Home / Poker News January 2013 / NBC Heads-Up Final 64 Set
NBC Heads-Up Final 64 Set
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2013-01-19 11:19
With the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship drawing near, the list of 64 poker pros who will take part in the prestigious event has been set. Obviously, the organizers will never be able to satisfy all those who would want to take part and end up getting left off the list, but this year, there have been a couple of notable absences, behind which the reasons are quite obvious for the
poker community.
We’re talking about Annie Duke and Chris Feguson of course. Ferguson is one of the ex-Full Tilt executives who are blamed for the pilfering of player funds and the using of the
online poker operation as an international Ponzi scheme. Ferguson’s absence is quite significant indeed, because he is one of the best players in the history of the event.
Annie Duke is Howard Lederer’s sister, and since Lederer was the driving force behind the illegal and unethical activities taking place at Full Tilt Poker, that alone would be enough reason for most poker players to indeed leave her off the NBC list. Duke however has boldly followed in her brother’s footsteps and had her own little fraud-scheme called the Epic Poker League, which the community knows pretty much all about too.
Of course, most of the regulars will be back. PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu will yet again play, together with Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel and Vanesa Rousso. While some players have been shunned, others have found themselves first-time invitees in the event. Matt Salsberg will be one of these players. Gaelle Baumann and Rob Salaburu – both of
WSOP 2012 Main Event fame – will play as well. Some – like David Sands – have taken offense for not being included. In a twitter pos he fired up shortly after the list was made public, Sands claimed that everyone in the GPI top 10 should automatically be invited.
