PokerGO revealed major details about their forthcoming relaunch of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on Monday. There’s an initial list of 14 participants, and an official presenting partner in place, with PokerStars.
Michael Mizrachi is fresh off a one-of-a-kind summer, featuring not only a World Series of Poker main event victory, but also his fourth WSOP Poker Players Championship win. He headlines the first batch of participants announced for this tournament.
Poker Hall of Famers Erik Seidel and Chris Moneymaker, Jason Koon, online poker legend Doug Polk, Phil Galfond, Liv Boeree and 2025 WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb will also play.
The $25,000 buy-in, 64-player event features PokerStars as the presenting sponsor. After airing on Peacock in the fall of 2025, future NHUPC broadcasts will air on both PokerGO and PokerStars platforms.
“The National Heads-Up Poker Championship helped define the golden era of televised poker,” said PokerGO president Mori Eskandani. “We’re proud to partner with PokerStars to bring back a truly iconic brand and share it with a new generation of fans.”
Major Celebrity Presence Returns
Harkening back to the early days of what was once the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the field includes a significant number of non-professional players. Among that group is pro football Hall of Famer Richard Seymour, who has made multiple deep WSOP main event runs. Influencer Bryce Hall, who has played a number of televised cash games and Celebrity Poker Tour events, is in the field, too.
Fresh off his WSOP main event broadcast debut, FOX Sports broadcast personality Nick Wright is in as well. Comedian and actor Rob Riggle, and reality TV standouts T.J. Lavin and “Boston” Rob Mariano will play, and PokerGO announced more celebrities are expected.
Back in June, PokerGo announced that it acquired the rights to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship from NBC Sports. The rights deal, centered around the first new NHUPC in over a decade, also includes the acquisition of archived content from NBC Sports.
The NHUPC debuted on NBC in 2005, with Phil Hellmuth defeating Chris Ferguson in the finals. Ferguson finished runner-up again in 2006, to Ted Forrest. Two years later, Ferguson broke through with a title win of his own in 2008.
Other winners include Paul Wasicka (2007), Huck Seed (2009), Annie Duke (2010), Seidel (2011) and Mike Matusow (2013).
Image courtesy of PokerGO
