The 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship drew to a close in Las Vegas early on the morning of Tuesday, March 7, with Ted Forrest beating Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson in the best-of-three final.

The tournament, which saw 64 of the world’s top professional players play against each other in a heads-up elimination format, was held in the new poker room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Forrest, who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets pocketed $500,000 for first place, while Ferguson, who was also a beaten finalist in last year’s inaugural tournament, took home $250,000. To reach the final, Forrest knocked-out 5 fellow professionals.

The competition, which took place over four days, features a unique format, with players playing their first round matches on Saturday, March 4, in four different brackets: Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs.

On Sunday, March 5, the series continued until only 8 players remained. They were: James McManus and Chris Ferguson (Clubs), Huckleberry Seed and Barry Greenstein (Spades), Daniel Negreanu and Sean Sheikhan (Hearts), and Ted Forrest and Sam Farha (Diamonds).

After scooping top spot, Forrest told Associated Press: "The players here are all super-high caliber so it means a lot. I've kind of seen what my opponents were willing to give me and adjusted at the table."

Chris Ferguson said: "I would have absolutely loved, loved to win this. It's a very, very important championship, in my opinion. But you can't do it every year. I'm really proud of finishing second two years in a row. That's way harder than winning it once."

Ferguson was beaten in last year’s final by Phil Hellmuth, who was knocked out in the first round this year by Chip Reese.

Results:

1st: Ted Forrest $500,000
2nd: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson $250,000
T4: Shawn Sheikhan $125,000
T4: Huckleberry Seed $125,000
T8: Sam Farha $75,000
T8: Daniel Negreanu $75,000
T8: Jim McManus $75,000
T8: Barry Greenstein $75,000
T16: Ernie Durack $25,000
T16: David Grey $25,000
T16: Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi $25,000
T16: T.J. Cloutier $25,000
T16: David Chesnoff $25,000
T16: Scott Fischman $25,000
T16: Josh Arieh $25,000
T16: Amir Vahedi $25,000