Chris Moore Wins LA Poker Classic Heads-Up Championship 2010

After being beaten by Vivek Rajkumar at last year’s LA Poker Classic Heads-Up Championship final, Chris Moore got his revenge on his opponent by defeating him in a repeat encounter at this year’s final.
Last year, the inaugural LA Poker Classic Heads-Up Championship managed to attract a field of 111 players, all  willing to shell out the $10,000 buy-in for a shot at the title. On that occasion Vivek Rajkumar walked away with $350,000 while Moore settled for the $190,000 runner-up prize.
This year, despite a significantly reduced field of 39 players at Los Angeles’ Commerce Casino, it was Chris Moore’s time to come away the victor and $152,200 better off, while Vivek Rajkumar collected $76,100 for coming in second.
Chris Moore won all his matches on Day 1 and so needed only to defeat Anthony Guetti then Aaron Jones to book his seat at the final table via the winner’s bracket route. In the meantime, his erstwhile opponent Vivek Rajkumar lost a match on Day 1 and so had to take on and beat Eugene Katchalov, Thomas Gabriel, Guetti, Michael Binger and Jones before finally taking his seat opposite Moore.
As the re-match got underway, the game progressed cautiously with the blinds relatively low at 100-200, but before long Rajkumar’s stack had been reduced to just 5,000 chips after mucking a series of hands without a showdown.
The final blow fell after Vivek Rajkumar bet out on a Kd 7s 5d flop holding Ks 7h, only to be re-raised by Moore with Qd 8d. Rajkumar made the call and despite not liking the 2d which then fell on the turn found himself committed to making an all-in call for his tournament life. The 9h on the river didn’t affect the outcome and Moore’s flush was enough to hand him the LA Poker Classic HU title, $152,200 in prize money and a $10,000 seat at the L.A. Poker Classic main event.
The young poker pro from Chicago has now earned over $1.5 million from live tournament cashes, including his biggest score to date of $692,286 for a 1st place finish at the 2008 Wynn Classic.