Bodog Beat

Poker pro JC Tran will meet Bodog poker pro David Williams in the first round of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship latewr today.

The 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Draw Party was held last night at PURE Nightclub at Caesar's Palace (catch a whole slew of red carpet interviews over at RawVegas.tv), and the first-round match-ups are now set and will get underway this afternoon at 1:30pm local time.

The first matches today will be from the Heart Bracket and will feature some interesting face-offs, including poker old-timers Eli Elezra and Johnny Chan, fellow shareholders Erick Lindgren and Howard Lederer, perennial punchline Jamie Gold and Scott Fischman and then Bodog poker pro David Williams and Johnny Chan.

Other interesting first-round match-ups include Doyle Brunson vs. Vanessa Rousso, Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri (there may be too much fodder there for Matusow to keep his mouth shut, we'll set the "scarf joke" line at 42), two nosebleed stake online players David Benyamine vs. Gus Hansen and poker's first Triple Crown winner Gavin Griffin vs. Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who is online poker personified.

Check out the full list of match-ups and a printable bracket at the NBC site here. NBC will also have live updates from the tournament, as will CardPlayer. We'll post as we see fit over the weekend. Don't forget to check out the Heads-Up Poker Championship prop bet in the Bodog Sportsbook now that the matches have been set. Should be much easier to get an idea of who may have the "easiest" route to the $500,000 first-place prize.