Besides Phil Ivey leading the voting for the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions, details on the two sponsor exemptions for the event were released during a conference call earlier this week.
One seat is available to U.K. residents through WSOP.com. The online poker site is currently holding daily $1 satellites, with the winners of each moving on to the final. Whoever takes down the finale will head to Las Vegas to compete in the Tournament of Champions and lay claim to one of the sponsor exemptions. The winner will also receive airfare and hotel accommodation. The Tournament of Champions kicks off on June 27th from the Rio in Las Vegas. Its final table will be held on July 4th.
Media on the call questioned whether giving away a seat through WSOP.com eroded the credibility of the Tournament of Champions, which features seven-time bracelet winner Ivey as its top vote-getter. WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart disagreed, arguing, “The person who will win that seat will have exhibited some poker aptitude. There is a long-running history of sponsor exemptions and we have to be able to run a business model that’s sustainable.”
The other WSOP Tournament of Champions seat will “be linked to the end of the Tournament of Champions voting period,” according to Harrah’s officials, although no details have been released. Poker News Daily has learned that the promotion involving the second Tournament of Champions seat will be focused on North America. The voting opened on March 15th and wraps up at Midnight ET on June 15th. Over 300,000 votes have been cast so far.
In mid-April, Harrah’s officials released the names of the top 20 vote-getters for the 2010 Tournament of Champions. In alphabetical order, they were Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Allen Cunningham, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed, and Erik Seidel.
The three former winners of the Tournament of Champions – Annie Duke, Mike Sexton, and Mike Matusow – all received automatic bids to this year’s running. Also getting invites are reigning WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Event champions Joe Cada and Barry Shulman. Each voter can select up to 20 names and only bracelet winners are eligible. The Tournament of Champions’ winner will pocket $500,000, the runner-up gets $250,000, and the third place finisher will bank $100,000. The fourth through ninth place spots on the leaderboard pay out $25,000.
When the final 20 are announced, Harrah’s will release the list in order of number of votes and likely reveal the top 25. In the meantime, players have been pre-registering for the WSOP in earnest following last year’s Day 1D shutout in the Main Event. Stewart explained, “Our pre-registration numbers are up pretty significantly to date. The message from last year that players need to get into the field ahead of time has been heard around the world. With the plan we have in place, we expect our numbers to be pretty strong this year. I think we’re very confident that our total participation will again set a record.”
The Tournament of Champions is one of three events that will air on ESPN, Poker News Daily has learned. The invite-only tournament will be broadcasted alongside the $50,000 Player’s Championship and the $10,000 Main Event. The former is an Eight-Game mix whose final table will be exclusively No Limit Hold’em.
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