Congratulations to Annie Duke, 2010 National Heads-Up Champion! ($500,000)

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Annie Duke didn't have an easy road to the winner's circle of the 2010 National Heads-Up Championship.

Over the past two days, she was involved in some of the longest, most dramatic matches we've seen before finally fighting her way to victory over a very tough opponent in Erik Seidel.

Duke started out the first round by beating her good friend Andy Bloch. She bested Darvin Moon in the Round of 32 before playing an epic match against 2007 NBC Heads-Up Champion Paul Wasicka in the Round of 16. In that match, Duke was all in and at risk of elimination with ace-ten against Wasicka's pocket aces and rivered a straight.

Today she started by playing a marathon match against Jerry Yang where Yang doubled up against her on numerous occasions before finally running out of luck in the quarterfinal round. The semi-final match against Dennis Phillips wasn't any easier.

Then, Duke played three more long matches against her good friend Seidel who, after never making it out of the first round in his previous five appearances, didn't offer any quarter at the final table.

After the match, two centurions escorted Caesar and Cleopatra into the tournament room to present Duke with the winner's trophy and $500,000 in first-place prize money. Seidel graciously stood by her side, $250,000 richer himself.

That concludes our coverage of the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. We hope you've enjoyed it.