Poker on ESPN: WSOP Tournament of Champions, August 3 - 8-10pm

[Lon VanPatten]

This week it's a green felt time machine with the $1,000,000 Tournament of Champions freeroll. The field was made up of the three TOC winners (Duke, Matusow and Sexton) joining the 2009 WSOP and WSOPE winners (Cada and Shulman), two sponsor's exemptions (Barton and Elky), and the top 20 in fan voting.

Hour one starts with a 10-handed final table, but only 9 make the money. The final table looked like this as play should start with the blinds at 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante:

Seat 1: Annie Duke - 17,900
Seat 2: Joe Hachem - 136,000
Seat 3: Erik Seidel - 35,600
Seat 4: Johnny Chan - 152,900
Seat 5: Daniel Negreanu - 175,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein - 51,500
Seat 7: Huck Seed - 100,300
Seat 8: Jennifer Harman - 53,400
Seat 9: T.J. Cloutier - 54,300
Seat 10: Howard Lederer - 31,000

Hour 1 preview

Hour 2 preview

ESPN.com's Gary Wise article on Huck Seed's "surprise" invite to the TOC

[TCG1009]

Lookin' forward to this for sure.

[The 6th Wilbury]

Coool... I didn't follow this as it actually happened, so this will be one of the rare times when I'll get to go in relatively spoiler-free (other than knowing the winner). All things considered, there is a decent amount of root-for and root-against personalities at this one. Clearly the by-product of a made-for-TV event.

Also, I had no idea Negreanu started this table with that many chips.

[IWantSomeCheese]

I like how they swept Barton under the rug: "27 of the game greats".

Thought they played the family angle too much with Howard and Anne. With only 27 doesn't seem that unlikely they would both make the final 10? Didn't find it interesting at all. I can only imagine the family angle will played during the ME with the 4 Mizrachi's (but that is wayyyy more deserved).

It's also funny how last week they were talking about the WSOP just starting and a week later they are talking how peoples WSOP went. Ahh the magic of television.

[The 6th Wilbury]

Originally Posted by IWantSomeCheese

It's also funny how last week they were talking about the WSOP just starting and a week later they are talking how peoples WSOP went. Ahh the magic of television.

This happens during the WSOP Europe coverage. By the time it airs, the November final table has played out. So you might hear something like, "At one of our outer tables, we see Antoine Saout involved in a hand with James Akenhead. These two tangled at the Main Event final table, where Saout finished third and Akenhead was ninth." Yet the footage shown took place more than a month before said final table occurred.

[Hughes4]

Originally Posted by The 6th Wilbury

This happens during the WSOP Europe coverage. By the time it airs, the November final table has played out. So you might hear something like, "At one of our outer tables, we see Antoine Saout involved in a hand with James Akenhead. These two tangled at the Main Event final table, where Saout finished third and Akenhead was ninth." Yet the footage shown took place more than a month before said final table occurred.

that hurt my head. reminds me of a LOST flashback

[Lon VanPatten]

Originally Posted by IWantSomeCheese

I like how they swept Barton under the rug: "27 of the game greats".

The same thing happens during the NBC Heads-Up event with its various qualifiers.

[drewstapes]

I wish Barrry would come on and list the entire final table/orginal dream team list. Did anyone get to be Michael Jordan or was he (Phil Ivey) not there. And, who did he list for Annie Duke? Patrick Ewing?

[passthesugar]

I'm really curious how the ratings will turn out for this event. I'm sure the producers would have wanted either ivey or doyle at the final table. I hope the ratings are good enough to justify bringing this back, as well as the 50k. They are both good events and would love to see them come back.

[Agent ]-[arbinger]

Caught up on this over the weekend.

They eluded to some bad blood between Harmen and Duke. Can't say I recall why this is? Anyone know?

Annie looked pissed at the world the whole time. I know she is "all business" once she's at the table, but her demenor seems different this time.

Other than watching the Bear catch some cards, found this fairly boring.