Jerry Yang, God to Play 2008 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

NBC has announced its initial line-up for the (no longer?) Shana Hiatt-hosted 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and while most of the field is the same old same old (Doyle, Ivey, Chan, Jesus, Greenstein, Hellmuth, Shannon Elizabeth), a few new players on the scene are set to compete including Mirage Poker Showdown winner Jonathan Little, high stakes cash player Brian Townsend and God-on-his-side 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang (seen at right), who besides his Chris McCandless-esque journey into the wilds of that cold ice mass north of America, we haven't seen much of since July.

Antonio Esfandiari, who hasn't done much on the poker circuit since Bush's first term, is also among the players set to play, for some reason. Or maybe he's just going to do table side magic or something.

The nationally televised single elimination tournament, which was won last year by Paul Wasicka, is set to take place February 29 - March 2 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas just as the LA Poker Classic wraps at the Commerce. The show will air on NBC in April and May.

For more on the NBC Heads-Up Championship go to the official site here.

For what 2006 WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold had to say about Wicked Chops Poker at last year's NBC Heads-Up championship go here.

For why you should go read a book, go here.

Comments

[jason]

Tony, you clearly have issues with women..please seek counseling.
also they do have an online qualifer for the Heads Up championship.

[Matt]

No longer Shana Hiatt hosted. Some girl they are calling Poker Princess or something. :(

[Tony]

How f'ing insulting that NBC invites hollywood donkey idiots like Shannon Elizabeth but real pros will be left out. They could at least offer that seat to an internet qualifier or someone that plays their way into the tournament.

Shannon Elizabeth is a disgrace to poker.

[J]

I think you're looking at the invite list. No one has been confirmed yet. The first 20 invites have been sent out, the rest will go out at the end of the month.

http://www.nbcsports.com/portal/site/nbcsports/menuitem.6f806e473b4cb158fb00ec22493c2d04/?vgnextoid=3aa59b02523f6110VgnVCM10000075c1d240RCRD&cpsextcurrchannel=1