The names of the 64 players invited to compete in this year’s NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC) were released today, and though the list once again includes many of the old standards, there are quite a few surprises as well.

Players seemingly involved every year in this event like Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey and PokerRoad’s Barry Greenstein, will of course once again be in attendance, but this year so will “Circuit Master” Dwyte Pilgrim, Faraz Jaka, Liv Boeree, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel and the always controversial Sorel Mizzi.

The tournament will also once again have a large group of celebrities,  perhaps most notably this year including NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.

2010 NHUPC champion Annie Duke will also be in attendance to defend her title, as will runner-up Erik Seidel, whose already earned almost $3.5 million this year.  If Seidel can do just one place better than he did in the last one of these he will earn $750,000- $250,000 more than Duke was able to earn thanks to a bigger buy-in and a consequently bigger total prize pool.

The complete list of 64 players expected to attend the 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is as follows:

Jason Alexander   Phil Galfond  Sorel Mizzi  Patrik Antonius  Phil Gordon

Chris Moneymaker  Eric Baldwin  Barry Greenstein  Daniel Negreanu  David Benyamine

Bertrand Grospellier  Scotty Nguyen  Andy Bloch  Joe Hachem  Annette Obrestad

Liv Boeree  Gus Hansen  Dennis Phillips  James Bord  Jennifer Harman  Dwyte Pilgrim

Doyle Brunson  Phil Hellmuth  John Racener  Joe Cada  Phil Ivey  Greg Raymer

Daniel Cates  Faraz Jaka  Vanessa Rousso  Johnny Chan  John Juanda  Kara Scott 

Don Cheadle  Gabe Kaplan  Huck Seed  Nicolas Chouity  Frank Kassela  Erik Seidel

Allen Cunningham  Eugene Katchalov  Vanessa Selbst  Jonathan Duhamel  Phil Laak

Emmitt Smith  Annie Duke  Howard Lederer  Gavin Smith  Tom Dwan  Erick Lindgren

Jennifer Tilly  Peter Eastgate  Ayaz Mahmood  Melburn Whitmire  Eli Elezra

Thomas Marchese  David Williams  Antonio Esfandiari  Mike Matusow  Justin Young

Chris Ferguson  Jason Mercier  Ted Forrest  Michael Mizrachi

The 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is now less than two weeks away, with the first rounds beginning Friday, March 4th.  For more information visit www.nbcsports.msnbc.com.