The first of twelve hour-long episodes was broadcast on Wednesday evening while viewers in other parts of the world are also set to benefit after FullTilt Poker secured the event’s international distribution rights.
This year’s us$ 20,000 invitation-only National Heads-Up Poker Championship saw 64 of the biggest names in poker including Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom battle it out in Caesars Palace while former winners Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed and reigning champion Erik Seidel were also involved.
“This is just the start of many exciting and unique television products from FullTilt Poker [and] plenty of these will have the opportunity for players to qualify for and take part in, too,” said Sarne Lightman from FullTilt Poker.
“To complement the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship shows, we will be running a series of promotions this summer on FullTilt Poker allowing players to win the opportunity to compete heads-up against our professionals and play for a share of over us$ 100,000 in prize money.”
Following broadcast in the UK, FullTilt Poker started that action from the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship will air in Russia on TV3, Canada via Sportsnet and for viewers in Germany with Sport1. Poker aficionados in Latin America will be able to re-live the event with ESPN while Mega TV will broadcast the episodes in the Ukraine alongside SportKlub in Hungary and Poland in addition to Nova Sport for the Czech Republic.
“It really is great news that FullTilt Poker is getting involved in helping this popular tournament reach such a global audience,” said Blom. “This year was my first NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and it immediately became one of my favourite events [because] it involves all the big names and the format is also very challenging. One-on-one is the purest form of poker in my opinion because it's all one big mind game.”