Mar
4
by Chad Holloway
The NBC National Heads-up Championship line-up was recently released. I always get excited for this tournament. Not only does it attract some of the best in the business, but it provides a great Fantasy Poker opportunity. Like March Madness, this tournament format allows Fantasy Poker players to fill out a bracket and compete against other players. It is fun and easy to do and seems to give me a rooting interest in the outcome. The official match-ups aren’t revealed until the day before at the official draw party, so you won’t be able to fill out the brackets until then. If you’re looking for a printable, blank bracket, I recommend doing a quick internet search.
So what do I think of this year’s line-up? Well of course there are the usual suspects, those who qualify for the tournament each and every year. These include the past winners (Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth, Paul Wasicka, Chris Ferguson and Huck Seed), the past two year’s runner-ups (Vanessa Rousso and Andy Bloch), the recent WSOP Main Event winners (Greg Raymer, Joseph Hachem, Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang, Peter Eastgate, and Joe Cada), and the last WSOP Main Event runner-up (Darvin Moon). It should be fun to see how Cada and Moon fair after their epic WSOP heads-up battle.
I am pretty excited about some of the other players who managed to qualify based on their performances at the WSOP and other tournaments around the world. These include Phil Ivey, Sam Farha, Brock Parker, Greg Mueller, Leo Wolpert, Peiter de Korver, Eric Baldwin, and Jason Mercier. Both Baldwin and Mercier are coming off stellar years and I have a feeling that at least one of these two will go deep in the event.
I was shocked that a couple invitees have declined to participate including the reigning WSOP Player of the Year, Jeffrey Lisandro, and WSOP-Europe winner, Barry Shulman. Both would have needed to fork over the $20,000 buy-in (all players do except the internet qualifiers), but it’s still hard to imagine that they’d pass on such a great opportunity. The selection committee did a good job on extending invites to both Annette Obrestad, the 2007 WSOP-Europe champion and recent 21 year-old, and Kara Scott, the new High Stakes Poker host. Likewise, both Jesper Hougaard and John Paul Kelly, both winners of a WSOP and a WSOPE bracelet in a single calendar year (2008 and 2009), are competing and should give the European fans someone to root for. Speaking of which, I’ve been waiting for years to see Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott and Tony G compete in the tournament (selection committee get on that).
The celebrities are great but not too exciting since they’ve all been there before (Don Cheadle, Orel Hershiser, and Gabe Kaplan); however, it should be exciting to see Jennifer Tilly back in the poker saddle. I’m also not sure about having seven internet qualifiers. Sure, it’s nice to give them a chance, but it’d be kind of boring if two unknowns make it to the final round.
The following players competed in 2009 but weren’t invited back for 2010: Layne Flack, Chad Brown, Scott Fischman, Ivan Demidov, David Pham, John Phan, Kenny Tran, Jonathan Little, Glen Chorny, Brad Garrett, Gavin Griffin, Vanessa Selbst, David Benyamine, Clonie Gowen, J.C. Tran, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. I don’t see any names on here that are particularily surprising. I could see both Sahamies and Benyamine getting spots, but I guess they’ll have to wait until next year.
So who are my picks? Its hard to say since the brackets haven’t been announced yet, but I think that Baldwin and Mercier are safe bets. I’m also thinking Gus Hansen will find success this year; however, I think the man to take it down will be none other than the Unabomber himself, Phil Laak. Sure, I might be biased since I write for his blog, but aside from that I think his recent result speak for themselves. He kicked ass in the Premier League heats and the World Open V. I have a feeling he is going to carry that momentum into this event.
The NBC Heads-up Championship takes place March 4-7 at Caesars Palace. The tournament itself will air on NBC in the spring. I’ll be sure to blog about the tournament’s happenings, so check back here for updates. The complete list of participants, in alphabetical order, is found below:
Patrik Antonius, Eric Baldwin, Andy Bloch, Doyle Brunson, Joe Cada, Johnny Chan, Don Cheadle, Allen Cunningham, Pieter de Korver, Annie Duke, Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Jamie Gold, Phil Gordon, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Orel Hershiser, Jesper Hougaard, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Gabe Kaplan, John Paul Kelly, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Jason Mercier, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Darvin Moon, Greg Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Brock Parker, Dennis Phillips, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, Kara Scott, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, Mike Sexton, Gavin Smith, Jennifer Tilly, Paul Wasicka, David Williams, Leo Wolpert, and Jerry Yang.