WSOP Tournament of Champions Starts Today
It's amazing to walk into the Amazon Room at 12 noon local time on a Sunday and see just 3 tables in action. Only 27 players took to the felt early on this day, as the other event restarts didn't begin for a few hours.But you knew it was no ordinary day. The ESPN production crew was buzzing around like bees on a springtime morning, preparing, surveying the landscape and putting all the finishing touches on their pre-production.
Today was the start of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, the All-Star event for the game of poker.
All the faces were familiar. And the names are the Who's Who of this great game. Brunson, Cloutier, Negreanu, Hachem, Duke, Grospellier, Esfandiari, Ivey, Lederer, Hellmuth, Sexton, Seed, Harman, Farha, Ferguson, Cada, Chan, Cunningham, Greenstein, Harrington, Juanda, Matusow, Raymer, Nguyen, Seidel and Shulman. The only unfamiliar name was one Andrew Barton, the UK sponsor exemption who's first time in Las Vegas couldn't be more star-studded.
When you scan the tables, you can't help but think, whomever survives this event to make the final table and become poker's 2010 All-Star TOC Champion, will be a well-deserving victor.
The $1 million prize pool to be shared among the final 9 is no chump change either. This event was a freeroll for all players. The WSOP put up the prize pool and the winner walks away with a cool $500,000.
Each player started with 30,000 in tournament chips, and with blinds at 50 and 100, it would take a while before we would lose our first competitor.
But it did happen about one hour into play when Jennifer Harman and John Juanda tangled. After Juanda re-raised all in after the river card was dealt, Harman thought for a long while before making the call. The board showed 7c,Kd,4s,6h,Js and Jennifer showed her pocket Jack's, for three of a kind. Juanda mucked, graciously bid the others good luck, and just like that Harman was the early chip leader and we had our first elimination.
Shortly after the very first break of the day, we lost our second player. Greg Raymer got mixed up with Mike Matusow, and the mouth is still talking. Raymer was chasing a flush draw and Matusow had Ace-Queen. Raymer missed his flush and we were left with 25 players.
Next to go was reigning-WSOP Europe Main Event Champion Barry Shulman, who never seemed to be able to get anything going all day, and was the 25th place finisher.
The 24th place finisher was the debonair Sammy Farha, who despite capturing another WSOP gold bracelet this summer, couldn't catch the cards he needed to survive the TOC.
The great Phil Ivey was the next one to go. Despite a slow start, Ivey was slowly chipping up and was slightly above average when a fateful tussle ensued with "Jesus" Chris Ferguson. After several raises pre-flop, Ivey shoved with Pocket Kings while Ferguson called with Pocket Queens. This is poker folks, and you can probably fill in the blanks. The flop was 6h,3h,10d but the Qd on the turn gave Ferguson trip Queens, and the harmless 2d river was no help to Ivey and he was gone.
And after the fourth and final level today, everyone else remained. So we will return with 22 players for tomorrow's play with Erik Seidel holding the chip lead, followed closely by Johnny Chan and Mike Matusow. For the tournament portal page for this event, including updated chip counts, click HERE.
Play resumes Monday at 12 noon Las Vegas time, where all the surviving players return, and set their sights on the final table, which will begin on Sunday, July 4.
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by WSOP STAFF
posted by Kurt at 8:19 PM
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