63 National Heads-Up Poker Championship Names Announced

The fourth annual NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHPC) has now confirmed 63 poker professionals, qualifiers and celebrities who will put up $20,000 to compete for the $500,000 first place prize and the prestigious NHPC title beginning February 29. Only one seat remains to be filled, by an online qualifier.

The NHPC features 64 top 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.

After drawing names for the first single-elimination match at a pairing party in PURE Nightclub on Feb. 28, the players will begin compteing the next day at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Competition will continue through Sunday March 2nd, when the winner will emerge from the best of three championship match.

The viewing gallery will be open to guests on a first-come first-served basis.

This year's competitors look to be the toughest field yet:

All three former NHPC winners will participate in this year's event. Paul Wasicka was crowned champion of the 2007 NHPC, outlasting Chad Brown. Ted Forrest was the trophy winner in 2006, and Phil Hellmuth won the inaugural NHUPC in 2005. Both Hellmuth and Forrest captured their titles after outlasting 2000 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson.

2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker has also confirmed that he will participate.

Players will also include the three 2007 Players of the Year as awarded by major poker publications. They are J.C. Tran (ALL IN), Bill Edler (Bluff) and David "The Dragon" Pham (Card Player).

2007 World Series of Poker Champion Jerry Yang will make his first televised appearance since defeating a field of 6,357 in last year's Main Event, as will Tom Schneider, who was named the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year.

A number of younger yet experienced poker faces will also make their NHPC debut in 2008. They include 2007 Heads-Up World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel "Rekrul" Schreiber, Brian "sbrugby" Townsend, Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little, Scott "BigRiskky" Clements, and Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

Celebrities returning from previous years include Gabe Kaplan, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, and Shannon Elizabeth. Popular actor Jason Alexander and Major League Baseball's former Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser will also participate as first-time celebrity invitees.

The two Caesars Palace qualifier seats have now been filled. First by Hooman Nikzad, a semi-professional player and second by Tom Kelly, a former Wall St. executive turned private investor. That leaves one online qualifier seat yet to be filled.

Model and television personality Leeann Tweeden will conduct sideline reports and player interviews.

The NHPC will be taped for broadcast on NBC over seven consecutive Sundays beginning April 13.

Here are the 63 confirmed players, with those appearing for the first time highlighted in bold:

1. Alexander, Jason

2. Antonius, Patrik

3. Bellande, Jean-Robert

4. Benyamine, David

5. Bloch, Andy

6. Brown, Chad

7. Brunson, Doyle

8. Brunson, Todd

9. Chan, Johnny

10. Cheadle, Don

11. Clements, Scott

12. Cloutier, T.J.

13. Cunningham, Allen

14. Deeb, Freddy

15. Duke, Annie

16. Dwan, Tom

17. Edler, Bill

18. Elezra, Eli

19. Elizabeth, Shannon

20. Esfandiari, Antonio

21. Farha, Sam

22. Ferguson, Chris

23. Fischman, Scott

24. Forrest, Ted

25. Gold, Jamie

26. Gowen, Clonie

27. Greenstein, Barry

28. Grizzle, Sam

29. Hachem, Joe

30. Hansen, Gus

31. Harman, Jennifer

32. Hellmuth, Phil

33. Hershiser, Orel

34. Ivey, Phil

35. Juanda, John

36. Kaplan, Gabe

37. Kelly, Tom (Caesars Palace qualifier)

38. Laak, Phil

39. Lederer, Howard

40. Lindgren, Erick

41. Little, Jonathan

42. Matusow, Mike

43. Moneymaker, Chris

44. Mizrachi, Michael

45. Negreanu, Daniel

46. Nguyen, Scotty

47. Nikzad, Hooman (Caesars Palace qualifier)

48. Online qualifier (to be determined)

49. Pham, David

50. Raymer, Greg

51. Rousso, Vanessa

52. Schneider, Tom

53. Schreiber, Daniel

54. Seed, Huck

55. Seidel, Erik

56. Singer, David

57. Smith, Gavin

58. Tilly, Jennifer

59. Townsend, Brian

60. Tran, J.C.

61. Tran, Kenny

62. Wasicka, Paul

63. Williams, David

64. Yang, Jerry

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