The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship kicks off today, with 64 of the most skilled and talented poker players competing to be the last one standing. The matchups for today’s opening matches were revelealed last night at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Pairing Party, held at the nightclub Pure, in the Caesar’s Palace casino. There are four brackets in the competition, 16 players to a bracket. The hearts bracket begins at 10:15 a.m, the diamonds bracket at 1:15 p.m., the clubs bracket at 4:15 p.m and the spades bracket at 6:45 p.m. There are a few celebrities mixed in with the professional poker players, and will probably be the easiest competition to overcome, although they will not be assured victories as tehy all come with poker skills of their own. All of the matches will be difficult tests of a player’s skill and every single player in the field will have to earn their victories.
Here are the matchups for the first round.
10:15 a.m., Hearts Bracket:
Vanessa Rousso vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Shannon Elizabeth vs. Andy Bloch
Todd Brunson vs. Scott Fischman
Jamie Gold vs. Tom Kelly
Ted Forrest vs. Orel Hershiser
Allen Cunningham vs. Chad Brown
John Robert Bellande vs. Sam Grizzle
Paul Wasicka vs. Freddy Deeb
1:15 p.m., Diamonds Bracket:
Jason Alexander vs. Huck Seed
David Pham vs. Brian Townsend
Jennifer Tilly vs. Clonie Gowen
Daniel Negreanu vs. Michael Mizrachi
Barry Greenstein vs. Howard Lederer
David Benyamine vs. Jennifer Harman
Sam Farha vs. Doyle Brunson
Erick Lindgren vs. Eli Elezra
4:15 p.m.,Clubs Bracket:
Jonathon Little vs. Erik Seidel
Patrik Antonius vs. Gabe Kaplan
Greg Raymer vs. Hooman Nikzad
Kenny Tran vs. Scott Clements
Mike Matusow vs. Joe Hachem
Tom Dwan vs. Phil Hellmuth
Tom Schneider vs. Gavin Smith
Chris Ferguson vs. John Juanda
6:45 p.m., Spades Bracket:
Don Cheadle vs. Gus Hansen
Scotty Nguyen vs. Bill Edler
Chris Moneymaker vs. Jerry Yang
David Singer vs. Phil Laak
Phil Ivey vs. Alisha Kunze
David Williams vs. Johnny Chan
Daniel Schreiber vs. T.J. Cloutier
Annie Duke vs. J.C. Tran
