NBC NHUPC - Just one place left

On Friday the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship at the Caesar's Palace will begin . The buy-in is $20,000, and 63 of the 64 participants are known.

The 60 invitees for this exclusive event have been known for a few weeks (as reported). All but actor Brad Garrett have already confirmed their participation. Among the players is Chris Moneymaker, who is participating for the fourth time this year.

Four seats were yet to be attributed, one of which went to Andy Bloch, sponsored by Full Tilt Poker for this event. Two other players qualified through live satellites at the Caesar's Palace, Tom Kelly and Hooman Nikzad. The latter isn't a complete unknown in tournament poker, having won a NL Hold'em event at the 2007 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, among other scores.

One place is therefore still available in order to complete the 64-player field. It will be attributed through freerolls at PokerStars that will only be available to American players.

The players will compete in the NBC NHUPC in a bracket style single-elimination format, which means that there will be 32 matches in the first round, 16 in the second, etc. Down to the final which will be played as a best-of-three match.