National Heads Up Poker Tournament Returns

National Heads Up Poker Tournament is one of the more popular poker tournaments on TV. It took a break last year after Black Friday but it returns to NBC in 2013. The made for TV tournament is recorded at Caesars Palace. Here’s the scoop.

NBC Sports Group today announced the return of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship to NBC and NBC Sports Network. Coverage of the invitational tournament from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nev., includes three original airings on NBC and three on NBC Sports Network beginning March 14 at 9 p.m. ET.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship features 64 of the world’s most compelling poker players as they compete in a series of Heads-Up matches (one-on-one games of No Limit Texas Hold’em). The tournament is a single-elimination, bracket-style format modeled after the NCAA Basketball tournament. A player wins a match and advances to the next round; wins six matches and becomes the National Heads-Up Poker Champion.

This year’s event marks the eighth installment of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. For the seventh time, the tournament will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nev., a resort with a long history of exclusive poker tournaments and cash games. The reigning champion is eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, who defeated 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker to win the title. Previous Heads-Up Poker Championship competitors have included Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari.

Here’s the TV schedule if you don’t have tivo to record each episode for you.

DATE             TIME             NETWORK
March 14         9 p.m. NBC Sports Network
March 21         9 p.m. NBC Sports Network
March 28 9 p.m. NBC Sports Network
April 6 1 p.m.              NBC
April 13 1 p.m. NBC
April 20 1 p.m.              NBC

The National Heads Up Poker Tournament is still a fun poker show to watch because it’s different than most poker you’ll see on TV. The tournament is all professional poker players and celebrities playing one on one in a 64 person tournament. It used to be perfect Sunday afternoon TV on NBC but as you can see from the schedule it’s now on NBC and NBC Sports.

The only information about the show I can’t seem to find out right now is whether or not Leann Tweeden will return as host. She’s pretty popular with the fellas. I’ll update this post when I find out who’s hosting this year’s National Heads Up Poker Tournament.

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