National Heads-Up Poker Championship
| National Heads-Up Poker Championship | |
|---|---|
| Created by | NBC Sports |
| Narrated by | Ali Nejad and Matt Vasgersian |
| Country of origin |
 United States
|
| Production | |
| Location(s) |
Golden Nugget Las Vegas (2005), Caesars Palace (2006 - present) |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | 2005 – 2011 |
| External links | |
| nbcsports |
|
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network. It is a $25,000 "buy-in" invitation-only tournament organized as a series of one-on-one games of no limit Texas hold 'em matches. The participants include many of the world's most successful poker players, as well as celebrities.
The championship was the first poker event to be televised on and produced by a major U.S. television network.
In October 2011, NBC announced that the National Heads-Up Poker Championship would not return in 2012, ending the championship's seven-year run.
After a one-year hiatus, the tournament returned in 2013. The $25,000 buy-in event ran from Jan. 24 through 26 at Caesars Palace, the same venue where the event was held from 2006 through 2011.
In February 2014, NBC announced the National Heads-Up Poker Championship would not return in 2014. However, Mori Eskandani of Poker PROductions (producer of the NHUPC), stated he believes that the tournament will return in the future, saying “I have good reason to believe that the future of the series will be bright.”
The Heads-Up Championship had been sponsored by online poker companies before Black Friday. The World Series of Poker (WSOP.com) is the new presenting sponsor.
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 is seeded randomly the night before the tournament begins. Players are divided into four brackets – Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. A participant advances by winning a heads-up match against his or her randomly drawn opponent. The structure of the brackets then determines every match thereafter. The semifinals consist 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.
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