Mike Matusow eliminated in the first round of the NBC National Heads Up Poker Chamionship

The second annual NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship kicked off yesterday (March 4th) at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. This event proved to be a ratings winner for NBC last year so this year you could cleary see that they had a much larger production crew for this years event. The tournament is a heads up style single elimination match with 64 players starting out. The brackets are the same as the NCAA Basketball Chamionship culminating in a sweet 16 that gets the most TV time until a winner is ultimately declared from the final heads up match.

Mike was one of the invited guests to play in this years match and much to the dismay of many of his fans, was elimated on day one by Eli Elezra. There wasn't much to the match with it ending relatively early with Mike and Eli getting all of their chips in pre flop. Matusow had Ah-3s but Elezra flipped up the As-Jd. The board came 9s-8h-6h-4d-7d and Mike Matusow was sent packing. I'm thinking he was anxious to get back to the real action which was taking place next door at the Bellagio.

All told, the best poker players in the world showed up for this event with the names we all know. Todd and Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, Jesus Ferguson, Chip Reese, Sam Farha, and so many more. We will post a complete bracket once the the event is over for your review.

You can play poker online with Mike at Full Tilt Poker. Look for any table highlighted in red inside of the Full Tilt Lobby, that means a pro is seated there and it may be Mike!