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Which matches can you find in da clubs bracket? These guys have their bottles full of bub at the ready and are taking their seats for the next eight heads-up battles.
Dwyte Pilgrim v. Olivier Busquet
Liv Boeree v. Jason Alexander
Jason Mercier v. Ted Forrest
Andy Bloch v. John Juanda
Barry Greenstein v. Scotty Nguyen
Annette Obrestad v. Ayaz Mahmood
Jonathan Duhamel v. Melburn Whitmire
Nicolas Chouity v. Antonio Esfandiari
After 90 minutes we're done with the first set of the Round of 64 matches. The youth movement was on full display, with Phil Galfond knocking out Joe Hachem, Vanessa Selbst dispatching Eli Elezra, and Peter Eastgate eliminating Chris Ferguson. Only Phil Gordon prevented a "clean sweep" in the battle of youth versus experience by emerging on top against Tom Marchese in a see-saw battle.
Other first-round Diamonds Bracket winners include Bertrand Grospellier, who came from way behind to beat qualifier Justin Young; Jennifer Harman; and Greg Raymer.
Tomorrow's Round of 32 matches in the Diamonds Bracket shape up like this:
Diamonds - Round of 32
Bertrand Grospellier v. Phil Galfond
Vanessa Selbst v. Peter Eastgate
Jennifer Harman v. Erik Seidel
Greg Raymer v. Phil Gordon
The tournament is now on a (minimum) 15-minute break before the Clubs Bracket takes the stage.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier doubled up Justin Young to get short early, then doubled back several times in a row to put himself back in the lead. He was more than willing to put Young on the ropes when he picked up 
. Young needed help with his 
.
The 
flop wasn't much help, but the 
earned a murmur from the crowd as it put a flush draw on the board. No problem for ElkY, however. He dodged the club with the safe 
on the river to move on to the next round, where he will play Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond in a battle of the online titans. Justin Young earned his seat the hard way, winning it in a super satellite at Caesars. He earned himself some tv time, but couldn't pick up any cash in the process.
We're down to one last match in the diamonds bracket. Blinds are huge, but Justin Young and Bertrand Grospellier are still going back and forth.
I was all set to write a Diamond Bracket mini-recap that trumpeted the youth movement, and how each of the match-ups that pitted a "veteran" against a "young player" ended with the vet's elimination. Then Phil Gordon threw a wrench in the works by overcoming Tom Marchese.
In a limped pot, Marchese check-raised all in after Gordon led a 
flop. Gordon called. The two had to wait more than five minutes due to action around the rest of the room before the rest of their hand played out. When a camera crew finally materialized, Gordon's 
, two pair, led Marchese's flush draw, 
. Marchese didn't get there on the turn 
or the river 
.
Marchese'e elimination resulted in a lot of swearing and deleting from the media table. Gordon, meanwhile, will return tomorrow for the Round of 32.
Never under estimate Jennifer Harman, even if she comes up to your waist. Huck Seed, a perennial finalist in the NBC Heads-Up event, is out of luck this year after running into Harman. She had a lead when she bet the 
flop. Seed moved all in, but his shove didn't work. Harman called with 
for top pair. All Seed could show was 
for ten-high. The turn paired the board, and the 
river had Seed shaking his head and shaking hands with Harman on his way out. Harman will play another formidable opponent, Erik Seidel, in the round of 32.
With blinds now at extreme levels, Mike Matusow shoved 6,400 dark. Greg Raymer looked at one card, a king, and called.
Showdown:
Matusow: 
Raymer: 
Each player flopped a pair, 
. Raymer's pair of 9s led Matusow's pair of 8s. The 
gave each player two pair. Matusow gave a guttural shout before the river sent him to the rail. The two players quickly shook hands and then Raymer raised one hand in acknowledgment to the crowd.
"Newman" moves on to the Round of 32 tomorrow.
Vanessa Selbst had a sizable lead over Eli Elezra by the time he got all of his chips in the middle with 
. Selbst was in good shape with 
. The 
flop gave Elezra a no help since his gutshot would make Selbst a higher straight. The 
turn and river brought no lifeline for the high-stakes cash gamer with a big personality. Selbst moves on to the round of 32, where she will play Peter Eastgate. Selbst finished second in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship at the World Series in 2008.
Notch another scalp for the youth movement. Ahead in his match against Joe Hachem, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond moved in for the kill. He tabled for a pre-flop all-in confrontation against Hachem's . Galfond paired his ace on the flop, 
. Hachem couldn't find runners as the board finished out to end his tournament in the Round of 64.
Galfond will return tomorrow for a Round of 32 match against the winner of ElkY-Young.
One of our enduring regrets with the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is that, although the players are mic'ed up, they're not amplified. So we haven't been able to hear any of the chatter between Greg Raymer and Mike Matusow. We hope that at least one of the two players, who are long past their 2004 confrontation in the WSOP Main Event, made a "cojones" joke at some point in their match.
Raymer displayed just how big his cojones are by getting it all in with 
against Matusow's . Raymer was at risk, but his treys stood tall on a 
board to take a big lead in the match against Matusow.
