It is hard to believe that this weekend marks the seventh running of NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC). To me, it still seems like a nascent event, but one piece of evidence of its maturity is that instead of talking about how cool and great the NHUPC is, poker players and fans now tend to gripe about the field. The complaints emanating from the poker community revolve around the failure to include more young, rising stars and the continued invitations of televised poker stars who peaked in popularity in the early to middle years of the last decade. Again, I am totally in tune with those feelings, but in my opinion, many of those grousing aren't being honest with themselves about what the NHUPC actually is. The NHUPC is a televised poker spectacle. Yes, it's a heads-up poker tournament with a very large buy-in and rich prize money. But this is not like the heads-up championship at the World Series of Poker nor is it like some of the more prestigious heads-up events online. It's a made-for-television poker show with a structure designed to create excitement, not show off the subtle, intricate nuances of skilled poker play. It is broadcast by one ...