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Event #16, Heads-Up ($2000 +$150)
NL, Double Elimination

On-Line Olivier, Live and in Person

On-line high-stakes heads up sit and go specialist, Olivier Busquet is still alive in the losers bracket after winning three Friday matches. After losing to September heads up champion Jesse Yaginuma in the third round of the winner's bracket, Busquet's won four in a row and is now playing Jason Lufkin in the money round, as all 6 remaining players will cash.

"It's a really different experience," says Busquet, who won Borgata's Championship Event at September's Poker Open. "I've played a million hands on-line, but maybe only 10-thousand in live action. I'm learning to trust my reads a lot more."

Busquet, who has more than one million dollars in career earnings, and countless more on-line, says that it's been a tough field of 64 at Borgata and is slightly disappointed he didn't get to play Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist Michael Phelps in the last round.

"It would've been cool," he says. "I know he plays a lot of poker and would've been a tough match. The fact that he's an expert, I would've liked to have seen how the competition transferred to poker. Because really, that's what this is competition."

Phelps lost to Basilios Diakokomninos in the double elimination format, who then lost to Busquet in the 7th round of the losers bracket.

Busquet's guaranteed to earn at least $6,208 for a 5th/6th place finish, as nearly $50,000 is up for grabs to the heads up champion. "This format is great," he says, "the fact that you're only playing a person one time, really lessens whatever edge I may have and forces me to focus and step up my game."

Lufkin vs Busquet
Losers Bracket Quarterfinal