February 2009 Archives

Check out this year's players. Should be crazy as usual and check back here for updates during the event as well as after the Drawing Party on March 5.

* First-time players in bold

1. David Benyamine
2. Andy Bloch
3. Chad Brown
4. Doyle Brunson
5. Johnny Chan
6. Don Cheadle
7. Glen Chorny
8. Allen Cunningham
9. Ivan Demidov
10. Annie Duke
11. Tom Dwan
12. Peter Eastgate
13. Eli Elezra
14. Antonio Esfandiari
15. Sam Farha
16. Chris Ferguson
17. Scott Fischman
18. Layne Flack
19. Ted Forrest
20. Brad Garrett
21. Jamie Gold
22. Clonie Gowen
23. Barry Greenstein
24. Gavin Griffin
25. Bertrand Grospellier
26. Joe Hachem
27. Gus Hansen
28. Jennifer Harman
29. Phil Hellmuth
30. Orel Hershiser
31. Jeffrey Ishbia (Caesars qualifier)
32. Phil Ivey
33. John Juanda
34. Gabe Kaplan
35. Phil Laak
36. Howard Lederer
37. Erick Lindgren
38. Jonathan Little
39. Mike Matusow
40. Dario Minieri
41. Chris Moneymaker
42. Daniel Negreanu
43. Scotty Nguyen
44. David Pham
45. John Phan
46. Greg Raymer
47. Vanessa Rousso
48. Ilari Sahamies
49. Huck Seed
50. Vanessa Selbst
51. Erik Seidel
52. Mike Sexton
53. Gavin Smith
54. Jennifer Tilly
55. J.C. Tran
56. Kenny Tran
57. Paul Wasicka
58. David Williams
59. Jerry Yang
60. Leon Yanovski (online qualifier)
61. Caesars qualifier
62. Online qualifier
63. Online qualifier
64. Online qualifier

Putting up a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of $250,000 to begin play are Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Cole “CTS” South, and David “Raptor” Benefield, all instructors at the poker training site CardRunners.com, as well as long-time cash game players and fan favorites Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan, and Eli Elezra.

Interesting stuff as these guys play with straddles, and use a 7-deuce bounty to make the hands even more entertaining.

Scheduled to appear in this year's event are several of the world's top poker pros, including returning Heads-Up champion Chris Ferguson and 2008 World Series of Poker champion Peter Eastgate.  Also scheduled to compete are Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey. 

With Eastgate playing, it'll be another time to see how the WSOP Main Event champ performs at Heads-Up. Sure Ferguson and Hellmuth have won both titles, but recent WSOP champs haven't fared as well.

Preview: This week on NBC’s Poker After Dark viewers will witness six successful professional players highly regarded in the world of poker for their analytical thinking and mathematical prowess in a match which is being called “Brilliant Minds.”  The match brings together two familiar faces in Chris Ferguson and Andy Bloch, and four newcomers in Brandon Adams, Bill Chen, Jimmy Warren, and David Sklansky.  Each will put up $20,000 and compete for the $120,000 winner-take-all first prize.

Analysis: Should be an interesting one as most people know Ferguson and Bloch and their mathematic skills, but not too much about the others.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is coming soon. Here's some info to get you started. Confirmed names should be coming very soon.

Heads-Up Championship (Event schedule)
March 5: GoDaddy.com Draw Party (at PURE in Caesars Palace)
March 6-8: National Heads-Up Poker Championship (Caesars Palace)

NBC's television coverage
April 12: Noon - 2PM ET/Check local listings for PT
April 19: Noon - 1PM ET/Check local listings for PT
April 26: Noon - 2PM ET/Check local listings for PT
May 3: Noon - 2PM ET/Check local listings for PT
May 10: Noon - 2PM ET/Check local listings for PT
May 17: Noon - 3PM ET/Check local listings for PT

Complete prize purse breakdown
Places 9-16: $25,000
Places 5-8: $75,000
Places 3-4: $125,000
2nd place: $250,000
1st place: $500,000

Total purse: $1,500,000