Las Vegas Sun

By Jeff Haney

Thu, Mar 5, 2009 (2 a.m.)

With many of poker’s most recognizable figures packed into a relatively small space, this weekend’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship commands perhaps the most star power in the game — per square foot, anyway.

Each player in the field put up $20,000 to play, but all of that money and more will be returned in the prize pool.

As poker pro Gavin Griffin sees it, those factors not only create a win-win situation for the players and the tournament organizers, but they could also indicate the direction in which big-time poker is headed.

Griffin advocates a poker tour populated by established tournament pros and based in part on professional golf’s tour, complete with a system of exemptions, qualifiers and corporate sponsors.

With televised poker ratings trending downward and live tournament fields also largely on the decline, Griffin envisions such a tour — with “brand name” players as headliners — as a catalyst for reinvigorating the game.

“The heads-up tournament is a really cool format to watch because you have so many big-name players, and I think people might be starting to realize that this is the format that is going to attract the most viewers,” Griffin said.

“I know viewership has gone down for televised poker over the last two years or so. I think what will get the most people watching is when they eventually have a poker tour that’s kind of like the PGA Tour. A certain number of people have exemptions to play and there would also be a certain number of tournaments every year where players can qualify for the tour.”

Griffin, competing in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship for the first time in the event’s five-year history, became the first player to win poker’s unofficial “triple crown” last year.

He won the World Poker Tour Borgata Classic in January 2008, adding the title to a World Series of Poker championship bracelet and a European Poker Tour victory.

Even top tournament pros, however, can be hampered by big travel expenses, entry fees and the “rake,” or the house’s cut of the prize money.

“A tour would be good for us as players because hopefully we’d be able to bring in some sort of corporate sponsorships so we wouldn’t have to pay our own buy-ins,” Griffin said. “The way tournaments are now, it’s so hard to make money in tournaments because of how much each casino or each tournament host takes out of the prize pool.

“But it would be a better setup for the organizers as well, because people want to watch the big-name poker players.”

Griffin is emphatically answering a question that has vexed poker players and officials since televised poker emerged as a worldwide phenomenon this decade: Do viewers tune in primarily to see familiar faces (Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, et al.) or to enjoy the nuances of the game itself regardless of who’s playing?

Easy. It’s to watch the big-name stars, according to Griffin.

“It’s nice to know that some guy can show up out of nowhere at the final table once in a while and win, but we’ve got to the point in poker viewership where people don’t want to see that all the time,” Griffin said. “They would rather watch poker pros who have established themselves over time as great players.”

Griffin, who placed sixth of 256 entrants in last year’s $10,000-entry World Series of Poker heads-up tournament, expects to encounter a rugged field in this weekend’s event, which takes place Friday through Sunday at Caesars Palace. He considers a couple of players who made their name at the so-called “nosebleed” stakes online — Tom Dwan and Ilari Sahamies — among the toughest.

“They’ll be a pretty brutal draw in the early rounds,” Griffin said. “I might be a little upset if I run into someone like that in the first round. But most of the best players in poker are on this list of 64.

“Even the celebrities seem to know what they’re doing. Orel Hershiser had a great run last year. I don’t see too many soft spots.”

An intriguing showdown could develop between one of the Internet hotshots and an “old stalwart” — as poker pro Gavin Smith put it — such as Negreanu or Erick Lindgren.

A tournament specialist who travels the world playing poker, Smith counts the annual heads-up event as a highlight of the circuit.

“First off, you are getting all the stars of poker in one place,” Smith said. “In the World Series or the World Poker Tour, you might get one well-known player at the final table. Here you get to see dozens of them.

“Secondly, in heads-up poker there’s action every hand. You don’t have to wait all night for two big hands that are going to provide all the excitement. And the whole match can change instantly, at any time. The event sort of produces its own drama.”

WHAT ARE THE ODDS ON A REPEAT? GLAD YOU ASKED ...

No sanctioned betting takes place on the outcome of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in Nevada casinos, although we hear a thriving underground, person-to-person wagering market surrounds the action.

A year ago our unofficial oddsmaking on the tournament proved prescient (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 27, 2008), so we’ll give ourselves an official pat on the back: Our No. 1 choice, Chris Ferguson at odds of 22-1, went on to win the tournament and its $500,000 top prize.

In the final match, Ferguson beat Andy Bloch, who was our fourth choice in the 64-player field at 24-1.

The other members of last year’s final four — Phil Ivey at 25-1 and Huck Seed at 32-1 — were our fifth (tied with two others) and 11th choices overall.

Ferguson, who also placed second in 2005 and 2006 in the heads-up tournament, again tops our hypothetical tote board of opening odds — for amusement only — to win the 2009 tournament this weekend at Caesars Palace.

The following is the entire list:

21-1: Chris Ferguson

21-1: Andy Bloch

23-1: Phil Ivey

23-1: Tom Dwan

24-1: Allen Cunningham

25-1: Huck Seed

25-1: Howard Lederer

25-1: Phil Hellmuth

27-1: Kenny Tran

31-1: Barry Greenstein

31-1: Paul Wasicka

32-1: Daniel Negreanu

33-1: Ted Forrest

33-1: Scotty Nguyen

35-1: Doyle Brunson

35-1: Jonathan Little

35-1: John Phan

40-1: Chad Brown

40-1: Gavin Griffin

40-1: John Juanda

40-1: Ilari Sahamies

45-1: J.C. Tran

Each 50-1: Johnny Chan, Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate, Gus Hansen, Erick Lindgren, Greg Raymer, Gavin Smith

54-1: Scott Fischman

Each 60-1: David Benyamine, Glen Chorny, Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Dario Minieri, David Pham, Erik Seidel, Mike Sexton

Each 63-1: Sam Farha, Jennifer Harman, Orel Hershiser, Gabe Kaplan, Vanessa Selbst

Each 75-1: Annie Duke, Clonie Gowen, David Williams

Field (all others), 4-1 combined: Don Cheadle, Fred Collins, Eli Elezra, Brad Garrett, Blandino Gines, Jamie Gold, Jeffrey Ishiba, Nicholas Joy, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, Jennifer Tilly, Jerry Yang, Leon Yanovski, Kenny Yeh

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