World's Best poker pros to gather in Las Vegas for 7th annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship

The seventh annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by GoDaddy.com will return to the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on March 3-6. The event will gather 64 of the best poker players in the world competing in a distinctive, bracket-style head-to-head format featuring $1.8 million in combined prize money.

Scheduled to appear in this year's event are several of the world's top poker pros, including: Go Daddy Girl and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Darvin Moon, WSOP bracelet winners Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Huck Seed, Daniel Negreanu, along with 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel and 2010 Heads-Up finalist Paul Wasicka. Last year's champ, Annie Duke, will return to the tables to defend her 2010 tournament title and her chance at the $750,000 first-place grand prize.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship has a unique, single-elimination, bracket-style format modeled after college basketball's championship tournament, except that the finals are the best of three. The first round opponents for the brackets will be chosen at random during the tournament's Draw Party held at PURE Nightclub at Caesars Palace on Thursday, March 3. The single-elimination competition begins Friday, March 4 at noon and continues through Sunday, March 6, when a two-out-of-three championship match will determine the winner.

Model and television personality Leeann Tweeden will serve as the host and sideline reporter, while Craig Hummer and Ali Nejad will provide commentary for the broadcast.

"We are proud to broadcast the National Heads-Up Poker Championship for a seventh consecutive year for our viewers to see some of the most exciting poker in the world. You never know what match-ups you are going to get in Heads-Up. Every year we are amazed with the outcome of who beats who when the best of the best battle it out.' said Jon Miller, president of programming of NBC Sports and Versus.