NBC Heads-Up Info: Full-tilt and Pokerstars

Had this info posted in another thread but thought I would put it in its own thread so everyone can see it and get the information pertaining to the freerolls being offered at Full-tilt and Pokerstars for seats at the NBC Heads-up tourney!


(From gambling911.com):

"If you are a poker fan, you no doubt have witnessed the National Heads-Up Poker Championship on television. This prestigious tournament features a who's who of the top players in the world. Much like college basketball's March Madness tournament, the Heads Up tournament begins with 64 players who compete in heads up matches until a final winner is left standing.

Historically, this has been an invitation only event but this year, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars will be giving away 5 seats to this event.

The list of participants is truly an exclusive club.
The past five NBC Heads-Up champions are automatically awarded bids, as are the last 3 World Series of Poker Main Event Champions. Also given seats are this years WSOP main event runner up, the WSOP Player of the Year and the Card Player Magazine Player of the year.
The lineup truly boasts the best of the best.

The actual live Heads Up Championship takes place March 6 - 8, 2009 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

NBC will air the tournament live on television on these dates and times:

April 12: Noon - 2PM EST
April 19: Noon - 1PM EST
April 26: Noon - 2PM EST
May 3: Noon - 2PM EST
May 10: Noon - 2PM EST
May 17: Noon - 3PM EST

Now, in conjunction with Caesar's Palace, the two top online poker sites will be sending a total of five members to play in the classic event, absolutely free.
They will be offering freerolls to gain entry to the event.

On February 22nd at 11AM, Caesars will run its freeroll and to qualify, all a player needs to do is play poker at the casino for 40 hours during the month of January. Qualifying players will compete in a multi table tournament until there are 64 players remaining. At that point, remaining players will compete in heads up poker matches just like the NBC event.
The top 32 will get a cash payout and the winner is entered into the NBC event.

PokerStars will be hosting a championship freeroll as well on February 22nd. Preliminary tournaments have been underway since December 20th. In the preliminary events, the top 200 finishers advance to a Round 2 tournament in which the top 56 move on to the big final. The top 2 finalists will win their seats on the NBC show.

Full Tilt Poker's format is similar to the one held by PokerStars though one seat was awarded on January 4th in a freeroll. They are holding Round 1 heads-up shootouts and weekly Round 2 freerolls. Like the other two venues, their championship for the remaining seat is on February 22nd."

The full-tilt seats are being advertised as a $22,000 package which includes entry, travel, and accomodation.

At last years tourney the payouts were $500,000 for 1st, $250,000 for 2nd, 3rd and 4th got $125,000, 5th to 8th got $75,000, and 9th to 16th got $25,000. Also, Chris Ferguson was the winner.

Hope this info helps and tells you everything you wanted to know.

Also, for people having trouble getting into the tourney at Full-tilt (because the rooms fill up fast), go into Sit and Go instead of just the tourney listings. Look for the NBC Heads-up round 1 freeroll room and open it up. It will open the roompage and will show the next time a heads up tourney will be starting and will put up the Register Now button at that time on that page so you will just have to click on it. That way you can always get in! (Instead of waiting for it to show up somewhere on the tourney listings, finding it, clicking on it,and then clicking to register: plus you know at what time it will happen at). I get in no problem all the time (wish I could just win one so I don't have to keep trying-best finish is top 8 so far). You also can just pick to play in another tourney if you lose and you are instantly enrolled in the next available one.

thanks for the heads up ..HA HA HA ...but seriously..Ive played theses a few times now for practice & i've yet to make the final round..close but no stogie..
what i hate is when 2 sitters are folding to each other holding the tourney up..;(

Best of Luck @ the tables

ALSO!

You have to be 21 to enter the tournament. I know this doesn't affect most people, but there are people like me out there that are in the "limbo" age between 18-20 who can play online poker but not do anything live.

But that's odd that PS is holding a satellite, considering Full Tilt is running the show.....:S

For Pokerstars Round one on these is awesome. Played just like the TV version. Then all of the sudden you settle in for the Saturday round 2 to find out that it is not a heads up tourney at all.

Are the FT ones like this as well?

Aweful

Unless something has changed I can't see the value in playing these. I mean playing a multi-table tourney to see who is the best at heads up?

Weird

I was just about to ask that question!! thanks for letting me know really hurts =p *is 20* oooohhhhhh once we hit 21!!! THEY WILLL RUUUEEE THE DAYYY *thanks again for the info*

Don't see the value? I am a HU player and can tell you that anyone wanting to learn HU, the value is amazing. HU play is some much different.
And no FTP is running just like a HU championship. HU throughout all stages.

Pokerstars wants to get promotions like that over with. When it gets to the "main event" they put everyone together. FT is doing it right and should be interesting to see how the FT and PS Winners do.

It's PokerStars that had the MTTqualifiers.

Full tilt has the headsup matches in the rnd 1 qualifier.

What?! Round 2 is not heads-up also? What sense does that make.
If I understand the above, PS does HU for round 1 but not round 2, but what about Round 3 (final).
Also, that Full-tilt does it HU for all rounds (the prper way to do it)?
I hope that is the way it goes at FT, because I haven't made it yet but plan on it (haha): actually have played 3 times and top 8 each time. But, don't want to play if its not HU all the way through Have a chance at HU, not so much if its a regular tourney.

Can anyone please tell me where to find these qualifiers on stars?

OK Never mind my last comment....seems it is only open to US players....which is why I don't see it

I made it into the second phase, but didn't play this saturday because of the OFC. Playing this weekend . wish me luck.

from what I understand, PS does not do any of their satellite tournaments in HU format, they are all MTTs

I was wondring if anyone else here has gotten into the second tier. I'm playing Saturday and thought if womeone else had made we could do it and get a rail going.

I finished 5th,7th,8th, and 10th in the last week but haven't made it to the second tier. Maybe soon. Would like to take a break from jumping off skyscrapers and play cards in Vegas.

I have been in this tournament and actually won the first round. Although, to my surprise the day of round 2 it wasnt heads up at all, it was a MTT format. Full Tilt, how does this make sense? You start with heads up first round, and eventually the reward is to be in the heads-up championship. Why change the format for the 2nd round? I don't understand the logic behind this.

The quailifiers at PS are found in the REGIONAL tab of tournaments. The round 1 at PS is normal 9 man tables. plays down to 200 and those go on to round 2. I have not made my seat at PS but i am reg for tomorrows round 2 at FT.

Dark Ace Mafia. Thx for letting me know that at Full tilt round 2 is a MTT because I dont think that I will waste my time now playing round 1. I am fairly good at HU, but the ultimate winner of this competition is going to need more than just good heads up play (which makes no sense because we are ultimately playing for a seat in a HU tourney); going to need a good dose of luck, and the ability to do good in a freeroll (basically) tournament, which is nothing like the tourney we are trying to win a seat into.
I'm not going to bother anymore (or if I do, its now with the knowledge that my chances just went down big time) but good luck to those of you who mke round 2 and (hopefully) further.

I just wanted to say it was surprisingly easy to get through the 3k of people in round 2 to make the finals... Don't give up you only need to finish in the top 64 to go onto the finals.... I tell ya how my round 2 went...I had AA about an hour in and doubled up to around 24k then lost with kk and knocked me down to 4k then went on tilt and tripled up on the next hand all-in pre with like 10-8...the next hand i drew QJ suited and flopped the flush and came out of the hand with 27K..then about 1-1.5 hours later i got AA and tripled up to 75K after folding like 40 straight hands....then i just folded the rest of the way and finshed with 50k chips...it was surprisingly easy.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know all of that. I have played 3 of these on FTP and came in 16th on 2 of them. They take forever to play...all that sitting and waiting on your next opponent.

Those tournaments are the slowest most mind-numbing things. I just dont see the point. Stick to freerolls. Take a walk, watch some tv, anythings better than spending three or four hours on won of those things. Believe me I've done it too.

The best way to find them is to look under freerolls organized by date and wait for them to pop up. Once you get the lobby screen you can click on the tourney it satellites to and keep registering away.

I'm loving these things. sooooo much fun! great training for heads up.