Last night the matchups for today’s first round matches at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship were revealed. The 64 players have been separated into four brackets, with the hearts bracket starting 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 6:45p.m. There will be no easy matches for anyone, as teh player field is full of high-caliber competitors. There will be a few celebrities in the field, but all of them have poker experience and will not be pushovers. The matchups for today are as follows:
Hearts Bracket, starting at 10:15 a.m.
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
Diamonds Bracket, starting at 1:15 p.m.
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
Clubs Bracket, starting at 4:15 p.m.
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
Spades Bracket, starting at 6:45 p.m.
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