National Heads Up Poker Championships Releases Star Studded List; Also Gains New Reporter

February 22, 2008

NBC has released the list of names of players who will be competing on the 2008 season of the National Heads Up Poker Championships. The list is compiled of players who have confirmed that they will be participating in the event.

All of the former champions of NBC’s Heads-Up will be returning including Phil Hellmuth and Paul Wasicka. A few young new faces will be showing up for this season to try their luck. Scott Clements, Tom Dwan, Brian Townsend and Daniel Schreiber will be taking a break from their online games to compete in live play. This has become a new trend as successful online players are moving toward live play. More and more young players are coming out of the woodwork and winning or placing high in live events. They seem to be making more of a name for themselves when they move to live play because you get more recognition.

Many celebrities will also be in attendance. I must admit I really like watching the celebrities play. As normal people we tend to view them as their “characters” and when we see them in real surroundings it can be very entertaining. A few celebrities set to attend this year are: Jason Alexander, Jennifer Tilly, Don Cheadle, Shannon Elizabeth and Gabe Kaplan.

Jerry Yang, 2007 WSOP Main Event Winner, will also be playing in this year’s event. He has not been active in playing much since his win so it will be interesting to see how he does. The 2008 NHPC will start on February 28^th and will continue for three days. This year Shana Hiatt, who normally does the sideline reporting for NBC, will be replaced by Leeann Tweeden. Hiatt is pregnant and will unable to perform her duty.

Complete List of Participants:

Alexander, Jason
Antonius, Patrik
Bellande, Jean-Robert
Benyamine, David
Brown, Chad
Brunson, Doyle
Brunson, Todd
Chan, Johnny
Cheadle, Don
Clements, Scott
Cloutier, T.J.
Cunningham, Allen
Deeb, Freddy
Duke, Annie
Dwan, Tom
Edler, Bill
Elezra, Eli
Elizabeth, Shannon
Esfandiari, Antonio
Farha, Sam
Ferguson, Chris
Fischman, Scott
Forrest, Ted
Gold, Jamie
Gowen, Clonie
Greenstein, Barry
Grizzle, Sam
Hachem, Joe
Hansen, Gus
Harman, Jennifer
Hellmuth, Phil
Hershiser, Orel
Ivey, Phil
Juanda, John
Kaplan, Gabe
Laak, Phil
Lederer, Howard
Lindgren, Erick
Little, Jonathan
Matusow, Mike
Moneymaker, Chris
Mizrachi, Michael
Negreanu, Daniel
Nguyen, Scotty
Pham, David
Raymer, Greg
Rousso, Vanessa
Schneider, Tom
Schreiber, Daniel
Seed, Huck
Seidel, Erik
Singer, David
Smith, Gavin
Tilly, Jennifer
Townsend, Brian
Tran, J.C.
Tran, Kenny
Wasicka, Paul
Williams, David
Yang, Jerry
Thomas Kelly (Caesars Palace Qualifier 1)
Hooman Nikzad (Caesars Palace Qualifier 2)
TBD (Online Qualifier)
TBD (additional player)