2006 Tournament of Champions

[olivert]

[ 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[Athos]

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

[NickMPK]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[Athos]

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."

[Yuv]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[olivert]

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.

[NCAces]

[ 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

[NickMPK]

[ 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

[/ QUOTE ]

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?

[thebeebster]

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

[Jourdain]

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.