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Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

NBC confirms list of players for NHPC

Chad Brown will have another crack at winning the NHPC.

By Arthur Crowson

With the 2008 Heads-Up Poker Championship just around the corner, NBC has released the names of 63 players who have been confirmed to play in the popular bracket-based heads-up tournament.

There will be one more seat offered through a PokerStars satellite as reported by PL.com yesterday but the current list is impressive to say the least.

All former Heads-Up champions are confirmed to play including Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and Paul Wasicka.

This year will have a special focus on young online players with Scott "BigRiskky" Clements, Tom "durrr" Dwan, Daniel "Rekrul" Schreiber and Brian "sbrugby" Townsend all logging off the computer for a while and hitting the real-life tables.

There will be a number of celebrities participating in the event as usual. Gabe Kaplan, Jason Alexander, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth will all be hitting the felt in this year's tournament. Survivor: China contestant and trash-talking poker player Jean-Robert Bellande will also be making his first appearance.

As always the emphasis will be on the storyline between the individual players. Last year there were some compelling stories with Cheadle beating elite poker pro Phil Ivey and Elizabeth getting all the way to the quarterfinals. Of course it was Paul Wasicka who won the entire tournament proving he's more than a second-place player.

2007 WSOP Main Event winner Jerry Yang will be making his first appearance at the Heads-Up championship despite the fact he's shied away from the poker tables for most of the year. Poker players Bill Edler, Sam Grizzle, Tom Schneider and Kenny Tran will also be joining in on the fun for the first time.

Changes to the field are still possible due to emergencies or last-minute scheduling conflicts but that is unlikely.

The 2008 NHPC will begin on Feb. 28 at Pure Nightclub with a drawing party and will continue for the next three days until there is a winner. The drawing party will start at 9:30 p.m. and each player will be kicking in $20,000 for a shot at winning $500,000.

Here's a complete look at the contestants. Names of those appearing for the first time are in bold:

1. Alexander, Jason	33. Hershiser, Orel
2. Antonius, Patrik	34. Ivey, Phil
3. Bellande, Jean-Robert	35. Juanda, John
4. Benyamine, David	36. Kaplan, Gabe
5. Bloch, Andy	37. Kelly, Tom (Caesars Palace qualifier)
6. Brown, Chad	38. Laak, Phil
7. Brunson, Doyle	39. Lederer, Howard
8. Brunson, Todd	40. Lindgren, Erick
9. Chan, Johnny	41. Little, Jonathan
10. Cheadle, Don	42. Matusow, Mike
11. Clements, Scott	43. Moneymaker, Chris
12. Cloutier, T.J.	44. Mizrachi, Michael
13. Cunningham, Allen	45. Negreanu, Daniel
14. Deeb, Freddy	46. Nguyen, Scotty
15. Duke, Annie	47. Nikzad, Hooman (Caesars Palace qualifier)
16. Dwan, Tom	48. Online qualifier (to be determined)
17. Edler, Bill	49. Pham, David
18. Elezra, Eli	50. Raymer, Greg
19. Elizabeth, Shannon	51. Rousso, Vanessa
20. Esfandiari, Antonio	52. Schneider, Tom
21. Farha, Sam	53. Schreiber, Daniel
22. Ferguson, Chris	54. Seed, Huck
23. Fischman, Scott	55. Seidel, Erik
24. Forrest, Ted	56. Singer, David
25. Gold, Jamie	57. Smith, Gavin
26. Gowen, Clonie	58. Tilly, Jennifer
27. Greenstein, Barry	59. Townsend, Brian
28. Grizzle, Sam	60. Tran, J.C.
29. Hachem, Joe	61. Tran, Kenny
30. Hansen, Gus	62. Wasicka, Paul
31. Harman, Jennifer	63. Williams, David
32. Hellmuth, Phil	64. Yang, Jerry