Ted Forrest is NBC's new National Heads-Up poker champion. In the early hours of Tuesday morning Ted Forrest beat former WSoP champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson taking home the trophy and the $500,000 first prize.
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is a tournament between 64 of the world's best poker professionals competing in a series of heads-up matches to determine who is the best one-on-one poker player in the world.
Chris Ferguson also finished second in last year's inaugural edition of the tourney at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, an accomplishment that might be even more impressive than winning the tourney. In 2005 Ferguson was bested by Phil Hellmuth, and this year the honors were for Ted Forrest, a professional poker player who specializes in cash games.
Forrest defeated Sam Farha and Shawn Sheikan on his way to the final table where he met the runner-up from last year, Chris Ferguson. The two players battled for almost four hours in a series of three heads-up matches. Ferguson won the first match but didn't deliver in the next two matches which were both won by Forrest.
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning Forrest went all-in with K7 unsuited only to be called correctly by the short-stacked Ferguson with a Queen of clubs and a Jack of diamonds. The board delivered two Kings for Forrest making him the new National Heads-Up poker champion.
NBC was very content with the popularity of the show last year, with over six million people watching the finale between Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson. This year's edition might even be watched by more people. The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is a very welcome addition to televised poker and we're already looking forward to next year's edition.
NBC will air the tournament in ten consecutive episodes starting April 16th.