NBC National Heads-Up Championship Brackets Announced
First-round pairings for the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Championship first-round matches have now been announced, following Thursday's late-night drawing party at PURE at Caesars Palace. One late substitution to the lineup occurred, as Ivan Demidov encountered visa difficulties while traveling to the US, and was replaced in the 64-player lineup by Hevad Khan.
Play begins shortly after noon today with the eight "Hearts Bracket" matchups. All 32 opening-round matches will be held today, with two rounds on Saturday, and the final three rounds of action on Sunday.
The first-round matchups:
Hearts Bracket (play starts at 12:15 pm):
Johnny Chan vs. Eli Elezra
Erick Lindgren vs. Howard Lederer
JC Tran vs. David Williams
Jamie Gold vs. Scott Fischman
Erik Seidel vs. John Phan
Jerry Yang vs. Clonie Gowen
Allen Cunningham vs. Sam Farha
Andy Bloch vs. Peter Eastgate
Diamonds Bracket (play starts at 2:45 pm):
Kenny Tran vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Greg Raymer vs. Jennifer Harman
Kenny Yeh vs. Phil Laak
Vanessa Selbst vs. Layne Flack
David Benyamine vs. Gus Hansen
Huck Seed vs. Jonathan Little
Chad Brown vs. Glen Chorny
Annie Duke vs. Brad Garrett
Clubs Bracket (play starts at 5:45 pm):
Don Cheadle vs. David Pham
Paul Wasicka vs. Nicholas Joy
Jennifer Tilly vs. Phil Ivey
Doyle Brunson vs. Vanessa Rousso
Hevad Khan vs. Scotty Nguyen
Ted Forrest vs. Orel Hershiser
Daniel Negreanu vs. Chris Moneymaker
Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri
Spades Bracket (play starts at 8:15 pm):
Gabe Kaplan vs. Chris Ferguson
John Juanda vs. Joe Hachem
Ilari Sahamies vs. Gavin Smith
Fred Collins vs. Bertrand Grospellier
Jeffrey Ishbia vs. Leon Yanovski
Mike Sexton vs. Phil Hellmuth
Gavin Griffin vs. Tom Dwan
Barry Greenstein vs. Blandino Gines
In the semifinals, the winners of the hearts and diamonds bracket play against each other, with the spades and clubs bracket winners also squaring off.
