Poker: WPT Battle of Champions lives up to its title

I had this nightmare once: I was playing in the World Series of Poker's mixed doubles tournament with Phil Gordon, and we were heads-up with Annie Duke and Howard Lederer. Of course, I got to play against Howard, who terrified the daylights out of me. He proceeded to beat me like a rented goalie.

There was a similar nightmare where I played in the L.A. Poker Classic heads-up against Gus Hansen and, on national TV with all my friends watching, he proceeded to bust me.

Juha Helppi, of course, beat Phil in last season's Ultimate Poker Classic, causing me to be very unhappy indeed.

I can't say I've ever had nightmares or fits over Ron Rose, Jose Rosenkrantz, or Chris Karagulleyan, but the first-ever World Poker Tour Battle of Champions was otherwise pretty much pulled directly out of my darkest fears. What, you expected this to be anything else?

Here's how it all began:

1. Ron Rose - $1,458,000 2. Juha Helppi - $1,396,000 3. Howard Lederer - $1,334,000 4. Jose Rosenkrantz - $663,000 5. Gus Hansen - $383,000 6. Chris Karagulleyan - $266,000

Nobody had any time to get comfortable. I didn't have time to get comfortable. Three minutes into the showdown, Gus Hansen was gone. The winningest player on the World Poker Tour and someone universally feared was done as Juha's A-9 matched his K-Q and got lucky when an ace turned up on the flop. I think I choked on my soda.

The horror wasn't over yet. Ten minutes after that, Chris's day was over when he matched J-10 against Jose's A-J on a meaningless deal of Q-7-4-K-5. I've held some respect for Chris Karagulleyan for sticking it to an arrogant player in the L.A. Poker Classic last year, so I was sad to see him go, but it was obvious the big guns weren't holding back.

Part of me has always wanted revenge for Phil Gordon's loss at Aruba, so I was just the slightest bit happy a quarter into the second hour when Ron sent Juha home, holding K-8 against Juha's 10-9. The deal of 8-7-10-4-4 may have given Juha a high pair, but it made Ron a flush, and I could kind of laugh for a completely inane reason.

I was still pulling vehemently for Howard Lederer, who is as you all know my second favorite poker player behind Phil. In fact, when I saw the commercial for this table, I blurted out an excited "Howard!" and grinned like an idiot. Just like I'd hoped for when I spotted him at the Grand Prix de Paris, he was actually at the table. Of course, he was going to murder everybody, right?

Okay, so I can't pick them all the time.

Jose beat Howard with half an hour to go, his pair of sevens holding up against Howard's 6-3 on a deal of K-5-2-6-A. I have no idea why Howard chose to go all-in on that hand, but I do know I was very sad to see him go. Oh, well. He'd still beat the daylights out of me any day of the week (which I know isn't saying much).

This left Ron and Jose. I wasn't really familiar with either of them, so I had no idea who the heck would win this one, but it was obvious from who they'd gone through and what they'd done to get this far that either one would rightfully be the Champion of Champions.

Finally, 24 minutes later, Ron's 7-J matched Jose's K-Q. The flop went J-10-7, and when Jose caught a queen on the turn he was convinced he had the best hand. The river was a useless 4, though, and Ron Rose was the last man standing.

Unlike other WPT tables, no one other than Ron took home any money in the Battle of Champions. But who really needed the money? He'd earned the right to be called the best WPT player in all the land -- at least for one day. That's pretty cool in its own right.

And considering the winners of some of Season 2's tables, I can't wait to see next year's Battle of Champions.