2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship Lineup Announced
Which poker players will be playing in this year's NBC Heads Up Poker Championship? Gambling911.com has the list below.
This is widely considered poker's March Madness, with an almost identical structure.
The single-elimination tournament is modeled after college basketball tournaments. Players who win a match advance to the next round; the player who wins six matches is crowned champion.
The first round of the 2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship is seeded randomly the night before the tournament begins. Players are divided into four brackets - Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades - and advance by winning a heads-up match against their randomly drawn opponent. The structure of the brackets then determines every match thereafter. The semifinals are comprised of one player from each bracket, with the winner of the Spades bracket playing the winner of the Clubs bracket, and the winner of the Hearts bracket matched up against the winner of the Diamonds bracket. A best-of-three final match then determines which of the two finalists is crowned champion.
It is a $20,000 buy-in invitation-only tournament organized as a series of one-on-one games of no limit hold'em matches. The participants include many of the world's best poker players. The NBC Heads Up Poker Championship was the first to be broadcast on a national broadcast network.
The 2009 event will take place from March 6 to March 8 and it's going to be an exciting time for us here at Gambling911.com to cover. Be sure to bookmark the Gambling911.com website for all the latest updates.
Here is the complete listing of the 2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship players:
David Benyamine
Andy Bloch
Chad Brown
Don Cheadle
Glen Chorny
Allen Cunningham
Ivan Demidov - voted among Gambling911.com's Most Influential in online gambling in 2008
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Sam Farha
Chris Ferguson
Scott Fischman
Ted Forrest
Barry Greenstein
Gavin Griffin
Orel Hershiser
Jeffrey Ishbia (Caesars qualifier)
John Juanda
Gabe Kaplan
Phil Laak
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Jonathan Little
Dario Minieri
Chris Moneymaker
David Pham
Greg Raymer
Ilari Sahamies
Huck Seed
Vanessa Selbst
Erik Seidel
Gavin Smith
J.C. Tran
Kenny Tran
Paul Wasicka
Jerry YangLeon Yanovski (online qualifier)
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
