Chris “Jesus” Ferguson has won the NBC National Heads-up Championship

It is a $20,000 buy-in, 64 entrant, invitation only, event.  An event which Ferguson has a fantastic record in.  Now, to date, out of 19 matches, he has won 16, and lost 3

In this years event his victims in order were:

John Juanda

Gavin Smith

Mike Matusow

Jonathan Little

Phil Ivey (semi-final)

Andy Bloch (in the final)

Ferguson picked up a prize check of $500,000 for the win

Well, this girl from Norway sure runs good!

 Lets start with a little background in the form of some recent large cashes

 1. 5th Aug 2007 - Wins the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan (1st out of 3268, $215 buy-in) winning $117,027

2. 10th Sept 2007 - Wins the WSOPE Main Event (£10,000 buy-in), a small matter of £1,000,000, which is equivalent of around $2,000,000

3. 7th Oct 2007 - Wins a $216 buy-in on Full Tilt (1st of 728 entrants), winning $34,944

4. 30th Oct 2007 - 2nd in EPT Dublin, winning around $430,000

5. 18th Dec 2007 - 5th out of 319 in a $1050 buy-in on Full Tilt, winning $22,330

6. 13th Feb 2008 - 5th out of 377 in a $1050 buy-in on PokerStars, winning $22,620

And then fast forward to last weekend.   The Sunday Hundred Grand is an $11 buy-in.  Peanuts one might say.  And on the 2nd Mar 2008 there were 20,000 entrants.   Yes 20,000.  You thought Jamie Gold had in tough in 2006 negociating the main event, but how about negociated a field of 20,000!

Well, Annette_15 managed it in style.  1st out of 20,000, winning $20,000

Long may the wins continue

JohnnyBax (aka Cliff Josephy in the real world) almost needs no introduction.   His online status is legendary.   With over $1.5 million in winnings on PokerStars alone, coverting 670K to profit, he is a goliath of the MTT world.

JohnnyBax also shows good judgement in general with money management, hightlighted to great affect fairly recently when he part-staked Annette Obrestad in the WSOPE Main Event (an event which she won).  He and a friend put up $10,000 of the $20,000 (equiv) entry fee, and as a result chopped $1,000,000 with his friend after she won.   Not bad for a day in the office!

We wish Johnny good luck at the tables, not that he needs it

Gavin Griffin arrived on the live poker scene in May 2004 when he won a WSOP bracelet in PL Holdem.  It was a $3000 buy-in event, and he won $270,420.

Fast forward to March 07, and Griffin arrving amonst the big ballers.   He took down the EPT Monte Carlo for 1.8 million Euros, which is about $2.4 Million (US$)

 Then, in January 2008 he won the Borgata Open (a WPT event), taking down another huge win-fall of $1.4 million

 All of this, and a couple of more minor scores, have propelled him to 39th in the all time money list.   Ladies and Gentlement, pink hair is in this season; and long may Griffin continue to dazzle the poker tables.

He may not be quite as cool as Farha, Ivey, and Brunson; or have the stage presence of Hellmuth or Negreanu, but Seidel sure can play poker.   Winner of no fewer than 8 bracelets, this man is to be feared in all disciplines of the game.  

 Most recently this was demonstrated again with another big score, taking 2nd place in the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event, for a small matter of $1,000,000.  The eventual winner was Alexander Kostritsyn  who picked up a $1,650,000 check.

 Look out for Mr Seidel at a final table near you soon

Howard Lederer has had an interesting poker history, from the days of sleeping rough as an aspiring poker player, up to the present day as the winner of many major tournaments

Howard “The Professor” Lederer is seen as an expert on the theory of the games, and is one of Full Tilt’s key spokespeople and offical Full Tilt Pro

 His most recent major victory was in the $100,000 buy-in event in the 2008 Aussie Millions.    This huge buy-in would have many poker players running for the hills.  Not only did Lederer stump up the cash to enter, but he won the event for a cool $1.25 million

This area of Bounty Hunter Poker is dedicated to poker news, with a little poker thoughts and philosophy thrown in for good measure.  I hope you find it informative

 Regards, Bounty Hunter Poker