First Half of 2013 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship Field Revealed

After a year off the air, the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship is coming back to NBC and NBC Sports. The total field will once again be 64, to mirror the format of the NCAA tournament, and we now know half of the players who will be participating in 2013.

First-time participants announced so far include Olivier Busquet, Will Failla, Andy Frankenberger, Maria Ho, Ben Lamb, Scott Seiver and Yevginiy Timoshenko. The defending champion (albeit from 2011) is Erik Seidel, and he is already locked into a spot himself.

Here is the first half of the 2013 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship:

• Andy Bloch
• Doyle Brunson
• Olivier Busquet
• Mohsin Charania
• Erik Seidel
• Jonathan Duhamel
• Tom Dwan
• Antonio Esfandiari
• Will Failla
• Andrew Frankenberger
• Phil Galfond
• Matt Glantz
• Barry Greenstein
• Bertrand Grospellier
• Brian Hastings
• John Hennigan
• Maria Ho
• Phil Ivey
• Faraz Jaka
• Eugene Katchalov
• Ben Lamb
• Mike Matusow
• Greg Merson
• John Monnette
• Daniel Negreanu
• Greg Raymer
• Vanessa Rousso
• Scott Seiver
• Mike Sexton
• Jennifer Tilly
• Yevgeniy Timoshenko
• David Williams

The actual bracket will be created on January 23rd at the draw party, which will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. That will also be the site of the tournament, which will be held over three days between January 24 and January 26, with play starting at 1:30 pm each day.