokerStars is also sending Blandino Gines and Fred Collins to the Heads-Up Championship. Gines and Collins both qualified via a series of online qualifiers. Last Sunday, the two players finished ahead of more than 500 other hopefuls. Gines and Collins will have their buy-ins and expenses covered next week. In the coming days, we hope to bring you more of their stories.

The action will all kick off on March 5 when the players will learn who they are playing in the first round on March 6.

Good luck to all the PokerStars players.

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, nbcheadsupchampionship | Comments Off

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