2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Hi, don't know if this has been posted yet (I checked but couldn't find anything)

The Tournament of Champions field has been announced and there are more exemptions this year. I thought last year the players (especially Negreanu) were upset with exemptions?

Here are the players and how they qualified:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/...amp;name=poker

1-Joseph Hachem (Main Event Final Table)
2-Steve Dannenmann (Main Event Final Table)
3-Tex Barch (Main Event Final Table)
4-Aaron Kanter (Main Event Final Table)
5-Andrew Black (Main Event Final Table)
6-Scott Lazar (Main Event Final Table)
7-Daniel Bergsdorf (Main Event Final Table)
8-Brad Kondracki (Main Event Final Table)
9-Mike Matusow (Main Event Final Table)
10-Gregg Merkow (Circuit Event Winner)
11-Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Circuit Event Winner)
12-Vinnie Vinh (Circuit Event Winner)
13-Kido Pham (Circuit Event Winner)
14-Chris Reslock (Circuit Event Winner)
15-Daniel Negreanu (Circuit Event Winner)
16-Abraham Korotki (Circuit Event Winner)
17-Darrell Dicken (Circuit Event Winner)
18-Jeffrey King (Circuit Event Winner)
19-John Spadavecchia (Circuit Event Winner)
20-Peter Feldman (Circuit Event Winner)
21-Clint Baskin (Circuit Event Winner)
22 - Sarah Strom (Exemption)
23 - Doyle Brunson (Exemption)
24 - Phil Hellmuth (Exemption)
25 - Mixe Sexton (Exemption)
26 - Gus Hansen(Exemption)
27- Mike O'Malley (Exemption)

Okay I'm the biggest Gus Hansen fan but has he ever played any WSOP events besides the Main Event??? Who are Sarah Strom and Mike O'Malley?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

mike o malley is the host at party, former room manager in vegas.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Weren't the players at the 2005 ME final table in last year's TOC? Why again?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Sarah Strom won a contest (I'll assume from Harrah's) to take part in the TOC.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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Weren't the players at the 2005 ME final table in last year's TOC? Why again?


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This year the TOC is BEFORE whe start of the WSOP. Last year it was after. I guess the change made them have some repeat players.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Weren't the players at the 2005 ME final table in last year's TOC? Why again?


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This year the TOC is BEFORE whe start of the WSOP. Last year it was after. I guess the change made them have some repeat players.

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I think they made the change for some completely independent reason, and they just wanted the field smaller than last year, and didn't want the same controversy with sponsors exemptions. Presumably, they intent to have a 27 player ToC before the WSOP next year too, with the same qualifying requirements. It's just this year the Main Event final tables gets to two ToC chance, because this is the year they made the switch.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Where are Mizrachi and Phil Ivey?
-j

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

wtf? why would brunson and hellmuth be exempt but johnny chan wouldn't be?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

why does he deserve an exemption?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Putting Mike O'Malley, and to a lesser extent Mike Sexton, in this thing is really abusing the concept of sponsor's exemptions. Sponsor's exemptions are there so that the sponsors will be assured that there are interesting or famous personalities in the tournament that will generate a large TV audience, like when sponsors enter Michelle Wie into some minor men's golf tournament. The are not there to allow the sponsors to enter their own employees who have no qualification or interest to the audience.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]

Putting Mike O'Malley, and to a lesser extent Mike Sexton, in this thing is really abusing the concept of sponsor's exemptions. Sponsor's exemptions are there so that the sponsors will be assured that there are interesting or famous personalities in the tournament that will generate a large TV audience, like when sponsors enter Michelle Wie into some minor men's golf tournament. The are not there to allow the sponsors to enter their own employees who have no qualification or interest to the audience.

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The "Golden Rule" of Entertainment:

He who puts up the most gold, makes the rules.

PartyGaming allegedly paid Harrah's "8 figures" to put the PartyPoker.NET logo at the center of EVERY TABLE at the WSOP.

When a sponsor such as PartyGaming is willing to "bone out" that much, the likes of Mike Sexton and Mike O'Malley can play in as many TOC's as they want to.

The TOC is a TV show, not an open competition.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Wasn't the Tournament of Champions Mike Sexton's baby in the first place?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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Wasn't the Tournament of Champions Mike Sexton's baby in the first place?

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Sexton's "Tournament of Champions" was totally unrelated to the WSOP. It was a three game HOS limit rotation. I think you had to win some qualifying tournament to play in it, but still had to pay the buy-in, which was like $2K. I think it only lasted three years, killed off mostly by the NLHE boom.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Thanks, Nick.

Based on what you said, I did a little search. Here's an article on the first (Sexton) TOC:

http://gocee.com/poker/trips/toc_99_glazer.htm

"Obviously, no one ever explained this principle to TOC's creators Mike Sexton and Chuck Humphrey. Mark July 26, 1999 down in history as a day when these fellows hit a home run in their first major league at bat.

No one could say they weren't aiming high. Put on the first poker tournament ever with an "only champions need apply" sign on the front door. A stricter code of player conduct. Game rotation, so that dealers would have to switch from Omaha Eight or Better to 7-Stud to Limit Hold 'em every half-hour. A player vote on prize structure (democracy in poker!). Corporate sponsorship."
...

"The first six 90 minute rounds claimed 326 victims; 338 players remain to face the $500 and $1,000 limits when the tournament resumes at noon. This makes an average stack size $9,823, and ten big bets aren't exactly a huge strategic reserve. Stronger opponents and bigger blinds mean the action will only be tougher on day two, as the tournament whittles itself down to the final 27 players.

Perhaps anticipating this-or perhaps because a big majority of the players felt themselves likely underdogs to the many big names in the field-the players voted 451-143 in favor of the "expanded payout schedule" which will pay five tables (45 players), rather than three tables. This schedule moved $63,000 out of the top tables and will pay the nine 5th table finishers $3,000 each, and the nine 4th table finishers $4,000 each."
...

"But limit poker-that's supposed to be a different story. The Europeans are supposed to be out of their element in the more technical limit form of poker, and Day Two of the TOC, like Day One, consisted entirely of limit action.

Nonetheless, while only 12 French players started this event, out of 664 players, when the final battle in the nearly hour long, six-table hand-for-hand struggle to eliminate player number 46 ended, setting the 45 "in the money" players, seven of the twelve French starters remained.

The French haven't conquered this much territory since Napoleon. Whether any Wellingtons can be found among the remaining opposition is something we'll learn on Day Three, but the surviving Frenchmen (and other Europeans) are now in their element: they'll play No-Limit Hold 'em the rest of the way."

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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The TOC is a TV show, not an open competition.

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That about sums it up. There is no right and wrong here. They can put whoever they want in, as long as they didn't sign a contract that says otherwise. The problem last year was that they promised to have zero exemptions.

I'm failry certain Harrah's learned from that PR mistake and promised nothing this time. They will put whoever they want in there and it's certainly with in their rights.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Gus Hansen has an agreement with PartyGaming to consult for the new PartyGammon.com online backgammon business.

PartyGaming got a total of 3 exemptions into the TOC: Sexton, O'Malley, Hansen.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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Putting Mike O'Malley, and to a lesser extent Mike Sexton, in this thing is really abusing the concept of sponsor's exemptions. ... The are not there to allow the sponsors to enter their own employees who have no qualification or interest to the audience.

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Seeing how Sexton is heads up with Danny boy right now, that kinda takes the wind of your sails, doesn't it?

C'mon, Sexton has been around a long time and won some tournaments. Is he the best? No? Is he a good card player, capable of winning a tournament like this? Evidently so.

NCAces

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Putting Mike O'Malley, and to a lesser extent Mike Sexton, in this thing is really abusing the concept of sponsor's exemptions. ... The are not there to allow the sponsors to enter their own employees who have no qualification or interest to the audience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seeing how Sexton is heads up with Danny boy right now, that kinda takes the wind of your sails, doesn't it?

C'mon, Sexton has been around a long time and won some tournaments. Is he the best? No? Is he a good card player, capable of winning a tournament like this? Evidently so.

NCAces

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Just about anyone can win a 27-player tournament on a given day. But I'm not claiming that Sexton isn't a very good poker player. I just think that these exemptions are not within the spirit of the "Tournament of Champions". Sexton isn't really a "champion" of anything, is he?

At least last year's sponsors exemptions were given to the alltime-great WSOP Champions, which I think was totally appropriate for that event. This year, that applies to Hellmuth and Brunson again; Hansen is the all-time leader in WPT Champtionships; and at least an online or satellite qualifier is the "champion" of that satellite. But Sexton and O'Malley have really no claim to being called "Champions". If PartyPoker wanted to promote their site, why not exempt the winner of the Party Poker Million, or something like that?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

there's no need to be all purist about a completely contrived event.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Mike Sexton Wins The 2006 Tournament of Champions ($1,000,000)
Mike Sexton limps in and Daniel Negreanu raises to to $64,000. Sexton then raises an additional $180,000 and Negreanu makes the call. The flop comes 10d-8d-4s and Negreanu moves all in. Sexton immediately calls and shows Ah-Ac. Negreanu turns over Qh-Jh and will need to improve. The turn card is the Ad, giving Sexton trips but also giving Negreanu a double gutted straight draw. However, the river is the 8c and Mike Sexton wins the 2006 Tournament of Champions and $1,000,000.

Daniel Negreanu finishes second and wins $325,000.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

I guess we can call Sexton a "Champion" now.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

To all the haters out there, bitching about sponsers exemptions, I think that Mike Sexton, is at least as deserving as Annie Duke was the first year...
He has just as many bracelets (if im not mistaken he may have her doubled at 2), and invented the damn TOC (although not in its current form)
Only the recent wave of poker know-it-alls fail to realize that prior to the poker boom, Mike Sexton was an accomplished player. Just because he acts like a clueless tool on WPT does not mean is not a shrewd player/buisnessman..

Speaking of tools, was anyone else rooting hard against DN? I thought it was great that Sexton got him (although MM beating him would have hurt his fragile little ego more) since you can tell (by the way he talks to him on poker superstars) that DN thinks he is by far the stronger player.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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If PartyPoker wanted to promote their site, why not exempt the winner of the Party Poker Million, or something like that?

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ESPN probably decided they didn't want any drunk 2+2ers in the audience.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

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I guess we can call Sexton a "Champion" now.

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Fair enough....I certainly won't complain if he is included next year. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

(In fact, I hope the reigning ToC winner is given an automatic entry in the future.)

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]
To all the haters out there, bitching about sponsers exemptions, I think that Mike Sexton, is at least as deserving as Annie Duke was the first year...
He has just as many bracelets (if im not mistaken he may have her doubled at 2), and invented the damn TOC (although not in its current form)
Only the recent wave of poker know-it-alls fail to realize that prior to the poker boom, Mike Sexton was an accomplished player. Just because he acts like a clueless tool on WPT does not mean is not a shrewd player/buisnessman..

Speaking of tools, was anyone else rooting hard against DN? I thought it was great that Sexton got him (although MM beating him would have hurt his fragile little ego more) since you can tell (by the way he talks to him on poker superstars) that DN thinks he is by far the stronger player.

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The first "Tournament of Champions" was a completely manufactured event where all the players were chosen by ESPN purely by Q rating.

The past two years, the ToC has not been purely for television. It has been used by the WSOP as a way to encourage players to participate in the Circuit events. The added value generated from the ToC entry to the circuit event prize pool is not trivial...a ToC entry this year was worth about $75K in equity, which is equivalent to 20-25% of the 1st place prize in some circuit events.

I think when the vast majority of seats in the ToC are decided based on objective criteria, it is more legitimate to criticize the inclusion of exemptions who don't really belong in the event than it would be to criticize a single selection to an pure TV stunt where all the players are chosen arbitrarily.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Mike Sexton was an accomplished player. Just because he acts like a clueless tool on WPT does not mean is not a shrewd player/buisnessman..

Speaking of tools, was anyone else rooting hard against DN? I thought it was great that Sexton got him (although MM beating him would have hurt his fragile little ego more) since you can tell (by the way he talks to him on poker superstars) that DN thinks he is by far the stronger player.

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He is only a tool to some 2+2rs ... not the audience they are playing to. Face it, WPT is not for serious poker players, yet I assure you he sounds knowledgable to the average Joe watching a tournament.

Tool? I think not. Smart, hell yeah. As we now see (and have in the past with two bracelets), he can play with the big boys when he needs to (beating Danny heads up over 12 hours is no small feat), and can lower himself to the relate to to the average player when he needs to. That is +EV for Sexton.

NCAces

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

I'm not a fan of Sexton by any means but I'll give some props. That was one of the more impressive Final Table lineups in recent memory that he beat to win. Should be good TV.

I also think its really ironic that after years of listening to Sexton repeat ad nauseum that "he can't put him on an Ace cause he didn't raise before the flop" he limps with AA and wins the tournament.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Well, dunno if Giga is still reading, but grats to him on 6th place. I hope I get to see him play televised. Any word on if/when/where this is televised?

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

ESPN later this year.

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

Anyone know what place Kanter finished?

george

Re: 2006 Tournament of Champions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone know what place Kanter finished?

george

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1st Mike Sexton $1,000,000
2nd Daniel Negreanu $325,000
3rd Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow $250,000
4th Chris Reslock $150,000
5th Andy Black $100,000
6th Darrell Dicken $75,000
7th Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson $50,000
8th Thang Pham $25,000
9th Daniel Bergsdorf $25,000
10th Gus Hansen
11th Aaron Kanter
12th Scott Lazar
13th Doyle Brunson
14th John Barch
15th Clint Baskin
16th Vinny Vinh
17th Mike O'Malley
18th John Spadavecchia
19th Sarah Strom
20th Brad Kondracki
21st Jeffrey King
22nd Joe Hachem
23rd Steven Dannenmann
24th Peter Feldman
25th Gregg Merkow
26th Phil Hellmuth
27th Abraham Korotki