The NBC Heads-Up Championship, the popular made-for-television poker event, is scheduled to return next year.
The event will take place from January 24 to 26 at Caesars Palace, according to a tweet by the TV production company on Thursday.
The series previously ran for seven years, from 2005-2011. Though some televised poker shows were pulled from the schedule following the events of Black Friday, the 2011 NBC Heads-Up Championship continued to air as scheduled. However, the event did not return in 2012.
The $20k buy-in event is primarily invite-only—though a few spots are reserved for satellite winners—and features some of the biggest names in poker, and mainstream celebrities, pitted against each other.
The list of those invited for next month’s event has not yet been announced, nor has a schedule for the TV show, though a press release with more details is expected soon.
Play takes place in a 64 entry single elimination format until the championship round where the structure moves to a best-of-three series. The first-round matches are selected randomly at a pre-tournament draw party traditionally held the night before the tournament begins.
The 2011 event was won by Eric Seidel, besting Chris Moneymaker in the final, taking home the $750k first prize. In 2010 he came in second, losing in the final to Annie Duke. Other previous winners include Huck Seed, Chris Ferguson and Ted Forest.
The show is produced by POKER PROductions, the company that also produces Poker After Dark, the World Series of Poker and the World Series of Poker Europe. President Mori Eskandani was one of the main forces behind the immensely popular High Stakes Poker which last aired in 2011 on GSN.
After announcing the return of The NBC Heads-Up Championship via Twitter, a fan asked if High Stakes Poker would also return, but POKER PROductions replied that “nothing [is] on the schedule.”
