Heads Up players announced
February 25, 2008
The final list of players for the National Heads Up poker championship has been all but confirmed, with only one player still to be added.
The legendary Doyle Brunson will be there, along with 63 other poker pros and celebrity players including...
For the first time, many players famous for their online play have been invited. Brian "sbrugby" Townsend, Tom "durrr" Dwan, Scott "BigRiskky" Clements, Tom "durrr" Dwan and Daniel "Rekrul" Schreiber will all be playing.
The annual party to decide the bracket draw is being held at Caesars Palace nightspot, Pure, on February 28. Play begins the next day and goes through until March 2.
All three past heads up champions, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and Paul Waskica have accepted the invitation but perhaps the player most of us are looking forward to seeing is 2007 World Series of Poker champion, Jerry Yang.
Yang has not played in any large tournaments since taking out last year's main event and it will be interesting to see what he brings to the table. He'll be competing against 10 other WSOP champs who have made a name for themselves after winning the big one, with Brunson, Chan, Hellmuth, Hachem, Raymer, Moneymaker, Ferguson, Nguyen, Gold, and Huck Seed all accepting invitations to play.
They'll all be playing for $1.5 million in prizemoney in total. First place takes $500,000. Second gets $250,000, third and fourth each receive $125,000 and 5-7th pocket $75,000. Places 9th-16th all take home $25,000 for finishing in the top quarter of the field.
Here's the list of confirmed competitors.
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
38. Laak, Phil
39. Lederer, Howard
40. Lindgren, Erick
41. Little, Jonathan
42. Matusow, Mike
43. Mizrachi, Michael
44. Moneymaker, Chris
45. Negreanu, Daniel
46. Nikzad, Hooman
47. Nguyen, Scotty
48. Pham, David
49. Raymer, Greg
50. Rousso, Vanessa
51. Schneider, Tom
52. Schreiber, Daniel
53. Seed, Huck
54. Seidel, Erik
55. Singer, David
56. Smith, Gavin
57. Tilly, Jennifer
58. Townsend, Brian
59. Tran, J.C.
60. Tran, Kenny
61. Wasicka, Paul
62. Williams, David
63. Yang, Jerry
64. PokerStars qualifier T.B.A.
Check back after March 2 for the results, or tune into NBC from April 13 at noon to see all the action for yourself on TV.
