Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 19 March 2010 / 3 Comments

This week the World Series of Poker announced an additional, non-bracelet event to be added to the schedule this summer -- a new version of the Tournament of Champions which this time will feature a field mostly composed of the top vote-getters in an online poll.

The announcement created an immediate buzz in the poker world, with over 40,000 votes being cast during the first 24 hours the polls were open. The event will be held on June 27 and July 4 during this summer's WSOP, and will be televised in early August.

A total of 27 players will compete in the new TOC, with Harrah's kicking in a $1 million prize pool, half of which will go to the winner. Three spots will be reserved for the winners of the WSOP's previous incarnation of the Tournament of Champions: Annie Duke (2004), Mike Matusow (2005), and Mike Sexton (2006). The formats for those three tourneys were all different, though all were also freerolls for which prizepools were provided by the WSOP. Two more seats are being awarded to last year's WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada and the winner of the WSOPE Main Event, Barry Shulman. The final two spots will go to "wild card exceptions" -- possibly the winners of online satellites.

Incidentally, there was an earlier, non-WSOP version of the "Tournament of Champions" that ran from 1999-2001. That event, hosted in the summers at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas, had a buy-in ($1,500 in '99 and $2,000 thereafter), featured multiple games (limit hold'em, Omaha/8, stud, and no-limit hold'em), and required certain criteria for entry, including winning a WSOP bracelet, being a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, or winning a TOC-sanctioned event.

The three winners of those TOCs were David Chiu (1999), Spencer Sun (2000), and Brian Saltus (2001). Chiu has won four WSOP bracelets, and so is a good candidate for the 2010 TOC. Sun did not win a WSOP bracelet, and sadly Saltus passed away only a few months after his TOC win in 2001. Head over to the WSOP site and by entering an email address you are given a chance to vote for up to 20 different players from among the 520 (or so) living WSOP bracelet holders listed on the ballot.

As I was perusing the ballot and trying to make my selections this week, I realized how difficult it was to pick 20 players from the list. I also thought about how subjective one's choices necessarily had to be -- indeed, there are numerous criteria one could employ here to make one's selections.

One can see at a glance who has the most bracelets or career WSOP earnings -- two obvious ways of distinguishing certain players as more deserving. Name recognition will count a lot, I imagine. And some (many?) will be voting for friends or those of whom they are fans for reasons other than their poker accomplishments.

In other words, while all of those who play in the 2010 Tournament of Champions -- including those "wild card exemptions" -- will certainly be "champions" in one way or another, the field is destined to be a better representation of the most famous or popular players than a clear-cut gathering of poker's elite.

After some brooding, I finally submitted my ballot of 20 votes. Of that group, I thought I'd share the names of five of my perhaps-not-so-obvious selections. (I mean, we're all picking Doyle, right?) None of these five appears among the current Top 50 vote-getters here in the early going, and I suppose I won't be that surprised if none ultimately joins the group of 20 who make it.

Still, I'll be pulling for...

Louis Asmo. Winner of one WSOP bracelet ($3,000 limit hold'em, 1997). Played a famous hand at the final table of the first-ever Tournament of Champions in 1999 in which the eventual winner, David Chiu, folded pocket kings preflop to Asmo's pocket aces. I recently read an interview with Asmo on PokerPages (with Lee Munzer) about the hand, and came away liking Asmo enough to vote for him.

Billy Baxter. Baxter has won a whopping seven WSOP bracelets -- all in lowball events -- and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006. Baxter was also involved in an historically-significant federal court case back in the mid-1980s that helped define poker winnings as "earned income" -- thus helping establish (for tax purposes) the category of "professional poker player" in the U.S. (Read about it here.) In fact, I did see Baxter's name among the Top 50 earlier this week, so perhaps he has a chance.

Barbara Enright. Winner of three WSOP bracelets, as well as the only woman ever to make a WSOP Main Event final table (finishing 5th in 1995). Enright was also the first woman ever to win an "open" (i.e., non-ladies only) event at the WSOP when she won the $2,500 pot-limit hold'em event in 1996. She was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2007.

Jay Heimowitz. Holder of six WSOP bracelets and one of the original Mayfair Club players (along with Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, and several other notables). Heimowitz also made WSOP Main Event final tables in 1980 and 1981 (both won by Stu Ungar), and logged five more top 15 finishes in the WSOP ME during the '80s and '90s. Acknowledged by many as one of the true gentlemen of the game.

Robert "Chip Burner" Turner. Winner of one WSOP bracelet ($1,500 seven-card stud, 1993). Turner is often acknowledged as one of the inventors of "Omaha hold'em" -- that four-card variation of hold'em from which came pot-limit Omaha, Omaha/8, and PLO/8 -- at the Golden Nugget in Vegas in the early 1980s. And since pot-limit Omaha is my favorite game, well, I'm voting for Turner.

As I said, everyone's ballot will necessarily be subjective -- mine is no exception. For whom will you be voting? (Other than Annette, of course!)

Comments (3)

1. Tom | 19 March 2010

   Your article was enjoyable to read, except for the part that David Chui is inelgible to vote for, because he never won a WSOP Gold Bracelt, after capturing the original 1999 TOC Title.

   He has won 4 WSOP bracelets: 1996 in Limit Hold-em; 1998 in Limit Hold-Em; 2000 in 7-Card Stud; and 2005 in Omaha Hi/Lo. He has cashed in the WSOP 48 times, winning $2,575,481.

   He cashed in his first WSOP in 4th place in 1981, in Ace to 5, demonstrating tournament longevity. In considering who to vote for, David is a well known high stakes cash game who has always been a big winner, much respected by his peers.

   Additionally, he is in a rare club of champions, who has also won on the WPT. In fact, he won the $25,000 WPT Main Event at the Bellagio in 1998 defeating Gus Hansen in an unbelievable comeback at the Final Table, winning about $3,300,000 for first place, bringing his WPT earnings up to $3,642,141. Combined, he has over $6,000,000 in tournament winnings which is about what Phil Hellmuth has in his career at the WSOP.

   The mountain of $$$ David has won in high stakes cash games over the years, plus his tournament earnings makes him a great choice for being voted into the Top 20 in the WSOP TOC All Star Event. He has earned the respect of his peers over a long period of time.

   There are 12 players in WSOP history who have won 4 bracelets, which puts David Chui in some very fast company: John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Huck Seed, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, Chau Giang, Artie Cobb,Jeffrey Lisandro, Mickey Appleman, and Gary "Bones" Berland.

   To further make a case for David, he is truly a part of poker history, winning the very first TOC in 1999. He was the player who layed down his pocket KK's against Louis Asmo pre-flop, and he guessed right, as Asmo had pocket AA's!

   I'm happy the WSOP has created such an exciting process of selecting it's All Stars, similar to the public voting in baseball. I also like the tradition of the modern WSOP TOC champions in Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, and Mike Sexton getting automatic invites, with the current WSOP Main Event Joe Cada, and the WSOP Europe Main Event Champion, in Barry Shulman getting confirmed entries. Each year this format promises to deliver one of the year's most exciting tournaments held on TV for the fans.

   I voted for my favorite 20 and it is a difficult choice for sure. I did vote for David Chui as one of them, for my reasons listed above. His credentials are extraordinary, as well as his connection to the event from it's very beginning. Please consider amending your article, as David Chui is definitely on the voting list for the fans.

   Thank You
   

2. Short-Stacked Shamus | 20 March 2010

   Thanks a ton for that correction, Tom. I amended that passage -- indeed, I knew Chiu had those bracelets, but somehow was missing seeing his name on the ballot & thus made the slip.

   You make a great case for Chiu, so let me encourage readers to consider him as well (in addition to my five). That hand with Asmo is indeed fascinating -- a great play by Chiu. And that comeback vs. Hansen in the WPT Championship is especially memorable, too (that was in 2008, of course).

   I agree -- picking the 20 is a lot harder than it might seem. (I wonder how many voters might just carelessly start clicking after the first half-dozen votes!)

3. Bob Lightsoot | 28 March 2010

   Interesting choices. I certainly agree it's all very subjective. I didn't use my full 20 votes, and instead voted for people I thought would be the most interesting together in a poker game or have big history.

   So apart from some obvious choices of players who deserve it like Hellmuth, Negreanu etc I went for personalities I think will liven things up.

   Sam Farha I've always thought to be underrated and instantly jumped to mind as someone who adds something to a game. On the assumption Hellmuth will get voted into it, I plumped for Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott because of past rivalries and also...pretty much because I'm British.

   Picked some other random choices but can't remember off hand. Went with Ted Forrest and Greenstein too.

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comment: