First Invites Made for NBC Heads-Up Championship

NBC has released the names of the first twenty invitees for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC), to be held February 29 through March 2, 2008 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  The list is as follows: 

Doyle Brunson
Johnny Chan
Annie Duke
Shannon Elizabeth
Antonio Esfandiari
Chris Ferguson
Ted Forrest
Jamie Gold
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Harman
Phil Ivey
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Jonathan Little
Mike Matusow
Scotty Nguyen
Gavin Smith
Brian Townsend
Paul Wasicka
Jerry Yang 

None of the players have confirmed their participation yet. 

The pairings for the March Madness-style tournament will be determined at a drawing party on February 28 at nightclub Pure in Caesars Palace. 

This year, Paul Wasicka followed up his second place finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event by defeating Chad Brown to win the NHUPC title and $500,000.   

The NHUPC kicked off in 2005 at the Golden Nugget with Phil Hellmuth winning the best-of-three final series against Chris Ferguson.  In 2006, the NHUPC moved to Caesars Palace, but the runner-up did not change, as Ferguson lost to Ted Forrest in the finals.