March 5 - The 2007 NBC National Heads-up poker championship is down to the last eight and there are some surprising names amongst the quarter-finalists. Leading that list has to be Shannon Elizabeth who beat Barry Greenstein and Jeff Madsen to get this far.
Elizabeth, whose claim to fame was being incredibly hot in American Pie has turned into a more than competent poker player. She gunned down Greenstein in the opening round before beating the WSOP wunderkind Jeff Madsen. In the last 16 she defeated Celine Dion's lesser half Rene Angelil.
Shannon Elizabeth will now face Humberto Brenes, the Costa Rican who regularly butchers the English language with his coffehousing table talk, which he employs in order to get under the skin of his opponents.
Paul Wasicka is in the last eight as well, reinforcing my belief that he is one of the top 5 tournament poker players in the world right now. His recent results have been phenomenal, and even though he failed to win the latest WPT event (the L.A. Poker Classic) he still finished 4th and made yet another final table.
Wasicka plays Nam Le. An all-star Full Tilt Poker confrontation is on the cards when Gavin Smith faces Andy Bloch. My money is on Smith here, but it should be close.
Finally, Kristy Gazes plays Chad Brown in a battle of attractive poker players. Gazes is also having a career year, and while it is a surprise to see Brown get this far he does have ability. I still feel that Gazes can win this match-up as he is in exceptional form right now.
A Post-script: South African amatuer Eric Heshler ended up winning the LA Poker Classic and the $2.4 million that goes with the WPT title. Heshler is a lawyer who now lives in California, and this was his first live poker tournament!
