Caesars Palace Hosts NBC Heads-Up Championship
Following the LAPC, the poker world’s attention quickly shifts to the made-for-television NBC Heads-Up Championship. This is the fourth year for the event, and the third year that Caesars Palace will be hosting. Previous winners include Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, and the defending champion, Paul Wasicka.
The $20,000 buy-in, invitation-only event will take place February 29th through March 2nd at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The sixty-four person list of invitees consists of the best poker players in the world, along with a few poker-playing celebrities, and two qualifiers. The final sixteen will all be guaranteed at least $25,000, as well as a significant amount of TV time. The eventual winner will take home $500,000.
This year’s list of invited poker professionals includes: Patrik Antonius, Jean-Robert Bellande (of “Survivor” fame), David Benyamine, Chad Brown, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Johnny Chan, Scott Clements, T.J. Cloutier, Allen Cunningham, Annie Duke, Tom “Durrr” Dwan, Bill Edler, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Scott Fischman, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Jamie Gold, Clonie Gowen, Barry Greenstein, Sam Grizzle, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Jonathan Little, Mike Matusow, Michael Mizrachi, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, David Pham, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, Tom Schneider, Daniel Schreiber, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, David Singer, Gavin Smith, Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, J.C. Tran, Kenny Tran, Paul Wasicka, David Williams and Jerry Yang.
The celebrity list includes: Jennifer Tilly, Gabe Kaplan, Brad Garrett, Jason Alexander, Don Cheadle, Shannon Elizabeth, and Orel Hershiser. There are also two unnamed qualifiers.
In last year’s event, Paul Wasicka defeated Chad Brown in the final match to claim the championship. Meanwhile, Shannon Elizabeth was the surprise of the tournament. She made a deep run that took her all the way to the final four (where she eventually fell to Brown). The final payouts for last year’s event were:
| 1. |
Paul Wasicka |
$500,000 |
|
| 2. |
Chad Brown |
$250,000 |
|
| 3. |
Shannon Elizabeth |
$125,000 |
|
| 4. |
Gavin Smith |
$125,000 |
|
| 5. |
Nam Le |
$75,000 |
|
| 6. |
Andy Bloch |
$75,000 |
|
| 7. |
Kristy Gazes |
$75,000 |
|
| 8. |
Humberto Brenes |
$75,000 |
|
| 9. |
Phil Gordon |
$25,000 |
|
| 10. |
Huck Seed |
$25,000 |
|
| 11. |
Barry Greenstein |
$25,000 |
|
| 12. |
Scott Fischman |
$25,000 |
|
| 13. |
Brad Booth |
$25,000 |
|
| 14. |
T.J. Cloutier |
$25,000 |
|
| 15. |
Ted Forrest |
$25,000 |
|
| 16. |
Mike Matusow |
$25,000 |
|
The 2008 NBC Heads Up Championship kicks off Friday, Feb 29th, at 12:00pm PST. Be sure to check out PokerRoad Radio, as Gavin, Joe and Ali will be recording new shows every day from the event.
Preview by LA Mike
|
 |
