Tournament of Champions Field Now Final at the WSOP 2010
As was previously reported, this year, poker fans had a unique opportunity to have a direct impact on one of the more prestigious tournaments at this year's World Series of Poker. Specifically, the tournament directors opened up fan voting to decide 20 of the participants in this year's 27-person Tournament of Champions. The first 5 slots were reserved for past Tournament of Champion winners and the Main Event winners at the US WSOP and WSOPE, and there were also two sponsor exemptions. One of the exemptions went to the winner of an invitation only sit and go among the best poker pros to never win a WSOP bracelet. The other sponsor slot was awarded to the winner of a special tournament run by the WSOP Academy.
Voters were asked to vote from a list of 50 of the biggest and best poker pros from around the world. The top vote getters had their spot locked up, but should any of the top 20 not be able to participate, the open slot would go to the 21st leading vote getter and so on. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was the sole survivor of the tightly contested sit and go held last week. The online winner of the remaining sponsor exemption went to an amateur online poker player by the name of Andrew Barton from London.
The 5 previous winners, thus earning an automatic bids were Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, Joe Cada and Barry Shulman.
Below are the names, in order, of the top 20 vote getters:
Phil Ivey Daniel Negreanu Doyle Brunson Phil Hellmuth Chris Ferguson Allen Cunningham Johnny Chan Scotty Nguyen Barry Greenstein John Juanda Erik Seidel Jennifer Harman Huck Seed Dan Harrington T.J. Cloutier Sammy Farha Howard Lederer Greg Raymer Joe Hachem Antonio Esfandiari
It would seem that Mr. Barton will have his hand full with this star-studded field when the tournament begins on June 27th.
Source: www.aintluck.com
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