After seven seasons on NBC, National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC) has come to an end. According to NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications Adam Freifeld, National Heads-Up Poker Championship will not be held in 2012. This annual only invitation based poker tournament held in United States had been the highlight of poker television since 2005.
Not Enough Funds for NHUPC 2011
The decision of cancelling the NHUPC tournament in 2012 was not surprising especially on the aftermath of the Black Friday which has seen Fulltilt and PokerStars shut out of the US market. Both Fulltilt and PokerStars were the primary advertisers and the main sponsor for NHUPC. Without the revenue generated from these two online giants, NHUPC has been slowly diminishing. Not only did these poker rooms pay to advertise, but they also paid the $20,000 buy-ins for many players, as many were sponsored by one of the two sites.
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is not the first televised poker series that has been hit with Black Friday effect. Another NBC’s Poker After Dark which was sponsored by Fulltilt and Fox network’s Big Game sponsored by PokerStars have also been closed.
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Previous years
This popular television poker tournament started way back in 2005. This poker event was only invitation based with buy- in $20,000 in which 64 poker players competed in heads-up No Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament over a course of five rounds of play. The first NHUPC event was held at the Golden Nuggets and rest all took place at Caesars Palace. With 1.5 average rating during the last seven years, the NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship had always been the top-rated poker program on television.
This poker tournament event featured many world’s top poker player as well as poker celebrities. Many notable poker players who took home the NHUPC championship includes Phil Helmuth (who won the inaugural event), Chris Ferguson, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, Annie Duke, Paul Wasicka and Ted Forrest. Many poker celebrities who had been a part of NHUPC include Shannon Elizabeth, Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett, Jason Alexander, Orel Hershiser, Emmitt Smith, James Woods, Rene Angelil, Jerry Buss and Gabe Kaplan.
Will NBC’s NHUPC be back in future?
Well according to the latest poker news there is a possibility of National Heads-Up Poker Championship’s speedy return in the near future as NBC hasn’t yet ruled out the possibility of its returning. Adam Freifeld of NBC informed that NBC will continue to evaluate our poker programming. But returning of NHUPC will depend on when legislation will again allow poker to be played in US.
On the other side, World Series of Poker had recently signed a contract with ESPN to televise poker tournaments till 2017.
Let’s wait and see what would be the next step by NHUPC.
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