DON McDERMOTT / PVT Huck Seed won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas earlier this week. The tournament will be televised on NBC, starting in April. Advertisement

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Las Vegas poker professional Huck Seed has won $500,000 in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, topping a field of 64 players.

The 40-year-old former World Series of Poker main event champion beat 23-year-old poker professional Vanessa Rousso on Sunday night in the finals of the no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Rousso won $250,000 for second place.

"The best poker players are very capable of just adapting to different situations,'' Seed told The Associated Press on Monday. "Heads-up no limit is more suited to people that have very unpredictable, tricky personalities.''

The event's format differs from traditional poker tournaments, challenging players to play a wider range of hands and focus on one opponent at a time in bracket-style matches, rather than a table filled with players.

Invited card players and some celebrities played a series of one-on-one elimination matches trying to advance to the finals. In the finals, Seed had to beat Rousso in two out of three matches to take the title.

Seed said that in traditional tournaments with nine people at a table, players can more easily target certain opponents and avoid others.

Seed won $1 million for winning the World Series of Poker main event in 1996 and has four gold bracelets total, with $2.4 million in series earnings.

"In heads-up, it's kind of like you're just thrown in a cage with an animal and you've got to fight that lion,'' Seed said. "You're just stuck in that one battle.''

Seed took control in the finals after a lengthy semifinal against poker professional Sam Farha, forcing Rousso to bet all her chips with marginal hands.

Seed won the first match when his king-jack held up against Rousso's queen-jack after the five community cards were revealed. He won the title with a pair of kings after Rousso raised for all her chips with a pair of tens.

"I made a funky raise on the turn trying to make it look like a bluff,'' Seed said. "It worked and I tricked her into thinking that I was making a move and she went all in to protect her hand.''

Seed beat poker pros Farha, David Oppenheim and Gus Hansen, among others, before topping Rousso in the finals. Rousso's path went through Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu.

The tournament was scheduled to be televised in a series on NBC starting in April.