2006 Tournament of Champions

[BlackAces]

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

[Phntm]

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.

[nath]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[NickMPK]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess we can call Sexton a "Champion" now.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.)

[NickMPK]

[ 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[NCAces]

[ 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[Mr. Orange]

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.

[async]

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?

[Kevmath]

ESPN later this year.

[KingGeorgeC]

Anyone know what place Kanter finished?

george