2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship Pairings Set

Thursday night, dozens of the world’s best poker players gathered at Pure nightclub in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC) drawing party, where they finally got to see how this year’s poker version of March Madness would look.

The Championship begins on Leap Day, Friday, February 29, and will run through March 2.  The ultimate winner will receive $500,000. Below are the brackets.


Hearts Bracket – Begins 10:15am PT

Vanessa Rousso vs. Antonio Esfandiari

Shannon Elizabeth vs. Andy Bloch

Todd Brunson vs. Scott Fischman

Jamie Gold vs. Tom Kelly¹

Ted Forrest⁴ vs. Orel Hershiser

Allen Cunningham vs. Chad Brown

Jean-Robert Bellande vs. Sam Grizzle

Freddy Deeb vs. Paul Wasicka⁵

Diamonds Bracket – Begins 1:15pm PT

Jason Alexander vs. Huck Seed

David Pham vs. Brian Townsend

Clonie Gowen vs. Jennifer Tilly

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 – Begins 4:15pm PT

Jonathan Little vs.  Erik Seidel

Patrik Antonius vs. Gabe Kaplan

Greg Raymer vs. Hooman Nikzad¹

Kenny Tran vs. Scott Clements

Mike Matusow vs. Joseph Hachem

Tom Dwan vs. Phil Hellmuth³

Tom Schneider vs. Gavin Smith

Chris Ferguson vs. John Juanda

Spades Bracket – Begins 6:45pm PT

Don Cheadle vs. Gus Hansen

Scotty Nguyen vs. Bill Edler

Jerry Yang vs. Chris Moneymaker

David Singer vs. Phil Laak

Phil Ivey vs. Alisha Kunze²

David Williams vs. Johnny Chan

Daniel Schreiber vs. T.J. Cloutier

Annie Duke vs. J.C. Tran

¹ Caesar’s Satellite Qualifier
² Internet Qualifier
³ 2005 NHUPC Champion
⁴ 2006 NHUPC Champion

⁵ 2007 NHUPC Champion 

The Rounds of 32 and 16 will be played on March 1, while the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Championship will all take place on March 2.  In the Semifinals, the winner of the Clubs bracket will face the winner of the Spades bracket and the winner of the Hearts bracket will square off against the winner of the Diamonds bracket.