Every year, one of the most highly anticipated poker news stories of the year is the announcement of who has been invited to compete in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, a list which at this point we still don't know entirely, however organizers did recently at least announce the dates of the event, as well as some other crucial details.

This year's NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is set to take place March 4th through the 7th in the Caesars Palace Poker Tournament Room.  The event will again be sponsored primarily by GoDaddy.com, who also now sponsors Vanessa Rousso, the PokerStars pro that last year made it al the way into the finals of the event before bowing to the winner Huck Seed.

Vanessa is expected to attend the 2010 event as well, and will have an opportunity to avenge that impressive near miss.  Joining Rousso will be Seed, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Joe Cada and 59 others, each with an equal opportunity to earn the event's top prize worth $500,000, simply by surviving till the end of the bracket style tournament.

The event begins this year with a drawing party for that bracket at Caesar's Pure Nightclub on Thursday the fourth, with the actual competition itself beginning the following day, giving players one night to think about their first opponent and their likely path to the big money at the end.


Story by Mark Anderson