The 2013 National Heads-Up Poker Championship makes its long-awaited return on Thursday, having taking a year off after a seven-year run. There was still one matter of business to handle before the cards could get in the air, though: the Draw Party at Cleopatra’s Barge inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was there that the 64 players in the field found out who the focus of their hatred would be in the first round and what obstacles they would be staring at on their way to the title.

Here is a look at the bracket breakdown. The winners of the black suits will square off in the semifinals on the left side of the bracket, while the winners of the red suits will face each other in the semifinals on the right side of the bracket:

Clubs Bracket

Antonio Esfandiari vs. Jennifer Tilly
Jonathan Duhamel vs. Matt Glantz

Chris moorman1 Moorman (pictured above) vs. Carlos Mortensen
Matt Salsberg vs. Dan Cates

Vanessa Rousso vs. Yevgeniy Jovial Gent Timoshenko
Shaun ShaunDeeb Deeb vs. Andy Frankenberger

Andy Bloch vs. Kyle KJulius10 Julius
Will Failla vs. Scott Seiver

While every match-up is a good one in a field where virtually every participant is a top pro, there are always a handful of first round bouts that stand out. In the Clubs bracket, the very first draw features 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop champ Antonio Esfandiari going up against his good buddy Phil Laak’s squeeze, Jennifer Tilly. Win-win or lose-lose for Laak, we suppose.

Spades Bracket

Ben Benba Lamb (pictured) vs. Barry barryg1 Greenstein
John Monnette vs. Greg Raymer

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom vs. Andrew luckychewy Lichtenberger
Michael Mizrachi vs. Mike Matusow

David Williams vs. John Hennigan
Sam Simon vs. David Oppenheim

Phil Laak vs. Phil Ivey
Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo vs. Isaac Haxton

Speaking of Laak, he has his own draw to worry about. In what should be a favorite match for the television cameras, “The Unabomber” is facing Phil Ivey. Viktor Blom against Andrew Lichtenberger is another great pairing, featuring two of the game’s top online players who have also seen some success on the live tournament circuit.

Hearts Bracket

Joseph subiime Cheong (pictured) vs. Olivier livb112 Busquet
Jean-Robert Bellande vs. WSOP.com Qualifier Bruce Miller

Maria Ho vs. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
Eugene Katchalov vs. Faraz The-Toilet Jaka

Justin Boosted J Smith vs. Bertrand ElkY Grospellier
Phil Hellmuth vs. Mike Sexton

Chris Moneymaker vs. Jason JCarver Somerville
Rob Salaburu vs. David Doc Sands Sands

This has to be the “Made for TV” bracket, as it features a number of players that the casual viewer will recognize. We have poker pros/reality television stars Jean-Robert Bellande (“Survivor: China”) and Maria Ho (“Amazing Race 15”), the man who helped kick off the poker boom a decade ago, and a showdown between WPT commentator Mike Sexton and the great Phil Hellmuth. The two met in the opening round in 2009, with Hellmuth winning.

Diamonds Bracket

Erik Seidel vs. Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Tom Marchese vs. Doyle Brunson

Brian Stinger885 Hastings vs. Matt Matros
Nick Schulman vs. Eli Elezra

Greg gregy20723 Merson (pictured) vs. Joe leemur Serock
Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania vs. Huck Seed

Liv Boeree vs. Gaelle Baumann
Dan Smith vs. Jason treysfull21 Mercier

Dan Smith going up against Jason Mercier is arguably the biggest match-up of the first round; it is kind of a shame that they have to face each other so early. Smith sits atop the Global Poker Index 300 rankings, while Mercier is in third. It’s a battle of heavyweights and will hopefully be appreciated by television viewers who might not be familiar with the two players, as they did not rise to fame during the golden age of televised poker.

One noticeable absence from the field is Daniel Negreanu (pictured) “Kid Poker” was originally slated to play in the event, but he opted out on Wednesday morning. He later posted a video on YouTube explaining that he had made a previous commitment to friends and he felt that the right thing to do would be to honor that commitment. Also bowing out was Jennifer Harman.

In the video, Negreanu became noticeably emotional as he reflected on his past attitude toward his friends and poker. Choking up on more than one occasion, he discussed his efforts to become a better person: “I’ve looked back at my life and the amount of times where I’ve made a poker tournament a priority over my friends and my family… I promised my friends that I was going to be there for them and I want to be there for them…. When I compare that to skipping out on my friends when I can share an experience with them and really be there for them, I don’t know if I can forgive myself for that anymore.”

He added later, “Really, it’s a commitment to my friends. Friends that I have that are going to appreciate so much that I’m going to hang out with them this weekend. And, yeah, that makes me feel good. If I was going to be at the NBC Heads-Up, even if I had won and won the money and all that, I know that I would feel inside like an emptiness and that I’d let people down. And I’m not willing to do that.”

Negreanu did not go into detail as to what the exact nature of the “experience” with his friends was going to be, but it is obviously something that means a lot to him. Sands replaced Negreanu in the field of 64, while Marchese replaced Harman.

The first round will kick off on Thursday at 1:30pm Pacific Time. The next two rounds will be held on Friday, while the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will all take place on Saturday.

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