Twenty-some years ago, if someone said "heads up," I'd be looking for the ball that was about to fall on my head. For the past ten years, if someone said "heads up," I would think about poker. These days, as a daddy, I can't hear the words "heads up" without thinking about a Disney show my kid watched called "Johnny and the Sprites." The song goes, in part:

Heads up! Look out for a crazy day!
Heads up! For a new game to play!
Heads up! Cause ya never know the next thing that a Sprites gonna do!
And the next big thing just might happen to you!

Now, it might just be the fatigue or the sense that everything around here is one big hallucination, but I think I'm going to vote for this to be the official theme song of today's $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Heads Up Championship.

This is the kind of event that draws the cream of the crop, not to mention a few sprites.


Daniel Negreanu in his match with Freddy Deeb


Isabelle Mercier heads up against John Phan


Joe Hachem facing off against William "BrettFavre" Jensen


Steve Paul-Ambrose


Victor Ramdin

This event is sort of an experiment-in-progress for the World Series, so saying anything definitive on it is ill-advised. For now, we'll see who makes it through to round two and go from there.

In other news, Katja Thater has just sat down at the final table of the $1,500 Razz event and is vowing to place in the top three. If she can do it, she'll better her fifth place finish in the Ladies Event last week. Regardless, she becomes the third member of Team PokerStars this year to make more than one final table.

Terrence Chan, though not an official member of Team PokerStars, has a lot of history with the site and spends a lot of time playing the high-limit cash games. Today, he came into Day 2 of the $2,500 short-handed event with a near-average stack. That changed when he re-raised an early-position raise and call. The original raiser folded, but the caller moved all-in with AQo. Terrence called quickly with two black aces and doubled up to around 210,000 in chips--a better than average stack and one that is dangerous under Terrence's control.

"I thought you were squeezin'," Terrence's opponent moaned.

For now, although mid-afternoon here, this day is just beginning. And I can't get Johnny and the Sprites out of my head.

"Heads up! Look out for a crazy day!"