2010 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions Voting

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

The World Series of Poker announced yesterday they are changing the format of this year’s Tournament of Champions. They are moving away from the invitational style and opening it up for poker fans to vote in their favorite WSOP Champion from any event. Any player currently holding a WSOP bracelet is eligible.

The three previous TOC winners will receive automatic inclusion in the tournament as well as the current WSOP and WSOP-E Main Event Champions. That puts Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, Joe Cada and Barry Shulman into the field with 20 players coming from fan selections and the WSOP holding 2 seats for their picks. There is a lot of pressure on poker fans to find a group of players which are both worthy of the entry and make for a great tournament. With this process there are 521 players eligible to play in the 27 player freeroll with the final 9 taking a piece of $1,000,000. This prizepool is a little better than last year’s Corvette Stingray.

You can go to the WSOP TOC voting page to cast your picks. Below are my selections. Vote now and then track the current WSOP TOC Top 50.

My first 5 selections were the easiest of the bunch. Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Erik Seidel, and Phil Ivey. The top five bracelet winners and it would be tough to imagine a Tournament of Champions without them.

Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Allen Cunningham and Huck Seed all get my votes for a solid body of work throughout their runs at the WSOP. Chris Moneymaker is next on the list due to his huge impact on the game of poker. Daniel Negreanu for the 4 bracelets and entertainment value, who knows if he’ll spend the entire tournament standing on his chair. Barry Greenstein gets my vote for his class both at and away from the table, Barbara Enright should play as the only women to reach the Main Event Final Table and the first to win an Open bracelet, Dan Harrington for his crazy back-to-back final table appearances in 2003 and 2004.

Greg Raymer is a great ambassador for the game, Jamie Gold because it’s tough to ignore the guy who won the biggest Main Event payout, Annette Obrestad as the youngest player to win a title and she’s finally old enough to play in the States. Tom “Donkeybomber” Schneider gets my vote as the least appreciated WSOP Champion and Player of the Year. My last two are hometown picks and long shots to get into the field but they are friends of mine, that gives my last two spots to Jason Young and Brian Lemke.

There you have my choices, crucify or praise.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP

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2 Responses to “2010 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions Voting”

NoMetal Says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Jamie Gold? No way, put someone else in that is more deserving. How about Kathy Liebert or Jennifer Harmon?

Edit by AlCantHang: Jamie Gold was the toughest choice for me. I just couldn’t ignore that he won the biggest single Main Event prize in the history of the series. I would like to see either Liebert or Harman in the field.
Phil Says:
November 4th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
4 Days left for the November final! Lets go and honor the winner. Tbh Doyle with all his experience is well deserved but i cant see Anette there just yet.