Call it a revenge of sorts for Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel, who trumped the field in the 2011 National Heads-Up Poker Championship on Sunday night. Seidel, who was the runner-up to Annie Duke last year, owned a 0-5 record heading into the 2010 tournament series. Now, he’s 11-1 in his last 12 matches and tops poker’s all-time money list. Let’s take a look at the final day of action in the 2011 National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

In a feature article we published yesterday here on PocketFives.com, members of the poker community rooted on Olivier livb112Busquet, who reached the tournament’s Elite Eight, but fell to reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. One poster wrote, “Congrats sir! All of those $600+ HUSNGSs are really paying off.” Another player succinctly commented, “Go Go Olivier.”

Following his elimination on Sunday, Busquet (pictured) Tweeted, “Lost NBC Heads-Up quarterfinal match to Jon Duhamel. He played well. This was a great experience.” He added, “Thanks to @nbcsports and @poker_prod for inviting me to the NBC Heads-Up Championship. It was great. Hopefully I am back next year.” Busquet then hopped a plane back to his home state of New York.

Seidel has been on an absolute tear as of late. Last November, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame alongside Dan Harrington. In January, the Mayfair Club product finished fourth in the $25,000 High Roller Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for nearly $300,000. At the Aussie Millions, Seidel finished third in an AUD $100,000 High Roller Event for USD $618,000 and then came away with the win in the AUD $250,000 Super High Roller Event for a colossal USD $2.4 million.

In February, the Full Tilt Poker pro won the L.A. Poker Classic’s High Roller Event for $144,000 and his victory yesterday in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship was worth three-quarters of a million bucks. According to the Hendon Mob, Seidel now sits atop poker’s all-time money list at $14.7 million, comfortably ahead of Daniel Negreanu’s $14.1 million and Phil Ivey’s $13.8 million. Six months ago, Ivey was the #1 player on the list and Seidel could be found in 11th.

Seidel’s road to the finals included wins over several of the game’s top pros, including Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Vanessa Selbst, and Andrew good2cuRobl, whom he defeated in the Final Four. In the best-of-three finals, Seidel swept 2003 WSOP Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker (pictured), who eliminated John $JMONEY$Racener, Dan jungleman12Cates, Doyle Brunson, David Oppenheim, and Duhamel en route to the final match.

Busquet won the 2009 Borgata Poker Open, a stop on the World Poker Tour, for over $900,000. Last April, he finished second to Tobias Reinkemeier in the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final High Roller Event for nearly $800,000.

The 2011 National Heads-Up Poker Championship will air over the course of six consecutive Sundays starting next month on NBC. Craig Hummer, Ali Nejad, and Leeann Tweeden will once again bring the action to life:

April 17th: Noon to 1:00pm ET
April 24th: Noon to 2:00pm ET
May 1st: Noon to 2:00pm ET
May 8th: Noon to 2:00pm ET
May 15th: Noon to 2:00pm ET
May 22nd: Noon to 3:00pm ET

Moneymaker banked $300,000 for second place, while Busquet collected $75,000 for reaching the quarterfinals. The top 16 players landed in the money. Here’s a look at the final bracket: