The National Heads Up Poker Championship was an annual invitational tournament that was held since its launch in 2005. However, the upcoming National Heads Up Poker Championship was cancelled due to the lack of funds to support it.
NHUPC’s Previous Years
The National Heads Up Poker Championship really did have some exciting airings, even during its first year as Phil Hellmuth took Down Chris Ferguson. The next year, Chris Ferguson yet again managed to survive up until the final table, but was yet again dismissed by a player, this time, Ted Forrest. The next year, Paul Wasicka was the one to take the top spot when he took down Chad Brown on second place. A year later, Ferguson was at it again and got to the final table, but this time, it was his turn to make it to the top as he defeated Andy Bloch during the heads up. On 2009, it was Huck Seed who took the crown by defeating Vanessa Rousso, who was so close to becoming the first female champion in the NHUPC. A year later, the first female player to win the NHUPC emerged, and it was Annie Duke who earned it as she took down Erik Seidel when they went 1 on 1. A year later, Erik Seidel claimed the top of the list as he beat down Chris Moneymaker.
Not Enough Funds
There’s not really much of a surprise here. The main reason for which was the fact that the primary advertisers were PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Of course, since the issue back in April 15 took down some of the big names in the poker world including both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, there wasn’t any way for the NHUPC to generate enough funds for its annual tournaments. PokerStars no longer caters to American poker players and Full Tilt Poker is having major problems on how to pay back the funds of its players. Also, considering the fact that not only did the two online poker rooms paid for advertisements, but they also paid for players who qualify through satellites.
Not the First to Get Cancelled
Well, things were already quite expected, really. To get things clear, NBC’s National Heads Up Poker Championship was not the first to get cancelled due to the incident that happened on April 15. Two other televised poker competitions got cancelled namely, NBC’s Poker After Dark, and Fox’s The Big Game due to the Black Friday Incident. Poker After Dark was sponsored by Full Tilt Poker, and the Big Game was sponsored by PokerStars.
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