Ceasars Hosts Day 1 of NBC Nat'l Heads-Up Poker Championship

The lines were long and the stands were full during the ten hours of action packed match-ups on the first day of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars in Las Vegas.

Play began at 11:30 a.m. PST for sixteen players competing against each other in the Spades bracket, followed by those of the Hearts, the Diamonds and finally the Clubs. The match-ups would determine which half of the sixty-four competitors would advance to the second round of the competition.

The players started with $20,000 in chips, the blinds began at $100-$200, and the rounds were fifteen minutes each with no scheduled breaks. Each table had its own individual clock, and the dealer monitored the time, much like a satellite competition.

Ali Nejad's job was to entertain the audience and relate the action for the attending fans and future NBC viewers. Needless to say, Nejad received plenty of assistance from participants along the way. With characters like Gavin Smith, Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth, exhibiting the art of illustration, the house rarely experienced a lull in energy.

Scott Fischman and James Woods were the first to initiate a flurry of action. Fischman raised, pre-flop, and Woods re-raised. Fischman moved all in, and Woods immediately called. Woods showed pocket queens, Fischman turned over A-K and Woods lost the hand, becoming the first player of the day to be eliminated.

Erick Lindgren made his flush draw on the river to eliminate Steve Glassner and Barry Greenstein's pocket eights sent Cyndi Violette to the rail after a little more than an hour of play.

Meanwhile, Tuan Le and Chris Moneymaker were battling it out and running the announcer, Ali Nejad, into the ground. Nejad found himself emceeing their all-in plays so often that other tables suffered a lack of narration.

At one point, Tuan Le had a large lead over Moneymaker, but Moneymaker won a couple of pots to even the stacks. It wasn't long until Le was depleted of ammo, but he soon doubled up through Moneymaker to take back the advantage. Moneymaker returned the favor by doubling up through Le on the very next hand, but Le eventually won the match, ending the action-packed play between two commanding professionals.

Mike Caro trumped Tony G to subtract him from the bracket and Huckleberry Seed eliminated David Oppenheim. The lovely Dee Luong upset the 2005 Player of the Year, Men "The Master" Nguyen and Amir Vahedi advanced by taking down Jerry Buss, completing the line up for tomorrow's match-ups in the Hearts brackets.

Meanwhile, play was underway between Negreanu and Ng. Ng celebrated an early lead but Negreanu came back to defeat the popular beauty and opened up the main table for Jennifer "Unabombshell" Tilly and her opponent, Paul Phillips.

Sean Sheikhan upset Gus Hansen and Carlos "Matador" Mortensen sent ten-time World Series of Poker Champion, Johnny Chan, to the sidelines.

The drama, in lieu of action, was predictably found at Gavin Smith and Phil Laak's table, when both beefed up their antics. At one point, "The Unabomber" showed his cards to the cameraman who was positioned over his shoulder, and coincidentally holding the camera transmitting a live signal to the audience. Smith could have sneaked a peek at the hand being displayed on several monitors, but it wasn't until he "mucked" that he realized what had happened. Needless to say, Laak was clearly embarrassed by his mischief and Smith's chips eventually faded, giving Laak a dramatic session's win.

Doyle Brunson proved again that anything could happen when he pressed John Juanda's pocket sixes with his K - 7 offsuit, spiking a seven on the turn to win the match.

Greg Raymer hit one of his three outs to pair the board on the river and sent Layne Flack home early. Soon thereafter, David Grey defeated Lyle Berman and the Diamond and Clubs brackets were officially underway.

Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari was clearly shaken by a previous hand which magically developed in his opponent's favor. From that point on, Barry Shulman held a decisive chip lead over Esfandiari and in the final hand; his pocket eights trumped Esfandiari's A - K, propelling Shulman into the second round.

Ted Forrest knocked out Erik Seidel, Chad Brown upset Phil Ivey, and Ernie Durreck surprised even himself when he eliminated Scotty Nguyen. But it was the animated featured table, hosting Phillips and Tilly, which stole the show during the Hearts bracket challenges.

Sam Farha eliminated Rene Angelil, Michael Mizrachi took down Mark Seif and Howard Lederer celebrated his victory over fellow FullTilt-er Allen Cunningham by treating himself to a box seat at that night's Rolling Stones concert.

Dan Harrington won the match against Todd Brunson and David Chesnoff defeated Jennifer Harman's last minute replacement, Bobby Baldwin.

Mike Sexton and Annie Duke maxed out the blinds, playing at $1,000 - $2,000, but Sexton eventually won with a better kicker when he and Duke both paired Kings.

Josh Arieh battled it out against David Williams and advanced to the second round while Chris Ferguson slowly took down Freddy Deeb.

David "Chip" Reese and the defending champion, Phil Hellmuth, were about even in chips for much of the match, but Hellmuth's stacks decreased rapidly and, soon after, he found himself all in. Hellmuth doubled up to survive but Reese still had a 2-1 lead. Again, short stacked, Hellmuth went all in pre-flop with Qs-9h. Reese's called with pocket tens.

The flop came 10s - 7c - 3h, giving Reese top set. Hellmuth needed a runner-runner to make a straight, but the turn card was the 5c, leaving Hellmuth drawing dead.

Chip Reese eliminated Phil Hellmuth to advance to the second round, leaving one table remaining for the conclusion of the first day's match-ups.

The last table to fold was that of McMannus and Lochner. McMannus held a 4 - 1 chip lead over Lochner when the blinds maxed out at $1,000 - $2,000.

In the final hand of the night, McMannus beat his opponent by making a flush and sent the 21-year old NBC Heads-Up finalist back to his complementary suite at Caesars.

With the opportunity to spend the next two nights, cozying up with his girlfriend on his first trip to Las Vegas, made the whole experience seem worthwhile.

Play will begin at 11:00 a.m. PST and Card Player will relate the action via live-updates. Stay tuned for Sunday's 32 semi-finalists and their battle to become the next NBC National Heads-Up Champion.

For a complete rundown of Friday's live updates, with images and a recap of the events, click here.

To view the match-ups and their progression, click here.