It’s back! Following NBC axing the event in October 2011, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship will return in 2013 after a one-year hiatus. On Thursday, Poker Productions, which puts on the event, sent a Tweet out teasing, “Press release soon, but NBC Heads-Up is back – Jan 24-26 at Caesars Palace. Invites going out.” Caesars Palace has played host to the event since 2006 and NBC has carried it since its inaugural season in 2005.

Who the presenting sponsor of the Heads-Up Championship will be this year remains to be seen. Past sponsors have included GoDaddy. Other possibilities could include poker-centric brands like WSOP.com, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, and Sheets Energy Strips.

As Poker Productions’ Tweet said, the 64-player heads-up bracket-style tournament will be filmed in January in the Nevada desert. It will then hit television airwaves two months later on NBC. The same company Tweeted, “Look for NBC Heads-Up episodes to begin in March and run for 6 consecutive weeks. 12 hours total.” The airing will coincide with the similarly structured NCAA Basketball Tournament, dubbed March Madness, that will air on the CBS family of networks.

Questions from several members of the poker community were fired off at Poker Productions via Twitter, including one from Dan Fleyshman, who asked whether qualifiers would be held for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In the past, satellite winners have taken to the field through various outlets like Caesars. In response, Poker Productions said, “Still being worked out. Sorry don’t have better info.”

NBC axed its hallmark Heads-Up Poker Championship event in October 2011. The departure of sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt from the U.S. market on Black Friday, which had occurred just six months prior, could have been to blame.

In October 2011, when news of the cancellation broke, HogWild Poker‘s Steve “Wicked Chops” Preiss told PocketFives, “It’s definitely symbolic of the end of an era. While not a time buy – every poker program other than the WSOP and NBC Heads-Up is a time buy – it was an event specifically made to capitalize on ad dollars from U.S.-facing sites. As those sites have left the market, it made it difficult for NBC to justify spending the production cost.”

Members of the PocketFives community fared well throughout the seven-season run of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In 2009, Bertrand ElkYGrospellier, a PokerStars sponsored pro, made the semifinals and fell to eventual runner-up Vanessa Rousso. In 2011, the last year the tournament was held, Andrew good2cu Robl lost out to Erik Seidel in the semis. Past winners have included Phil Hellmuth (2005), Ted Forrest (2006), Paul Wasicka (2007), Chris Ferguson (2008), Huck Seed (2009), Annie Duke (2010), and Erik Seidel (2011).

You’ll recall that shows like GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” and FOX’s “Million Dollar Challenge” were also nixed following Black Friday. We’ll keep you posted on the latest on this still-developing story.

Who would you want to see in a re-launched National Heads-Up Poker Championship? Voice your choice by commenting here!

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