The National Heads-Up Championship field is set and confirmed for next week tournament. A player field consisting of former poker champions and top poker pros and a few celebrities will make for an interesting tournament which is set to square off at Caesars Palace on March 4th.
Here is the list of 64 players set to participate (in alphabetical order – * denotes automatic bid):
Jason Alexander, Patrik Antonius, Eric Baldwin, David Benyamine, Andy Bloch, Liv Boeree, James Bord*, Doyle Brunson, Joe Cada*, Daniel Cates, Johnny Chan, Don Cheadle, Nicolas Chouity*, Allen Cunningham, Jonathan Duhamel*, Annie Duke*, Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate*, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Chris Ferguson*, Ted Forrest*, Phil Galfond, Phil Gordon, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Faraz Jaka*, John Juanda, Gabe Kaplan, Frank Kassela*, Eugene Katchalov, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Ayaz Mahmood*, Tom Marchese*, Mike Matusow, Jason Mercier, Michael Mizrachi, Sorel Mizzi*, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen*, Annette Obrestad, Dennis Phillips*, Dwyte Pilgrim, John Racener*, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso*, Kara Scott, Huck Seed*, Erik Seidel*, Vanessa Selbst, Emmitt Smith, Gavin Smith, Jennifer Tilly, Melburn Whitmire, David Williams and Justin Young.
Some Facts:
Former Heads-Up champions: 5 (Duke, Ferguson, Forrest, Hellmuth, Seed)
Former Heads-Up runners-up: 4 (Bloch, Ferguson, Rousso, Seidel)
WSOP Main Event champions: 12 (Brunson, Cada, Chan, Duhamel, Eastgate, Ferguson, Hachem, Hellmuth, Moneymaker, Nguyen, Raymer, Seed)
WSOP Main Event runners-up: 4 (Chan, Racener, Seidel, Williams)
Women: 8 (Boeree, Duke, Harman, Obrestad, Rousso, Scott, Selbst, Tilly)
Celebrities: 5 (Alexander, Cheadle, Kaplan, Smith, Tilly)
Annie Duke won the tournament last year but the stakes are higher this year with an impressive prize pool of $1.8 million with $750,000 going to the winner. The pairings will be taking place on the night before the tournament.
