The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is one of the longest poker telecasts in history, but it will be no more. NBC announced recently that they will not be bringing back the event for the 2012 session. This season would have been the eighth consecutive season. While it is tough for a lot of the players to deal with (especially ones who have had success at the events), it seems that the decision comes from the aftermath of Black Friday, and the current situation with Full Tilt Poker.
The main issue is that PokerStars and Full Tilt generated an impressive amount of revenue through live poker events; but recently it has been on a major decline which explains the loss of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, as well as the decline in interest in two of the other televised events; Poker After Dark (backed by Full Tilt Poker), and PokerStars’ Big Game.
It has been reported that the event could potentially be back if online poker in the United States was the get legalized, but that seems to be far off in the future. This event was essentially created by NBC, and featured some big named celebrities, who were typically matched up against some of the biggest and most popular names in poker. It was a field of 64 players, and the show had done very well in the years that it was on the air. It mainly included big named players such as Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Huck Seed, and even the always famous Chris Ferguson, who is currently in the news thanks to Full Tilt Poker.