Online Poker

December 23, 2007

Some of the invitees to the 2008 National Heads Up Championship to be played at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas have been announced.

Over the past few years it has become an honour for poker pros and celebrities to be invited to the event which is telecast across the United States on NBC.

The first twenty invitations for the sixty-four player tournament have been sent, starting the usual discussion and debate about who else deserves to play.

The legends of the game and recent World Series of Poker championship winners should always be invited, so it is no surprise that Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Ferguson, Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang were amongst the first to receive a letter from NBC in the mail.

Former champs in this event, Ted Forrest (2006) and Paul Wasicka (2007) were also amongst he first group of invitees, although it was strange not to see 2005 champ Phil Hellmuth invited first up. Surely he'll make the final cut though.

Rounding out the first group of twenty are pros Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman, Gavin Smith, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Erick Lindgren and Antonio Esfandiari. Noted online players, Jonathan "Fiery Justice" Little and Brian "sbrugby" Townsend also made the cut along with celebrity player and actress Shannon Elizabeth, who's performance to make the semi finals last year surprised many viewers.

There are no guarantees for the 44 players still to be invited, but some that are close to certainties would include Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker. It'd also be good to see some more online pros invited seeing as NBC has already recognised Fiery Justice & sbrugby.

The 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship will take place February 29 to March 2 at Caesars Palace and will begin airing on NBC across the United States in April.

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