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How do these ratings compare to the hockey games that follow the HUPC broadcasts?

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The ratings are similar.

NHL on NBC sells plenty of targeted advertising, as the Stanley Cup final in June airs during prime time with minimal opposition from the other broadcast networks (which air re-runs).

Heads-up poker, on the other hand, is not able to sell the amount of targeted advertising it did 2 years ago. Gone are PartyPoker, PokerStars, UB/AbsolutePoker, ParadisePoker, Bodog, etc. The only one left is FullTiltPoker.net.

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I don't understand what this means. What is "targetted advertising" for a hockey game? It's not like I see a lot of ads for hockey equipment. The advertising for the hockey playoffs seems pretty typical for a sporting event, as do the ads for the HUPC, with more online poker ads sprinkled in. But it seems like the demographics for the two (from the perspective of a beer company, for instance) would be quite similar.

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The demographics are different.

The NHL targets high-income urban male professionals between the ages of 25 and 54. Automobiles/Trucks and Financial Services (stock brokerages, insurance companies) are two categories which advertise during NHL telecasts.

Other than Outback Steakhouse, NBC Heads-Up has survived mostly from poker-related advertising, which target young males, particularly in the ages 18 to 34 demographic. The amount of poker-related ads have dropped off dramatically since the passage of the UIGEA and the subsequent NETELLER fiasco.

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Recall that NBC Sports was gung-ho about the Arena Football League during the first year of the AFL's 3-year run on NBC.

By the 3rd year, the ratings dropped off. Even though NBC Sports paid ZERO rights fees for the AFL, NBC Sports dropped the AFL anyway because the lower ratings meant lower ad revenue, which meant little or no profit (NBC Sports is required to use union production labor on many projects.)

The AFL is now on ESPN2 with 2 games each year on ABC. ESPN, Inc. only has to use union production labor for the 2 games on ABC. The games on ESPN2 are produced with non-union (read: cheap) production labor.

Heads-Up Poker might have to find a new TV home, i.e. a cable TV channel, and possibly on a time-buy basis, instead of being able to stay on NBC in 2008, if history were any indication.