Dwan-Hellmuth II (No Shinola!)

In that post earlier this week about the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, I very nearly said something about the Layne Flack-Vanessa Selbst first round match being the most intriguing of the opening round pairings. As far as I was concerned, anyway.

I happened to have had the chance last summer to watch both Flack and Selbst win bracelets at the World Series of Poker, where I helped cover both players’ final tables. Both were especially dominant in their respective events, particularly during the endgame. Thought that would make for a helluva heads-up.

As you’ve probably heard, the match never took place, as Flack got himself into some trouble with the authorities the night before (including an arrest for DUI) and thus missed the event. David Oppenheim took his slot, and managed to beat Selbst. (Here’s the rundown on the Flack debacle, if you missed it.)

Anyhow, now they’ve reached the “sweet sixteen” out at Caesars, with several interesting matchups having come together there in the third round. Am especially interested in seeing how the Daniel Negreanu vs. Scotty Nguyen match goes, as well as John Phan vs. Sammy Farha.

Of course, the most intriguing third round match has gotta be the rematch between Tom Dwan and Phil Hellmuth, set to start later tonight. Something tells me that one is gonna last longer than three hands this time.

If yr interested, F-Train and Garry Gates are doing a great job live blogging the sucker over on PokerNews.