Orel Hershiser?

NBC announced its line-up of confirmed players for the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship yesterday, and among the 60 listed are your usual suspects (Doyle, Hellmuth, Chan, Forrest, Greenstein, Ivey, Deeb, Negreanu, Farha et al), guys who won the WSOP Main Event who are not named Doyle, Hellmuth or Chan (Raymer, Hachem, Gold and Yang), the guys who runner up'd to a few of the guys just listed (Wasicka and Williams), players who haven't really done much at the table since Bush's first administration but apparently make for good TV to some people somewhere (Laak, Bellande, Esfandiari), a bunch of players who are better than almost all the other players (JC Tran, Clements, Edler, David Pham), some women poker players who are nowhere near as good as Annette Obrestad, a woman (Elizabeth, Tilly, Gowen, Rousso, Duke), the kid you don't know who won the 2007 WSOP Heads-Up event (Daniel Schreiber), a few who've made their names online (durr and sbrugby), an actor who makes us laugh (Brad Garrett), an actor who once made us laugh (Jason Alexander), an Oscar-nominated actor who is so frickin' cool you have to say "Fuckin" between his first and last name whenever you say his name (Don 'Fuckin' Cheadle) and one legendary Dodgers pitcher who we had no idea played poker (Orel Hershiser).

Yeh, Orel Hershiser. Apparently the former baseball tosser and current ESPN analyst kills it at the 1-2 table at Red Rock.

When the National Heads-Up Poker Championship gets underway February 29 - March 2 at Caesars in Las Vegas, a total of 64 players will battle it out in a bracket-style single elimination tournament with the winner walking away with $500,000. Each of the invited players will buy-in for $20,000 and two players will be chosen via satellites, one at Caesars on Feb. 17 and one online at Full Tilt.

After the jump a complete list of the players confirmed and a photo of a frog on a motorcycle.

1. Alexander, Jason
2. Antonius, Patrik
3. Bellande, Jean-Robert
4. Benyamine, David
5. Brown, Chad
6. Brunson, Doyle
7. Brunson, Todd
8. Chan, Johnny
9. Cheadle, Don 'Fuckin'
10. Clements, Scott
11. Cloutier, T.J.
12. Cunningham, Allen
13. Deeb, Freddy
14. Duke, Annie
15. Dwan, Tom
16. Edler, Bill
17. Elezra, Eli
18. Elizabeth, Shannon
19. Esfandiari, Antonio
20. Farha, Sam
21. Ferguson, Chris
22. Fischman, Scott
23. Forrest, Ted
24. Garrett, Brad
25. Gold, Jamie
26. Gowen, Clonie
27. Greenstein, Barry
28. Grizzle, Sam
29. Hachem, Joe
30. Hansen, Gus
31. Harman, Jennifer
32. Hellmuth, Phil
33. Hershiser, Orel
34. Ivey, Phil
35. Juanda, John
36. Kaplan, Gabe
37. Laak, Phil
38. Lederer, Howard
39. Lindgren, Erick
40. Little, Jonathan
41. Matusow, Mike
42. Mizrachi, Michael
43. Negreanu, Daniel
44. Nguyen, Scotty
45. Pham, David
46. Raymer, Greg
47. Rousso, Vanessa
48. Schneider, Tom
49. Schreiber, Daniel
50. Seed, Huck
51. Seidel, Erik
52. Singer, David
53. Smith, Gavin
54. Tilly, Jennifer
55. Townsend, Brian
56. Tran, J.C.
57. Tran, Kenny
58. Wasicka, Paul
59. Williams, David
60. Yang, Jerry

Comments

[Diana Hutcheson]

I have tried a number of times to post a note or e mail you Mr. Hershiser, but these web sites just don't seem to agree, I was hoping for you to get into the world series of poker, as is my husband, george, he goes by mt ringer on poker stars, however it would be amazing if you both made it, and you will recognize him as he uses your rookie card as his marker. we hope to be in vegas but he has had a run of bad health but it hasn't hurt his poker abilities. I have a huge baseball collection I started for my son, but now they are still in boxes and I know there are people who would really benefit and enjoy this collection. The one card that will not go is yours and it is my hope that you both are at the world series and that you meet up, he always states that it would be so cool to have his marker autographed. I don't know how that works but I guess if you see your card being used i think it would be great karma for the both of you to get to know each other and who knows you may both be at the final table, and I know that your autograph would mean almost as much as that pile of money on the table. you have been a hero of ours your writings, speeches and other involvements make us know you are still our hero. Good luck and we hope to see you. With blessings and joy.....Diana (and George)

[craig wyvill]

well, i don't know how good he is, but you can pretty much find him every sunday playing the 2-5 nl game at red rock. i guess he's probably not that good though, multi millionare playing a $1000 max buy in????? but thats nbc for you lets have a heads up tourney to find out who the best heads up player in world is and invite 20 some players who don't deserve to be there..mmmm can't wait to be bored with their crappy coverage