NBC sign 4 year deal with Caesars for National Heads up ChampionshipNBC and Caesars Entertainment have announced a new four year partnership that makes Caesars Palace poker room in Las Vegas the home NBC’s popular National Heads Up Poker Championship. The tournament and television show just aired its fourth season recently to its best ever ratings.

Jon Miller, the executive vice president of NBC Sports, had this to say about the deal in a press release: “Caesars Palace is world famous for their poker room, so there is no better place in Las Vegas for us to hold the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In the past three years, our affiliation with Caesars Palace has helped produce great participants, great on-site attendance, and strong television viewership. We’re looking forward to more of the same over the next four years.”

The past four champions of the heads-up competition were:
Phil Hellmuth (2005)
Ted Forrest (2006)
Paul Wasicka (2007)
Chris Ferguson (2008)

NBC, along with ESPN, has become one of the few stable sources for decent poker television. Their network offers two poker shows, the seasonal Heads up Poker Championship and the popular late night television show Poker After Dark which has expanded their game structures for shows next season.

NBC’s proactive approach to their “home grown” poker shows is in stark contrast to other popular poker shows like High Stakes Poker formerly airing on the Game Show Network until just a few weeks ago, and one of the oldest TV poker brands The World Poker Tour, both of which are without network homes and currently in production limbo.

Although the quality of much of the poker on television leaves a lot to be desired, here’s hoping shows like those mentioned find long term homes, maybe even on major non cable networks like NBC.