A star-studded line-up squared off on the felt over the past several days as the fourth ever Tournament of Champions took place at the World Series of Poker, leaving Huck Seed standing proud as the 2010 Champion of Champions.
The original Tournament of Champions was launched in September 2004 as a very exclusive event with a field of only ten top players. Invitations were extended to the most well-known of poker tournament greats, with Poker Hall of Fame members Doyle Brunson, Jonny Chan, TJ Cloutier and Phil Hellmuth featuring prominently in the line-up. In the end it was the established pro Annie Duke who fought her way through the extremely tough table to walk away with the $2,000,000 winner-take-all prize pool and the Champion of Champions title. After three tournaments the event was put indefinitely on hold, and this year marks its triumphant return to the World Series of Poker stage, with some rather drastic changes.
While the 2010 Tournament of Champions is still very exclusive, featuring a prizepool of $1,000,000 and a field of only 27 players, the invitation process has been dramatically changed. Reigning WSOP and WSOP Europe champions automatically qualify, as do past Tournament of Champions winners, and there are two spots to be filled by sponsors of the event. What makes this year different is that the remaining twenty places were filled not by the WSOP powers that be, but rather via an online voting system, where the public was able to choose who they would like to see compete, from a pool of 521 living WSOP bracelet holders.
While there was fear that this would lend some bias to players who have entered the spotlight recently, or those that are powerful self-promoters in televised poker, the selection process was considered to be a great success after it concluded. Ty Stewart, the vice-president of the WSOP, commented, “The selections show that poker has a mass fan base that is knowledgeable about the history of the World Series of Poker.”
Huck Seed, who bested the final table of stars, has firmly earned his place among the poker elite. The American poker professional has had a long and successful career, including winning the WSOP Main Event 14 years ago in 1996. With four bracelets, 37 WSOP cashes and over $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings, there can be no doubt that the one-time college basketball player is a true poker great, and very worthy of the title that he battled for this week.
As the final table was coming to a close, Howard Lederer knocked out two-time WSOP Main Event winner Johnny Chan in third place, to enter into heads-up play with a slight chip-lead. The stacks were shallow and there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver as the chips went into the middle on a 653 flop. Seed, who was covered by Lederer, flipped his 96 and got the bad news that he was up against a very dominant TT. Luck was on his side, however, as the board ran out 65387, giving Seed a runner-runner straight and the substantial chip lead.
Not long after, Seed called Lederer’s preflop shove and flipped his A2, this time in much better shape against Q8. The board ran out 7669A eliminating Lederer in second place, and crowning Huck Seed as the 2010 Champion of Champions.
With the exciting new format we can hopefully look forward to seeing more of this event in the years to come, so make sure you stay on the look out next year and have your say on who should compete for the 2011 Tournament of Champions title.