HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIP IN SPOTLIGHT NEXT WEEK
Except for a couple of online qualifiers yet to be determined, the elite field for the 5th Annual National Heads-Up Championship is set for play March 6-8 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
The bracket-style tournament format, patterned after the NCAA basketball playoffs, always provides exciting action and more than a few surprises each year. That’s mainly because in any given single-elimination match, a heavy favorite can run into a hot underdog and get bounced from the event.
The eventual champion, however, likely will be the player who gets lucky once or twice in a match but overall plays at the top of his or her game for every round.
Although there are only 5 or 6 women in the field, don’t be too surprised if a Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke or Clonie Gowen makes it to the finals.
Click “read more” to see today’s news release and the updated list of players.
IVEY, HELLMUTH, FERGUSON HEAD FIELD AT 2009 NHPC
Celebrities include Orel Hershiser, Jennifer Tilly and Academy Award winner Don Cheadle
LAS VEGAS (February 24, 2009) – An elite field of poker pros, which includes 12 former World Series of Poker Main Event Champions and some of poker’s top all-time money winners, will descend upon the desert for the 5th annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by GoDaddy.com on March 6-8 in Las Vegas.
Heads-Up brings together a who’s who of the poker world to the Caesars Palace Poker Tournament Room to compete in its distinctive, bracket-style head-to-head format for $1.5 million in combined prize money.
The event will be taped for broadcast on NBC over six consecutive Sundays in April and May, with rebroadcasts on CNBC and Universal HD. Go Daddy, the world’s dominant Web hosting domain registrar, is also the presenting sponsor of the tournament broadcasts
“We’ve got a great mix of celebrity participants and top poker pros, including veterans and newcomers, for this year’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship,” said Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC Sports. “It’s a combustible combination bound to produce the inevitable upsets and compelling action that will excite poker fans everywhere.”
Poker stalwarts participating in this year’s event include returning champion Chris Ferguson and 2007 champion Paul Wasicka. Also competing are Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Allen Cunningham, Jamie Gold, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and 2008 World Series of Poker champion Peter Eastgate, who will be making his Heads-Up debut.
Model and television personality Leeann Tweeden will once again serve as the sideline reporter/interviewer, with Craig Hummer and Ali Nejad providing commentary for the broadcast.
Celebrity participants include Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett, Jennifer Tilly and former Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Orel Hershiser, who showed off his poker acumen by advancing to last year’s quarterfinals.
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship features 64 top poker players competing in a series of heads-up (one-on-one games of No Limit Texas Hold’em) matches to determine the best heads-up poker player in the world. This tournament has a unique, single-elimination, bracket-style format modeled after college basketball’s championship tournament, except that the finals are the best of three. The first-place finisher receives $500,000, with second-place taking home $250,000.
The first-round opponents for the brackets will be chosen at random during the tournament’s Draw Party held at PURE Nightclub at Caesars Palace on Thursday, March 5. Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons will draw names to determine the first round of head-to-head competition. The single-elimination competition begins Friday, March 6 and continues through Sunday, March 8, when a two-out-of-three championship match will determine the winner. Go Daddy Girl Candice Michelle will be on hand Sunday to present the champion with the winner’s check and trophy.
The viewing gallery is open to guests on a first-come, first-served basis.
The entire field (alphabetical order):
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)
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About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 33 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2008, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
About CaesarsPalace
CaesarsPalace is the world’s best known resort-casino, celebrating the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, in an 85-acre destination location that sets the standard for entertainment, dining and luxury. Reigning at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, Caesars Palace ranks among the world’s top luxury resorts known for their originality and beauty and features 3,340 hotel guest rooms and suites, 24 unique restaurants and cafes, 4.5-acre Garden of the Gods pools and gardens, the 50,000 square foot Qua Baths & Spa and 240,000 square feet of premium meeting and convention space. The 4,100-seat Colosseum spotlights renowned headliner entertainers such as Bette Midler (debuting February 20, 2008), Elton John and Jerry Seinfeld. The magnificent theatre sits just steps away from celebrity chef restaurants and the acclaimed Forum Shops at Caesars. For more information, visit caesarspalace.com or call (702) 731-7110 or (800) 634-6001. Journalists can download information and photos at media.harrahs.com.