The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions, which will take on an all-star game format, has been the most riveting poker story over the past few weeks. Several players have openly lobbied for votes from the poker community, but Irish poker pro Marty Smyth has taken a different approach.
BoylePoker pro Smyth, who is eligible for election by virtue of winning a WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship in 2008, has stated that if he is elected into the field by the fans, he will donate any winnings to charity. Smyth has named two charitable organizations, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Dublin, as the beneficiaries. With the top prize in the tournament a sizeable $500,000 and the ninth place finisher receiving $25,000, the two groups would stand to have a very beneficial influx of funding.
Smyth’s sponsors at BoylePoker are advocating for his election to the field, touting his charitable outreach. “Not only has Marty won a WSOP world championship event, but he’s also won the World Open, the Irish Open, and the Poker Million,” Paul Spillane, the head of poker at BoylePoker, said. “Surely that’s the pedigree of a true champ. Add in his generous gesture of donating any prize money he might win to children’s charities in Ireland and we should see the whole country swing behind him.”
Smyth has a hectic schedule over the next week as he attempts to reclaim the Irish Open championship he won in 2007. Next week, he’ll be getting married. However, this hasn’t prevented him from lobbying for votes through many of the social networking sites that are available. A Facebook fan page called “Vote Marty” has been created to drive the voting and, as of the time of writing, has garnered over 600 fans including Hendon Mobster Joe Beevers, Neil “Bad Beat” Channing, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, and David Colclough. Those who are advocating for Smyth’s inclusion in the Tournament of Champions have several top poker pros to contend with, however.
Twitter has been buzzing with players lobbying voters to the polls. Inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event champion Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad used her 1,000th Tweet to persuade the fans to vote for her for inclusion, saying, “And for my 1000th Tweet I think it’s appropriate to vote-whore a little more haha… please gimme my vote to play in TOC!” Others who have chirped about being voted into the field include David Williams and Mike Matusow.
On Facebook, the list of players who are wooing fans and votes are more numerous. Mark Seif, who won two bracelets in 2005, stated on his Facebook page, “Hey friends, if you want to see me play in the World Series of Poker’s new Tournament of Champions, which will be televised, please go and vote! Thank you. The top 20 vote getters get in.”
With the election of the Top 20 players available until June 15th, the flow of votes has started to slow down a bit, according to Harrah’s and WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky. “As of today, we have received 207,123 votes and we’re thrilled with the participation thus far. We won’t know, however, who the Top 20 are until June 15th,” Palansky stated on Thursday.
The campaign by Smyth may not earn the Irish poker champion a seat in the unique WSOP event, but it is refreshing to see a player step up and follow in the footsteps of 2006 Tournament of Champions winner Mike Sexton, who gave half of his $1 million prize to several charities.
Vote for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions by visiting the official website of the WSOP.
