NBC announced the full 64 member field for the 2011 National Heads Up Championship a couple weeks ago, but there were four late changes to the line-up, as Joe Cada, Johnny Chan, defending champion Annie Duke and Gabe Kaplan will not be playing for unstated reasons. Replacing them are recent LAPC main event final tablist Carlos Mortensen, Olivier Busquet, Sam Trickett and David "Viffer" Peat.
NBC will air the broadcast over six consecutive 1-3 hour show Sundays beginning April 17th.
“The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is back for a seventh year with another impressive line-up of celebrities and some of the most talented poker players in the world. Our viewers are in for a treat with what we can guarantee will be thrilling poker match-ups,” said Jon Miller, president of programming of NBC Sports and Versus. “There is no other heads-up poker tournament that can rival the skill and excitement on the tables that we bring together when the best of the best compete in this unique format.”
The buy-in has increased from $20,000 to $25,000 which will increase the first place payday to $750,000 instead of the $500,000 it has been the last few years.
Interesting match-ups in the first round include 2010's top online winner Dan Cates vs. Phil Ivey, uber-hot Erik Seidel vs. Allen Cunningham who just missed the LAPC final table, and Patrik Antonius vs. 2010 tournament juggernaut Sorel Mizzi.
The field is broken down into four brackets:
Spades Bracket
Doyle Brunson vs. Jennifer Tilly
Erick Lindgren vs. Dennis Phillips
Daniel “jungleman12” Cates vs. Phil Ivey
John Racener vs. Chris Moneymaker
Carlos Mortensen vs. Sam Trickett
Eric Baldwin vs. David Oppenheim
Patrik Antonius vs. Sorel Mizzi
Eugene Katchalov vs. Faraz Jaka
Diamonds Bracket
Bertrand Grospellier vs. Justin Young
Joe Hachem vs. Phil Galfond
Vanessa Selbst vs. Eli Elezra
Peter Eastgate vs. Chris Ferguson
Huck Seed vs. Jennifer Harman
Erik Seidel vs. Allen Cunningham
Mike Matusow vs. Greg Raymer
Thomas Marchese vs. Phil Gordon
Clubs Bracket
Dwyte Pilgrim vs. Olivier Busquet
Liv Boeree vs. Jason Alexander
Jason Mercier vs. Ted Forrest
Andy Bloch vs. John Juanda
Barry Greenstein vs. Scotty Nguyen
Annette Obrestad vs. Ayaz Mahmood
Jonathan Duhamel vs. Melburn Whitmire
Nicolas Chouity vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Hearts Bracket
Kara Scott vs. David Peat
David Williams vs. Emmitt Smith
Gavin Smith vs. Gus Hansen
James Bord vs. Frank Kassela
Phil Laak vs. Daniel Negreanu
Michael Mizrachi vs. Vanessa Rousso
Don Cheadle vs. Tom Dwan
Phil Hellmuth vs. David Benyamine
