Poker News

Huck Seed recently emerged as the champion of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The fifth installment of the popular tournament featured Seed square off against Go Daddy Girl and Team PokerStars Pro member Vanessa Rousso in the finals, with Seed winning the best of three match. Seed, who won the 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event title, owns an 18-4 record in National Heads-Up Poker Championship play. He sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss his $500,000 payday.

Poker News Daily: Talk about your game plan heading into the finals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship against Vanessa Rousso, who seemed destined to win after being named the newest go Daddy Girl on Thursday.

Seed: I really didn’t have a game plan. A friend of mine sent me a text message with some information on her, but I didn’t get it. I really don’t like to make a plan before a heads-up match. I like to play a slower feeling-out style during the first few hands. If it’s someone I’ve never played with, I’ll try to find some things out about them, especially nowadays when there are so many people I’ve never heard about.

PND: You defeated Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little in the first round, then Gus Hansen, Glen Chorny, David Oppenheim, and Sam Farha. Talk about your road to the finals against Vanessa Rousso.

Seed: I was value betting and got a lead on Jonathan Little. I got paid off on a big pot where I had aces. I raised, he re-raised, and I called. On an ace-high flop, I decided to make a weak-looking bet hoping he’d float with nothing. He called, so I was hoping he had something. I made a big value bet on the river; he called and was super crippled.

I knew Gus Hansen would play aggressively. I flopped a big hand and checked all the way; he bet all the way with nothing. I also won a coin flip with A-Q versus pocket jacks.

I had a big hand versus big hand situation against Glen Chorny. I held a tiny chip lead and then won a big pot with nines when I flopped trips and he flopped an open-ended straight draw. The turn gave me a full house. He bet out and I called. On the river, he made his straight and I put him all in, which was a slight over-raise. He deliberated for a long time. I knew that he had at least trips and maybe a straight. I thought he might lay it down. He kept saying that he had to call and did.

Against David Oppenheim, I was never in any jeopardy. I had a tiny chip lead. I raised on the button with eights and he re-raised me. I decided to make a giant all-in. I had a feeling that he was going to do a fair amount of re-raising. I had a hand that wasn’t worth all of my chips, but I decided to do it, as it might have made him think more about re-raising me in the future. He called with A-Q, thinking that there was a small chance I had a really bad hand.

David has a lot of respect for my No Limit tournament game. He decided he was going to gamble with me in a coin flip because he didn’t want to have a long, drawn-out match. He doesn’t play a lot of No Limit tournaments, but had just entered the Commerce Casino’s $10,000 Heads-Up Championship, winning his first six matches against young internet heads-up sit and go specialists [eventually finishing fourth]. He was in a nice groove. He had won nine of ten heads-up matches and just beat Kenny Tran, who won the World Series of Poker Heads-Up tournament last year.

My worst match was against Sammy Farha. I had low mental energy at the beginning. I had a nice lead, but then he started playing really well and we got back to even. He said that he had pocket jacks four times. I made a big mistake where we got it all in, he had the best hand, and I was crippled. It was like I had a little bit of a mental block. I had gotten to that stage in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship before, but played badly. I came back against Sammy, won a couple of all-ins, and went from there.

I took a break, worked out, laid down, and came back fired up for the match against Vanessa Rousso. She’s sweet lady. She’s very well-composed and polite. She loves the game and she’s excited about poker. I was trying to thrive off of her game and intensity.

PND: Vanessa Rousso told us that you let her be the aggressor, which was actually the strategy she had used to defeat her opponents in the tournament. Is that a fair assessment of what happened?

Seed: During the first match, I chipped away at her. By the time we played an all-in pot, she had 280,000 chips and I had one million, over a 3:1 chip lead. There were no major pots. I didn’t try any big bluffs and played a slow, careful style. I made a nice laydown when she had four aces and I had flopped top pair. I laid down hands to her value bets. I was able to make value bets and develop a nice chip lead.

I feel like I switch gears well. My normal game is maybe a little more conservative than most. I’ll limp on the button and sometimes not raise with big hands or those with a lot of post-flop potential. I play small pots. I don’t mind checking top pair and checking with big hands. I do a lot of different things. Some people who play heads-up want to keep the pressure on and bet every flop. Pretty soon, the pots are going to get really big.

PND: The game has been turned upside down since you won the WSOP Main Event back in 1996. Thirteen years later, what keeps you coming back to the tables?

Seed: I still played poker, but wasn’t focused on improving my game. I had a period of my life where I was depressed and didn’t play much. My game deteriorated for a while and that was when poker first got on television. Everyone was learning, studying, and playing. I was always the one who had an advantage of playing more and being in the groove more. Suddenly, these kids had played a lot on the internet and brought the game to a new level. If you want to learn how to play No Limit Hold’em, it’s been deeply discussed. There are a lot of people dedicated to learning the game. You can get a solid mathematical understanding easily nowadays.

PND: Are you looking forward to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship debuting on NBC on Sunday, April 12th at Noon ET?

Seed: In general, I don’t watch poker on television. I would watch the final to see what I looked like. I would like to see the match against Sammy to get an idea of what he was doing, but I generally don’t watch television.

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