Phil Ivey, Huck Seed Favorites for National Heads-Up Poker Championship
March 3rd, 2010
Phil Ivey is a good bet at 10-1; the cat is a great bet at 300-1
Bookmaker SkyBet has announced its odds for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars Palace this weekend, and Phil Ivey shares the front-runner’s position with last year’s champion Huck Seed.
Ivey’s credentials are impeccable. He is tournament poker’s all-time leading money winner with more than $12.8 million in earnings, thanks in large part to his seven WSOP bracelets, three top-20 WSOP Main Event finishes, and a win at the 2008 WPT LA Poker Classic. He has only cashed once at the NHUPC, but that was a third-place tie with Huck Seed in 2008.
Though his tournament record isn’t as heavy on the seven-figure years as Ivey’s, it’s still easy to see why defending champion Seed is a favorite. He owns another three gold bracelets besides the one he got for winning the 1996 WSOP Main Event, he won the heads-up 2008 Canadian Open tournament, and he has cashed in every NHUPC since its inception in 2005. Simply put, if you have nightmares about heads-up play it’s probably because Huck Seed is sitting across from you in dreamland.
Following Seed and Ivey the next favorites are former NHUPC winner Chris Ferguson at 12-1; Tom Dwan, former NHUPC champ Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Patrik Antonius at 16-1; Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, and Gus Hansen at 20-1; and former NHUPC winner Paul Wasicka, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dario Minieri,Vanessa Rousso, Andy Bloch, David Williams and Annette Obrestad at 25-1.
Once you get below the 25-1 mark you’ll start to see some odds that make you wonder what the bookmakers were thinking. Former world champ Joe Hachem and 2009 WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up event winner Leo Wolpert are listed as a 50-1 longshots to win the whole thing, the same odds you can get on one-note players like Jerry Yang and Darvin Moon. Former WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, meanwhile, is listed at 80-1 along with former pro baseball player Orel Hershiser. If you want to look past Phil Ivey andHuck Seed, there’s probably a lot of good value to be found in the lower ranks if you’re looking to put down a few dollars in the hopes of a big score.
The draw party for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship is tomorrow night, and the action gets started at Caesars Palace on Friday.
