By
Dan |
Published
Feb 25 2009, 09:19 PM
On March 6th, PocketFiver Jonathan FieryJustice Little will once again take to the felts of NBC's "National Heads-Up Poker Championship." Last year, he made quite a splash in the invite-only tournament, reaching the quarterfinals before being defeated by eventual winner Chris Ferguson. Along the way, he defeated an impressive roster of poker pros, including eight-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Erik Seidel, "High Stakes Poker" commentator Gabe Kaplan, and 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer. From his newly-acquired home in Las Vegas, Little spoke with PocketFives.com on what it means to be selected to play in the NBC extravaganza.
Players must put up $20,000 of their own money to enter the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. However, the field itself is invite-only. The 2009 installment marked the first in which tournament organizers issued automatic bids to certain players based on past accomplishments. Little's entry was by virtue of being the reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year. During Season VI of the WPT, Little won the Mirage Poker Showdown for $1 million, took second in the North American Poker Championship for $680,000, and bubbled the final table of the Gulf Coast Poker Championship. During Season V, he made it to the featured table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, taking fifth place for $317,000.
He bested some of the game's top pros in 2008, his first appearance in the unique tournament held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. His run came to an end at the hands of Ferguson (pictured at left). In fact, Ferguson has defeated all but three players he's faced in 19 matches at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, an incredible 84% success rate. "Jesus" has reached the finals in three of the four years that the event has been held, taking home a title in 2008. On the Full Tilt Poker pro's game, Little commented, "When I played Ferguson, I was a 6:1 chip leader and he won a bunch of coin flips. He plays aggressive and wins every time he gets all in. I think he was at the right place at the right time last year. Seidel plays equally as well as, if not better than, Ferguson and he’s 0-4. There’s a lot of variance heads-up."
He told PocketFives.com that he practices for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship by playing $100 turbo heads-up sit and gos on PokerStars. He revealed that the structures are similar, as is the quality of competition. On March 5th at the Pure Nightclub inside Caesars Palace, the match-ups for play the next day will be drawn. Little explained how he prepares for his adversary: "I always try to watch previous tournaments like I do before every WPT final table. I try to figure out everything I can about my opponents. I’m definitely in the minority, although preparation isn’t really talked about." His source for film of previous tournaments: PokerTube.
Others confirmed to play in the 2009 tournament are Andy Bloch, Scott emptyseat88 Fischman, Ted Forrest, Jamie Gold, Barry barryg1 Greenstein (pictured at right), Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Huck Seed, Paul Wasicka, and Jerry Yang. Sixteen players will be making their first appearance in the Heads-Up Championship including European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final Champion Glen Chorny, 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate, 2008 Main Event runner up Ivan Demidov, Dario Minieri, John "The Razor" Phan, Ilari Sahamies, Vanessa Selbst, "Everybody Loves Raymond" actor Brad Garrett, Gavin Griffin, and PocketFiver Bertrand ElkY Grospellier. The field holds 119 WSOP bracelets, 27 WPT titles, and nearly $300 million in live tournament earnings.
On his play against some of the best the game has to offer, Little commented, "I play very differently against an online player than a live player. I'm more aggressive live than online, where I’ll just sit back and let other players hang themselves." On two of the newcomers to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship field, he recalled, "Dario Minieri is very aggressive and good at the turbo structure. John Phan is pretty aggressive and makes good reads."
Other tournament cashes for Little include a seventh place showing in the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $10,300 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event for $107,000. During the 2008 Festa al Lago, he turned in a pair of second place finishes in preliminary events for $126,000 total. Ironically, he was bested by Alec traheho Torelli (pictured at left) in both tournaments.
Criteria to qualify automatically for the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship include being a previous winner of the tournament, being one of the two previous runner ups, the defending semi-finalists, and anyone who has cashed in it four consecutive years. Also invited are previous WSOP Main Event winners, the defending WSOP Main Event runner up, multiple bracelet winners during the previous WSOP, the defending WSOP and WPT Players of the Year, the defending WSOP heads-up champion, the reigning EPT Monte Carlo winner, and the reigning CardPlayer and Bluff Magazine Players of the Year. Nineteen players in total received automatic invites.
This year, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship will pay out as follows:
1st Place: $500,000
2nd Place: $250,000
3rd through 4th Places: $125,000
5th through 8th Places: $75,000
9th through 16th Places: $25,000
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship will air on NBC for six consecutive Sundays beginning on April 12th. Best of luck from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Jonathan FieryJustice Little in the event.