The Heads Up Challenge

One of the PSCrew Bloggers, McLaughlin04 issued a standing challenge to anyone for a best-of-five series of HU matches. I like HU action and was first in line.
The action kicked off last night with a one-hand PLO tournament.
I was deal AxAd9dXx on the first ahnd and raised, out of position. He called an on the flop I was sitting with an overpair and a flush draw. He raised my pot size bet pot, and I took a hard look at the board. I put him on two pair, and figured with my AA I had enough outs to put him to the test. He called with a set of ducks.
I turned the flush, and that was all she wrote.

Today we set to concluding the series. We started with NL HE and then PL HE.
I played poorly in NL HE and the deck hit him squarely in the face. I was felted within the first two levels.
In PL HE we fought back and forth, but he made a good call against me with second pair to end the game.

I felt like the HE events would be my best, and I'd blown both of them. Next was PLO H/L. I must say, that's not a very fun game to play HU with small blinds. I knocked him down immediately, but he came back with two suckouts to get it back to 1750-1250 or so. Eventually I called a raise with the mighty 8d9d5x2x and flopped a 6-hi straight. The flop also gave me a lo, and when the betting took off I figured we'd split.
It turned out, he'd decided to recklessly bluf with KKxx. He din't have a chance for a low and need to hit a set and then fill up to double up.
His luck wasn't that good and we were tied 2-2.
The last game of the day was Stud. Fittingly it was a $10+.5, instead of $5+.25 like all the others.

I don't think he'd played much stud before....
I took a quick lead, and widened it and widened it and widened it. My reads were dead on, and I only lost big pots due to suckouts.
When he was down to 250, the big bet was 50. I was dealt 88x and he limp-raised me before fourth came out. I figured he meant to go with this hand come hell or high water, so I jammed. I was right and we got it all in on 4th or 5th.
He'd chosen AQ8 to go with, and I was way ahead. I kept my eyes glued on his cards and he never improved better than a pair of 8s.

With that hand I had won the HU Challenge.
How dramatic.

But really, I'm very competitive and winning was pretty fun, especially after giving up the HE events. I was really close to tilting after losing the PL HE, and I think the change in games is the only reason I didn't. After I won the PLO H/L, I was determined to win the whole thing, and my previous stud experience, modest as it is, paid off.

I figured the monumental win earns a trophy.