Challenge dates announced
Next month, college basketball won’t be the only sport displaying signs of “March Madness”. The 2010 NBC National Heads-up Poker Challenge is also slated to start in the month of March. The single-elimination, invitation-only no-limit Texas Holdem tournament will feature sixty-four players, including poker pros, celebrities and online qualifiers, competing for over a first prize of US$500,000.
The tournament draw will be held during a party at PURE Nightclub at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on 4 March. The random draw will set the tournament bracket in the four divisions (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades) and will attract many of the greatest tournament poker pros. The tournament also continues to grow in popularity as the event starts its sixth year.
The unique heads-up format makes it different from any televised poker tournament today, including the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour events. In the past five years, the list of champions has included 1989 WSOP Main Event winner Phil Hellmuth, five-time WSOP bracelet winner Ted Forrest, 2006 WSOP Main Event runner-up Paul Wasicka, 2000 WSOP Main Event winner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and 1996 WSOP Main Event winner Huckleberry Seed.
The field for this year’s tournament will include many former WSOP Main Event champions, along with one new addition. 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada, who had not yet turned twenty-one years old before last year’s event, will compete in this year’s tournament. With four of the last five winners finishing in the top two spots in a previous WSOP Main Event, some observers like young Mr. Cada’s chances, even against a field of the best players in the world.
The first round matches are scheduled to start at noon Pacific Time on 5 March, with second-round matches later that day. Third-round and quarterfinal matches will be held the next day, with the semi-finals and the best-of-three final match on Sunday 7 March. NBC will broadcast the matches in the US on Sundays during April and May.