National Heads-Up Poker Championship Moving to Caesars Palace

After the surprising success of this spring’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHPC), Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. has announced that it will move the tournament from the Golden Nugget to Caesar’s Palace for the 2006 edition.

Won by everybody’s favorite sport, Phil Hellmuth, this year’s NHPC averaged four million home television viewers on NBC across six telecasts. Six million watched the finale as Hellmuth defeated Chris Ferguson in a best-of-three match.

The 2006 event will be played March 3-5 and will be aired over six shows on Sundays in April and May, for a total of ten hours. The total prize pool will be $1.5 million, with $500,000 awarded to the champion. One of the attractive features of the competition is that the pairings are randomly selected in front of all 64 players and media and the tournament bracket is set forth just like the NCAA basketball tournament. This will be poker’s version of “March Madness.”

All parties involved are understandably excited for the second year of the NHPC:

"This event has special qualities that have enabled it to rise in the poker landscape and establish a uniqueness that the public can embrace," said Jon Miller, Senior Vice President of NBC Sports, the creators of the NHPC. "The head-to-head confrontation between players, who are now legitimate stars, provides compelling competition for players and makes for entertaining television."

Originally published October 20, 2005