Running from the 19th to the 28th May, a festival of poker including a week of heads up action has arrived at the Casino Barcelona in Spain. I've never been to this city, but from what I have heard from the poker players lucky enough to have made this a stop on their European circuit last year, it's a beautiful, fun place with enough stuff to stare at in the day to stop even the hardcore players missing out on it entirely.
With side events of buy-ins €100 to €2,000, there looks to be plenty of action, however, even if one were to bust out of the heads up in the first round... as it concisely reads on the Worldheadsuppoker website: " The sixth annual World Headsup Poker Championship is a No-Limit Holdem tournament played one-against-one, single elimination. Win your match and advance to the next round, lose your match and you're out of the tournament. In the end one player will remain undefeated and be named World Heads Up Poker Champion 2006."
With 20,000 starting chips for the €2,500 +€100 Heads Up Championship, half hour levels and a near guarantee that if you progress far enough you'll make it on to one of their 11 one-hour TV shows, look for a definite desire on the part of all 128 competitors not to be free to see the sights, however.
The first 64 players were scheduled to take on their first opponents this Sunday, 21st May, but to find out, as the website claims, "Who really is the best," you've got to wait until the 28th, when it all comes down to the final two.