Paul Wasicka wins National Heads Up Poker Championship
Author: Marc Weinberg
March 6 - In yesterday's column I argued that Paul Wasicka is currently one of the Top 5 tournament poker players in the world and that he had to be the favorite of the remaining eight quarter-finalists in NBC's National Heads Up Poker Championship. Wasicka delivered yet again, beating Chad Brown in the final.
It was an intriguing Elite Eight with Shannon Elizabeth, the giant-killing actress, continuing her amazing run in this event as she knocked off Humberto Brenes. No one impressed more in this tournament than Elizabeth with the exception of Wasicka, who played consistently great poker. In that sense it was fitting that Shannon Elizabeth was ultimately eliminated in the Final Four by Wasicka in a great battle.
At one point she had the WSOP Main Event runner-up on the ropes with a 5:1 chip lead, but she could not close out the match. Wasicka rallied to complete an amazing week in tournament poker after he finished 4th at the WPT's L.A. Poker Classic.
His opponent in the final was the surprising Chad Brown who got past Kristy Gazes and Gavin Smith. Smith eliminated Andy Bloch in a battle of Full Tilt endorsers, again as I predicted in yesterday's column.
The final was a best of three contest but Paul Wasicka only needed two matches to complete the victory. An awesome effort and another $500,000 for Kwickfish. He has now banked over $950,000 in the past week of poker. Nice job.
