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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The clubs bracket certainly lives up to its name, providing what we expect to be the most lively matches of the day. The feature table has a huge chunk of air time locked up with the lovely Liv Boeree facing off against George Costanza himself, Jason Alexander. He tweeted this morning that he'd "Been thinking how 2 defeat Liv Boeree in poker today. Gonna try not finding her attractive. That'll freak her out. Unless she calls my bluff."
Dwyte Pilgrim, known for some of the most jaw-droppingly irreverent commentary ever uttered at a tv table, is going up against Olivier "LivB" Busquet, a last minute addition to the line up. We can't help but notice that if he wins his match and Liv wins hers, the next round will be LivB v. Liv Boeree.
Ayaz Mahmood, the reigning World Series of Poker Heads-Up Champion, is seated opposite everyone's favorite baby-faced online phenom, Annette Obrestad. Andy Bloch is rocking his usual cowboy hat to face John Juanda. Jason Mercier will attempt to eat Ted Forrest at his own game. Oops, we mean beat. Barry Greenstein will sit silently, half asleep, at one end of the table while Scotty Nguyen shticks it up on the other. The current champion of the world, Jonathan Duhamel, takes on a man of the people, qualifier Melburn Whitmire. And Nicholas Chouity, winner of the European Poker Tour's 2010 Grand Final in Monte Carlo, is staring down the magician himself, Antonio Esfandiari, in front of a rail full of Esfandiari's family.
Scotty Nguyen was late - a little more than fashionably - as usual. After several calls to the set, they announced they were starting in two minutes with or without him. Production revved up the crowd to cheer for Leann Tweeden's intro, and they were mid-cheer as Nguyen arrived on set. He was perfectly happy to act like he'd been waiting for the proper pomp and circumstance to make his grand entrance.
Clubs bracket sunglasses report: Three of the 16 are going incognito this afternoon. Jason Alexander, Nicolas Chouity, and Dwyte Pilgrim are wearing shades.
![[user140525]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
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 
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.
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 
. Marchese didn't get there on the turn 
or the river 
.
. Young needed help with his 
.
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.
Diamonds - Round of 32