The National Heads-Up Poker Championship returned in 2025 after a 12-year break in action for the iconic one-on-one shootout tournament. The reborn NHUPC was won by Sam Soverel for $500,000. The high-stakes star will attempt to defend his title as one of 64 contenders in the $25,000 buy-in event
The 2026 running includes the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Tom Dwan, all of whom missed the latest edition. Other notables include Kristen Foxen, Nick Schulman, Michael Mizrachi, Doug Polk, Vanessa Selbst, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, and Alex Foxen.
The first block of four episodes is now streaming on Peacock and will also air from 8:00 PM to midnight ET on Friday, Aug. 21 on NBC Sports NOW. The final four episodes will go live the following week on Aug. 28 using the same broadcast approach.
All eight episodes of the 2026 NHUPC will eventually land on PokerGO, which acquired the rights to the event last year.
Ali Nejad and Brent Hanks are on commentary, while Natalie Bode has taken over for Jeff Platt as the sideline host. This time around, Platt took a seat at the table as a player.
Below is the complete list of first-round matchups across all four brackets.
Spades Bracket – Round 1
- Liv Boeree vs. Jeremy Ausmus
- Tom Dwan vs. Randy ‘3Coin’ Sadler
- Cary Katz vs. Steven Jones
- Jimmy D’Ambrosio vs. Kirk Brown
- Turbo Nguyen vs. Shaun Deeb
- Andrew Pacheco vs. Jesse Lonis
- Erick Lindgren vs. Eric Persson
- Luis ‘Brazil God’ Rizental vs. Doug Polk
Clubs Bracket – Round 1
- Victoria Livschitz vs. Chris Hunichen
- Phil Laak vs. Chino Rheem
- Josh Arieh vs. Phil Hellmuth
- Ben Lamb vs. Jared Bleznick
- Andrew Robl vs. Keith Lehr
- Randall Emmett vs. Robbi Jade Lew
- Sam Soverel vs. Kasey Lyn Mills
- Daniel Negreanu vs. Dan Sepiol
Hearts Bracket – Round 1
- Scott Seiver vs. Justin Young
- Jeff Platt vs. Sam Laskowitz
- Igor Kurganov vs. Phillip Frankland Lee
- Kristen Foxen vs. Ryan Bartlett
- Vinny Lingham vs. Matt Hanks
- Jeremy Becker vs. Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates
- Gabriel Andrade vs. Darin Feinstein
- Seth Davies vs. Sean Winter
Diamonds Bracket – Round 1
- Nick Schulman vs. Sam Kiki
- Matthew Wantman vs. Kelly Lucas
- Alan Keating vs. Jeff Gross
- David ‘ODB’ Baker vs. Jason Mercier
- Marius Gierse vs. Vanessa Selbst
- Alex Foxen vs. Erik Seidel
- Nicholas Rigby vs. Dan Shak
- Brandon Steven vs. Justin Gavri
Full Bracket (Click To Enlarge)
Photo credit: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.
