As of Friday morning at 1:00pm ET, the poker community had cast 180,827 votes for the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions. Voting opened on March 15th and will close on June 15th at Midnight ET.
Only former WSOP bracelet holders are eligible for entry into the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions, which will take on an all-star game format. There are 521 eligible vote-getters and, amazingly, all but one of them has had a ballot cast in their name. According to Harrah’s officials, with 180,000 votes spread across 520 players (an average of 346 each), it’s still anyone’s game. The top 20 will stamp their tickets to the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions.
Seth Palansky, Communications Director for Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment and the WSOP, told Poker News Daily that he was pleased with the brisk pace of voting so far: “No one is a lock right now and we’re going to have to wait until the last week of June to determine who gets in. There are a significant number of people getting votes.” Palansky added that 180,000 votes cast in the first 11 days greatly exceeded Harrah’s expectations. In the first 24 hours alone, a total of 40,000 votes were submitted.
Each voter can select up to 20 individuals and, according to Palansky, the number of votes on each ballot has varied widely. Some are voting for 20 of their favorite poker celebrities, while others are merely selecting one or two. As it currently stands, there is a two-way tie for 19th place in the hierarchy. Play in the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions kicks off on June 27th from the Rio in Las Vegas. The final nine players will return to the off-Strip casino on July 4th to play down to a champion.
A total of $1 million is at stake and one-third of the field will finish in the money. The Tournament of Champions’ winner will bank $500,000, while its runner-up will collect $250,000. Third place will earn $100,000 and the fourth through ninth place finishers will pocket $25,000. Given the high-dollar payouts at stake, Harrah’s officials have taken steps to curb collusion and artificial voting mechanisms.
The winners of the three previous installments of the WSOP Tournament of Champions receive automatic entry into the 27-player freeroll. As such, we’re guaranteed to see UB.com pro Annie Duke, Full Tilt Poker front man Mike Matusow, and World Poker Tour (WPT) host Mike Sexton in the field. In addition, the reigning champions of the WSOP Main Event (Joe Cada) and WSOP Europe Main Event (Barry Shulman) are granted automatic entry.
Two spots in the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions field are reserved for sponsor exemptions. According to Palansky, two online qualifiers will take to the felts to compete against 25 bracelet winners. Therefore, no “cherry-picking” of players will occur. High-profile pros like Gavin Smith, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and Andy Bloch all lack bracelets and therefore will likely be left out in the cold. Other popular non-bracelet winners include Ivan Demidov, Paul Wasicka, Michael Binger, Dennis Phillips, and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo.
The WSOP lists the top 50 vote-getters in no particular order on its website. Duke is guaranteed to be in the field, with fellow female poker pros Jennifer Harman and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad currently in the top 50. Harman is a two-time bracelet winner, having scooped a $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball event in 2000 and a $5,000 Limit Hold’em tournament in 2002. All told, Harman has $1.1 million in career WSOP earnings. Obrestad, a Betfair pro, won the inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event in 2007 and banked £1 million.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP coverage.