Greg Raymer Spotted With Full Tilt Patch
Although the action is yet to get underway at this year's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, those invited met up at Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace to determine the starting heads-up matches for this weekend's tournament.
In attendance at the party was former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Raymer. As you may recall, just last month Raymer departed from PokerStars. It had been suggested that some Team PokerStars Pros were offered less money for sponsoring the site, and Raymer was unhappy with the new contract and decided to walk away.
Raymer's appearance saw him sporting his new Full Tilt Poker patch. According to Bluff Magazine it is a one-time deal for Raymer, although it alluded to the fact that there was a possibility for a sponsorship extension if his performance was good at NHUPC.
The announcement of the NHUPC draw saw Raymer's first heads-up match up against Team Full Tilt Poker pro Mike Matusow, which will be on the feature table.
In addition to participating in the special head-to-head tournament as a Full Tilt sponsored player, Raymer is also selling part of his action on the staking site ChipMeUp. The deal is such that he has reserved 60% of what he wins and is offering 40% to investors. All the shares have already been purchased with Tony G getting a large percentage of them.
Although there are many notable players playing in this year's NHUPC, the 2025 NHUPC defending champion in Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer will not be playing. The reason they will not be in attendance is unknown at this point, although Matusow tweeted, "Her mother had a stroke and is on her death bed. Neither her or Howard are playing."
Carlos Mortensen, who recently made a deep run at the L.A. Poker Classic which saw him surpass Phil Hellmuth in lifetime tournament winnings with over $10 million, will be replacing Howard Lederer.
Twitter is a really popular micro-blogging platform on the internet, allowing poker pros to communicate with their fans to let them know who they will be facing in their first round matches. David Williams tweeted, "NBC Heads Up Poker Champs tomorrow. Round 1, I play Emmitt Smith. Pretty insane since I'm a Cowboys fan." Another Team PokerStars Pro member, Vanessa Selbst tweeted, "Drew Eli Elezra first round of NBC HU. Let's hope I run good in the $25K flipament!"