National Heads-Up Poker Championship To Award Some Spots To Qualifiers

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship has always been an invitational, but they just announced that next year some of the spots will be awarded to qualifers:

· Previous 5 National Heads-Up Poker Champions
· Previous 2 National Heads-Up runners-up
· Defending National Heads-Up semifinalists
· Any player who cashes in the past 4 consecutive years of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship
· Previous 3 World Series of Poker Main Event Champions
· Defending World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up
· Beginning with the 2008 WSOP, multiple bracelet winners in the same year will receive an automatic invitation to the next Heads-Up Championship
· Defending World Series of Poker Player of the Year
· Defending World Series of Poker Heads-Up Champion
· Defending World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Champion (must be 21 or older)
· Reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year
· Reigning Monte Carlo European Poker Tour Grand Final Champion (must be 21 or older)
· Reigning Card Player magazine Player of the Year
· Reigning Bluff magazine Player of the Year
· Reigning ALL IN magazine Player of the Year
· Online and NBC qualifiers (1-3) (must be 21 or older)
· Host venue qualifiers (2)

About 40 of the 64 spots will still be by invitation, however. See also our editorial Can an Invitational Be a Championship? and the press release.