For the past two days, the field of 64 in the 2013 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship has been whittled down to the elite eight. On Day 1, the field was cut in half. On Day 2, the field was further cut down from 32 to what remains on Day 3 – the final day of action.

Of those returning to action are Daniel Cates and Scott Seiver from the Clubs bracket, Mike Matusow and John Hennigan from the Spades bracket, Eugene Katchalov and Phil Hellmuth from the Hearts bracket, and Brian Hastings and Joe Serock from the Diamonds bracket. Those pairings will face off today beginning at 2 p.m. local time at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Of the eight returning, only the matches of Hellmuth versus Katchalov and Matusow versus Hennigan have players with previous cashes in this event. Hellmuth won the event in 2005 for $500,000 and finished fifth in 2009 for $75,000. He’s squaring off against Katchalov, who finished 16th in 2011 for $30,000. On the other side of the bracket, Matusow placed ninth in the back-to-back years of 2007 and 2008, both for $25,000. He’s playing Hennigan, who finished ninth for $25,000 in 2005. Although Hastings can’t say he’s cashed in the NBC NHUPC, he did win Event 12: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em at the 2012 World Series of Poker for $371,498.

First place is a whopping $750,000 with all players guaranteed at least $50,000. Play is scheduled to begin shortly, so stay tuned right here to PokerNews for live updates of the action.

Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com

January 30 2012, Cory Dowd

It was an action-packed Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,600 Main Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The day began with 133 players competing for a prize pool of $963,210, and more than half got paid when the money bubble burst at 72 on Sunday. The field was then trimmed down to 15 players after ten levels of play, with chip leader Nicholas Wilbur pacing the field with 1,541,000 chips.

Wilbur earned most of those chips when he got his all in preflop against the of Brandon Riha. In a pot worth more than 1.4 million chips, Wilbur managed to catch up on the river as the board ran out . After that, Wilbur used his big stack to chip up for the better part of a level and a half.

Wilbur’s run is especially impressive when you consider who is chasing him. Jeff Madsen, Dutch Boyd, Sean Getzwiller and Kevin Calenzo are still in contention with very healthy stacks. Madsen was one of the chip leaders throughout Day 2. However, he took a tough hit late when his was unable to catch up to the of Rellie Sigua. Madsen will return with 917,000 chips on Monday.

Boyd was also consistently chipping up throughout the day and then hit a one-outer on the river against Sam McGrath. Boyd’s luck didn’t last, though, as he was unable to fade the flush draw of Joe Kuether on the very last hand of play to finish with 726,000. Kuether, the Day 1a chip leader, is just shy of the chip lead entering the final day, holding 1,519,000.

Getzwiller bagged up 989,000 in large part due to his pocket jacks holding against the of Brandon Riha and the of short stack Mark Kroon late in the night. Calenzo, meanwhile, got most of his 695,000 chips toward the end of the day when he was dealt pocket aces against the pocket queens of Joshua Pollock.

Scott Clements, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien and James Carroll were some of the unfortunate players who fell short of the money on Sunday. Andreas Hoivold, Kathy Liebert and Gavin Griffin all made the money, but all were eliminated before play ended.

Monday will bring the final day of the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Palace. The final 15 will play down to a champion, and our Live Reporting Team will be providing updates all day long. Be sure to check in to find out who wins the WSOPC gold ring and the $197,451 top prize.

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