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#676 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #1 – My Favorite Reporting Assignment is Coming!
If this is March, it must be time for the Fifth NBC Heads-Up Championship (”NBC HUC”). It’s 80 degrees F outside my office in Scottsdale, Arizona – that’s 25 degrees C for those of you in the rest of the world – so I can’t be sure of the season. But the NBC Press Release showed up in my e-mail last week so the HUC is indeed coming to Caesars Palace March 6-8 and to NBC (for six consecutive SUndays in April and May) and to CNBC (whenever the financial news is too bleak to report) and Universal HD (which doesn’t broadcast according to any schedule I understand).
This is my favorite reporting assignment and Full Tilt has asked me to cover it for the third year running. I promise you will find no better coverage of this event – even on NBC – than in The Full Tilt Poker Blog. For the next 8-10 days, you can count on unparalleled analysis, profiles, background, history, and news right here.
THE PRESS RELEASE
Last week, NBC officially aounced the dates, times, and (most of) the field for the Heads-Up Championship. Here is the skinny:
1. Pairings Party at PURE on Thursday, March 5. Presenting sponsor GoDaddy.com is springing for the sushi and oddly-shaped bottles of water, and CEO Bob Parsons will draw the names for the first-round pairings.
2. The winner will receive $500,000 and a trophy presented by Go Daddy girl Candice Michelle. The runner-up will get to watch that happen – and receive a check for $250,000.
3. Celebrities in the field will includle Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett, Jennifer Tilly, and Orel Hershiser. (By omission, we can conclude that Shannon Elizabeth and Jason Alexander will not be part of the field.)
4. Here is the field, as of February 24:
David Benyamine
Andy Bloch
Chad Brown
Doyle Brunson
Johnny Chan
Don Cheadle
Glen Chorny
Allen Cunningham
Ivan Demidov
Annie Duke
Tom Dwan
Peter Eastgate
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Sam Farha
Chris Ferguson
Scott Fischman
Layne Flack
Ted Forrest
Brad Garrett
Jamie Gold
Clonie Gowen
Barry Greenstein
Gavin Griffin
Bertrand Grospellier
Joe Hachem
Gus Hansen
Jennifer Harman
Phil Hellmuth
Orel Hershiser
Jeffrey Ishbia (Caesars qualifier)
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
Gabe Kaplan
Phil Laak
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Jonathan Little
Mike Matusow
Dario Minieri
Chris Moneymaker
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
David Pham
John Phan
Greg Raymer
Vanessa Rousso
Ilari Sahamies
Huck Seed
Vanessa Selbst
Erik Seidel
Mike Sexton
Gavin Smith
Jennifer Tilly
J.C. Tran
Kenny Tran
Paul Wasicka
David Williams
Jerry Yang
Leon Yanovski (online qualifier)
TBD (Caesars qualifier)
TBD (online qualifier)
TBD (online qualifier)
TBD (online qualifier)
5. Here is who is apparently not in the field: Todd Brunson, Patrik Antonius, Michael Binger, Jeff Madsen, TJ Cloutier, David singer, Freddy Deeb, Scott Clements, Sam Grizzle, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brian Townsend, Michael Mizrachi, and Tom Schneider.
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