solderz 0 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Story LinkNBC Cancels National Heads-Up Poker ChampionshipPokerNews has learned that the popular National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC will not be returning for an eighth season in 2012. Wicked Chops Poker first reported the news Thursday after getting confirmation from NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications Adam Freifeld.The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an invitation-only event featuring 64 of the world’s top poker players and celebrities. It first aired in 2005 with Phil Hellmuth winning the inaugural event, and in the year's after, several notables followed him into the winner’s circle, including Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Annie Duke, and last year’s champion Erik Seidel.The expulsion of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker from the U.S. market has dealt a huge blow to televised poker in the U.S. and the removal of this event is the latest letdown. The two online sites were major advertisers for the event and fronted the steep $20,000 buy-in for many of the sponsored players.The National Heads-Up Poker Championship joins the Full-Tilt sponsored Poker After Dark (NBC) and PokerStars-sponsored Big Game (Fox) as casualties of Black Friday. Meanwhile, ESPN and the World Series of Poker recently signed a contract through 2017 thanks to advertisers including Jack Link's Beef Jerky and GoDaddy.com, which previously served as the presenting sponsor of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Bob 1,321 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Not a surprise at all.Eventhough the online sites weren't direct sponsors they bought a lot of the ad time and without them the event makes no economic sense. Link to post Share on other sites
AmScray 355 Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I always really enjoyed that show. Maybe someone else will pick it up, but unlikely. The whole poker ecosystem has drastically changed. I sure hope all those pros made hay while the sun was shining during the poker go-go years, from 2003-2008 or so... Link to post Share on other sites
Fluffdog87 2 Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 It had a good run. When poker gets legalized in the future at some point I think there is definitely a chance this tourney gets re-booted. Link to post Share on other sites
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