NBC Heads-Up Kicks Off

The 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Championship got going from the Caesars Palace poker room on the Las Vegas strip today and with lightning-fast 15-minute blind levels and starting stacks of just $20k in chips, those expecting the round of 64 to play out like a series of turbo two-man sit-and-gos on PokerStars would not be disappointed.

The day began just before noon in springlike Lost Wages with eight matches of the 32 planned and it would not be long before we knew there would be a new Heads-Up champ this year. Right after the cameras began rolling at the poker room-turned-TV set, Paul Wasicka, who took home the title in 2007, was dusted off in short order by the much shorter Freddy Deeb.

It also didn't take too long before the 2006 NBC Heads-Up champ busted, as former Cy Young award-winning pitcher-turned-Red Rock poker room regular Orel Hershiser flopped a set all-in against Ted Forrest's ace-high to cut down Forrest's tree.

This babe busted!

The featured match in the first eight pitted actress-turned-poker babe Shannon Elizabeth against veteran pro/math geek Andy Bloch. And while it was an up-and-down affair that lasted a good while, Elizabeth, who went deep here last year, learned a hard lesson about the role luck plays in heads-up matches when she got it in with king-queen suited against Bloch's 10-8 off and still lost the match.

The second group of eight battles included yet another Hollywood actress who spends more time on the felt than on film sets these days, as Jennifer Tilly sat down for a little heads-up action with Full Tilt pro Clonie Gowen. Tilly didn't fare much better than Elizabeth though as Gowen rivered a flush in the decisive hand to beat Tilly's flopped straight.

The feature match in this group saw Daniel Negreanu take on Michael Mizrachi, but the Grinder rolled over Kid Poker fairly quickly.

Did you see that?

Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander became the third Hollywood type of the day victimized by a veteran pro when Huck Seed made quick work of him and while Barry Greenstein versus Howard Lederer set up like a match-up of two great poker minds, the Bear ran over the Professor in no time flat.

If you put three guys like Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith and Phil Hellmuth on the same television set together you can expect things to get loud and the third round of eight matches today was just that.

Hellmuth was quieted down rather quickly though, when in just the third hand of his feature table match with Internet whiz kid Tom "durrr" Dwan, the two got all the money in the middle. durrr was almost done when he felted pocket tens to the Poker Brat's aces, but the kid turned a set of tens, sending Hellmuth home - a move most of the crowd of players and railbirds seemed to enjoy a bit too much for Hellmuth's liking.

Cracked!

The Mike Matusow-Joe Hachem match-up in this round was filled with chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oy. Oy Oy." But it wasn't Hachem or a throng of Australian fans leading the cheer like it was back at Joe's 2005 WSOP Main Event win. This time it was an Aussie T-shirt-wearing, Aussie flag-waving Mike Matusow employing the Down Under chant. Matusow eventually took the match down and is probably still talking about it now.

One Main Event champ who did advance from this group was 2004 winner Greg Raymer, after he sucked out against Caesars qualifier Hooman Nikzad. But if you are looking for the real suck-out king of the first 64, you should look no further than Gavin Smith. He busted Tom Schneider after sucking out a chop when he was in behind, then turning a straight after getting in with 7-8 off against Schneider's pocket queens to take a stranglehold on their match. Birdguts got lucky again, ending the battle by catching one of two overs against the 2007 WSOP POY's nines.

Smith sucks out!

The final eight matches of the day included a battle between former WSOP Main Event Champ luck-box Chris Moneymaker and current WSOP Main Event champ luck-box Jerry Yang. But as we all know, the Lord loves Jerry Yang very much and when Yang got it all-in with fours against Moneymaker's tens, the miracle four on the river pushed Yang through to the next round.

God did not have such a purpose for actor Don Cheadle, however, as Gus Hansen took care of the baddest dude in the room before the day was done. Cheadle got his money in with pocket jacks, but Hansen found a way to make K-J work, dropping the cool factor in the round of 32 below the Mendoza line - but barely.

Another former WSOP Main Event champ found a way to move up from this group. Bill Edler discovered that if you call Scotty Nguyen, it's gonna be over, baby, when he lost all his chips with a flush against the Prince's nut flush.

One bad man!

What looked like it could be the most shocking result of the day turned out to be pretty standard fare in the end. Coming off his LAPC win yesterday, Phil Ivey was (mis)matched up with PokerStars qualifier Alisha Kunze and the amateur actually took a lead in the early going before catching a huge cooler. We can't prove it with any stats, but it seems like every time an opponent gets kings, Ivey has aces and that's exactly what happened to Kunze. After grabbing the lead, Phil wasted little time in finishing the young lady off, but not before PL.com pulled her aside for an interview - which you can find right here.

Things happened fast today, but if you want a full recap of every elimination, all the happenings from the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, plus a look at tomorrow's round of 32 match ups, hit up our Live Updates page.

Things will kick of Saturday just after 11 a.m. Vegas time and PL.com will have it all as usual. The future looks so bright, tomorrow we wear shades!