Poker News 
/ Short-Stacked Shamus / 04 March 2011 / Leave a Comment 
The 2011 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship gets underway today with action kicking off around noon Las Vegas time in the poker room at Caesars Palace. This is the seventh year for the 64-player tournament, modeled somewhat after the tournament that culminates each college basketball season in the U.S.
As Matthew Pitt reported, invitations were recently sent out to players for the $25,000 buy-in event. Approximately a third of those invited automatically qualified according to various criteria determined by the event's organizers, with the rest of the field being filled out by "at-large" bids.
Among those fulfilling the criteria for getting the automatic invites were those who have performed well in the NBC Heads-Up tourney before (e.g., the five most recent champs, runner-ups for the last two years, and last year's semifinalists were all invited) and those who have enjoyed success at recent WSOPs (e.g., the last three Main Event winners, last year's WSOP Player of the Year, last year's winner of the $10K Heads-Up event at the WSOP, last year's WSOPE Main Event champ, etc.).
Other means for getting automatic invites include being the World Poker Tour POY, winning the European Poker Tour Grand Final, being named POY by CardPlayer or BLUFF magazines, or winning qualifying satellite events.
As mentioned, the rest of the 64-player field are invited based on intangibles which usually include long-term success in poker, previous and frequent appearances on televised poker shows, being a celebrity (often) with some previous association to poker, and other factors usually filed under the hard-to-pin-down heading of "players who make good TV."
Thus while this year's field includes top poker pros like Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey, one also finds amateur players like former NFL star Emmitt Smith, film star Don Cheadle, and television actor Jason Alexander in the mix, too.
Such an idiosyncratic selection process ensures that the 64 players making up the field each year for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship will never perfectly represent the top players in poker. Indeed, every spring when the field is announced, heated debates over who was "snubbed" often follow. That said, there are always enough top pros involved to make the tournament interesting to poker fans, with the heads-up format ensuring lots of intriguing conflicts and storylines along the way.
When I saw the list for this year's field, I found myself thinking not so much about who had been left out as about match-ups I'd like to see among those who were invited. I compiled a list of such match-ups, hoping perhaps at least one might happen as a result of last night's draw to determine the bracket. Sort of like that old Rock'em Sock'em Robots game some of us remember playing as a kid (pictured above), only here you could call it Hold'em Fold'em.
As it turned out, none of my imagined battles will happen in the first round, although theoretically all could still occur should the players involved survive to meet one another.
Here's how the bracket for the 2011 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship looks (click to enlarge):
Actually one of those match-ups I was hoping to see -- between frequent feuders Daniel Negreanu and Annie Duke -- cannot take place as Duke pulled out of the event this week and thus will not be defending her 2010 NBC Heads-Up title. Nor can Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel reprise their 1988 WSOP Main Event heads-up clash, as Chan also withdrew from the event after being invited. With a Rounders sequel currently in the works, it would have been interesting to have seen those two have a sequel of their own to their WSOP ME heads-up battle, the last hand of which is featured in the original Rounders.
Many possibilities still remain, however.
Both Sorel Mizzi and John Racener are in the field, Mizzi for winning the 2010 BLUFF Player of the Year and Racener for his runner-up finish in the 2010 WSOP ME. Less than two weeks ago those two were in the news when Racener alleged Mizzi had cheated him by dealing from the bottom of the deck in a private Chinese poker game. While that flare-up has died down a bit in recent days, a meeting between these two would certainly reignite the story. As it happens, both are in the Spades bracket and could meet in the quarterfinals if each wins his first three matches.
Justin Young won his way into the 64-player field by winning a $230 buy-in satellite event at the Caesars Winter Poker Open last month. In that event, Young defeated his good friend Eric Baldwin heads-up to take the title. Coincidentally, when Baldwin won the 2010 NAPT Los Angeles Bounty Shootout, he defeated Young heads-up to win. Baldwin is in the field of 64, too, and while these two couldn't possibly meet until the finals, there'd be a lot of intriguing backstory for that battle should it take place.
Frank Kassela and Michael Mizrachi both drew spots in the Hearts bracket for this year's tournament. As you might recall, Kassela edged out Mizrachi for the 2010 WSOP POY this year, Kassela's two bracelet wins in preliminary events and other cashes being enough to overcome Mizrachi's win in the $50K Players Championship, his ME final table, and other deep finishes. I remember, in fact, how during the Main Event both Kassela and Mizrachi were at the feature table when the money bubble burst, with Kassela's cash in that event assuring that he'd at least won a share of the POY, with Mizrachi having to win the ME to tie him (Mizrachi went on to finish 5th). A meeting between these two in the quarterfinals would certainly be an interesting postscript to that story.
Tom Dwan and Phil Hellmuth have some history in this event. While still a relative newcomer on the scene, Dwan busted Hellmuth on just the third hand of their 2008 first-round match. All in before the flop with a pair of tens versus Hellmuth's A-A, Dwan spiked a ten on the turn to send the Poker Brat to the rail whimpering. The two met again the following year in the Round of 16, with Hellmuth avenging the loss by knocking out "durrrr." This year both are in the Hearts bracket and would meet in the second round if Hellmuth beats David Benyamine and Dwan overcomes Don Cheadle.
Speaking of Cheadle, the Oceans 11 star has become a perennial invitee to this event, as has Jennifer Tilly, another accomplished actor who has made a name for herself in the poker world. Whatever one thinks about whether or not both deserve to be among the field of 64, it is clear that when it comes to acting on the silver screen, Cheadle and Tilly far surpass the rest of the field. Both have received Academy Award nominations, in fact, with Cheadle earning one for Best Actor for his performance in Hotel Rwanda (2004), and Tilly a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
In fact, way back in 1985 both Cheadle and Tilly appeared in the same film, a so-so comedy called Moving Violations. Starring Bill Murray's brother, John, the movie was a fairly obvious attempt to replicate Stripes or other big hit comedies of the day such as Police Academy. I remember seeing this one and Tilly's starring role in it, although I can't say I recall Cheadle's bit part as "Juicy Burgers Worker." It would be wildly improbable, but for these two to reunite in the finals would certainly make for a memorable story -- more memorable than Moving Violations, for sure.
There are a couple of other match-ups I'd been hoping to see that also cannot take place until the finals. One would be between Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree, the top two women earners in 2010. A match between Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari -- best friends whose competitiveness versus one another knows no bounds -- would be fun, too.
Finally, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and Phil Ivey are all participating in this event, currently the three top names on the all-time money list. Each are in different brackets and thus none could meet until the final four. What if all three made it through, with either John Juanda (currently 6th on the list) or Scotty Nguyen (7th) emerging from the Clubs bracket to take the fourth spot?
The fact is, nearly all of the match-ups are already intriguing enough. While the tourney will play out to its conclusion this weekend, the first shows will begin to air on NBC on Saturday, April 17th.
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