World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
Encyclopedia
The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is an invitational freeroll poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 event. Wins in this event do not count as official WSOP bracelets
World Series of Poker bracelet
The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as "bracelets". ...

, but the winner receives a large trophy in the shape of the official World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...

 logo. In 2010, the WSOP Tournament of Champions returned with a new format more akin to a typical sports league All-Star Event format. 27 players vied for $1 million, with 20 of those players selected by the fans via online vote at the WSOP's website.

2004

The first event took place on 1 September 2004 with invitations only being extended to ten of the most well-known names on the poker tournament
Poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...

 circuit. The winner took home a $2,000,000 prize. No other participants received prize money.
Position Competitor
1st Annie Duke
Annie Duke
Annie Duke is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000...

2nd Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality...

3rd Howard Lederer
Howard Lederer
Howard Henry Lederer is an American professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke, and author and poet Katy Lederer. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

4th Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan (poker player)
Johnny Chan rather than his Chinese birth name. born in Guangzhou, China in 1957) is a Chinese American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively....

5th Greg Raymer
Greg Raymer
Gregory Raymer nicknamed "Fossilman," is a professional poker player. He is best known for winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event.-Early life:...

6th Doyle Brunson
Doyle Brunson
Doyle F. Brunson is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.Brunson is the first player to...

7th Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...

8th Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey
Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables...

9th T. J. Cloutier
T. J. Cloutier
Thomas James "T.J." Cloutier is a professional poker player from Richardson, Texas. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.-Early years:...

10th David "Chip" Reese
Chip Reese
David Edward Reese , more commonly known as Chip Reese, was an American professional poker player and gambler from Centerville, Ohio...


2005

The 2005 event took place between November 6 and November 8 at Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....

 in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

.
Prior to the event, Harrah's advertised that to qualify a player would need to win any World Series of Poker circuit events or by reaching the final table of the 2005 WSOP $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...

 championship event. Controversy erupted however when Pepsi, the event's sponsor, insisted that Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan be granted Sponsor Exemptions. Despite public protests from other players that they were lied to as the event was billed as one that one had to qualify for, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 and Harrah's
Harrah's Entertainment
Caesars Entertainment Corporation is a private gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion...

 newly hired Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Marketing, Jeffrey Pollack
Jeffrey Pollack
Pollack has been named to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal of "40 Under 40" and twice to The Sporting News 100. He has also won two Emmy Awards. Pollack is married, and resides in both Los Angeles and Las Vegas...

 allowed the three to participate. Hellmuth finished third, while Chan and Brunson missed the final table, coming in 13th and 10th, respectively. From 2006 onward, Harrah's reserved the right to let in up to six players via sponsor's exemptions.
Position Competitor Prize
1st Mike Matusow
Mike Matusow
Michael Matusow is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table...

$1,000,000
2nd Hoyt Corkins
Hoyt Corkins
Hoyt Bricken Corkins is an American professional poker player.He also has three children in Chelsei Corkins, Brittney Corkins, and Ashley Roundtre...

$325,000
3rd Phil Hellmuth $250,000
4th Tony Bloom
Tony Bloom
Anthony Grant "Tony" Bloom is a football club chairman and successful poker player.-Poker and betting:Bloom made a name for himself as a successful sports bettor and property investor...

$150,000
5th Steve Dannenmann
Steve Dannenmann
Steven Paul "Steve" Dannenmann is a CPA from Severn, Maryland who gained attention in the poker world for his success in the 2005 World Series of Poker, finishing runner-up to Joe Hachem in the Main Event in his first attempt...

$100,000
6th Grant Lang $75,000
7th David Levi
David Levi (poker player)
David Levi is an Israeli professional poker player and former professional footballer who in his poker career has won over $2.6 million in live tournaments....

$50,000
8th Keith Sexton $25,000
9th Brandon Adams
Brandon Adams (poker player)
Brandon Adams is an American university teaching fellow, author, and poker player.-Career:Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, he now lives in Boston, Massachusetts...

$25,000

2006

The 2006 field of twenty-seven players included the 9 players who made the final table of the 2005 WSOP main event
2005 World Series of Poker
The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15 marked the close of play, and the largest prize in sports and/or television history at the time was awarded to the...

, the winners of the 11 WSOP Circuit
World Series of Poker circuit events
The World Series of Poker Circuit is a series of poker tournaments held annually at a variety of casinos since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker ....

 events in the preceding calendar year, and some sponsor exemptions.

Final table

Position Competitor Prize
1st Mike Sexton
Mike Sexton
Michael Richard Sexton is an American professional poker player and commentator. He is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.-Early years:...

$1,000,000
2nd Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...

$325,000
3rd Mike Matusow $250,000
4th Chris Reslock
Chris Reslock
Chris J. Reslock is a professional poker player from Valley City, North Dakota, who now lives in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Reslock was a semi-retired cab owner and operator before he began playing poker professionally, he was a highly ranked Scrabble player but went into poker because the money...

$150,000
5th Andy Black $100,000
6th Darrell Dicken
Darrell Dicken
Darrell T. Dicken is an American professional poker player from Waterloo, Iowa, who has cashed at seven world poker tour championship events, making the final 6-handed table in two of them....

$75,000
7th Chris Ferguson
Chris Ferguson
Christopher Philip Ferguson is an American professional poker player. He has won five World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

$50,000
8th Thang Pham $25,000
9th Daniel Bergsdorf $25,000

2005 WSOP Main Event Final Table Players

  • Joe Hachem
    Joe Hachem
    Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for winning the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. He was the first Australian to win the main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.The next year, Hachem won his...

  • Steve Dannenmann
  • John "Tex" Barch
    John Barch
    John Derick "Tex" Barch is a businessman and professional poker player from McKinney, Texas whose rise to fame came in the 2005 World Series of Poker. Barch made the final table at the Main Event, finishing third, behind Steve Dannenmann and eventual champion Joe Hachem.Barch has been playing...

  • Aaron Kanter
    Aaron Kanter
    Aaron Kanter is a professional poker player from Lodi, California.Kanter's first major success in poker came at the 2005 World Series of Poker main event, where he finished in 4th place and earned $2,000,000...

  • Scott Lazar
  • Brad Kondracki

WSOP Circuit Event Winners

  • Gregg Merkow (Grand Casino Tunica
    Grand Casino Tunica
    Harrah's Casino Tunica, formerly Grand Casino Tunica, is a casino and resort located in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. The casino offers a casino and three hotels with a total of 1,356 rooms...

    )
  • Vinny Vinh
    Vinny Vinh
    Quoc Al "Vinny" Vinh is an Vietnamese American professional poker player with over $2.4 Million in tournament winnings, who became well known at the 2007 World Series of Poker while playing in the $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event, when he failed to return on the second day of play as the chip...

     (Caesars Indiana
    Caesars Indiana
    Horseshoe Southern Indiana, is a riverboat casino operated by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. Opened in 1998, it is located outside the community of Elizabeth, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. The complex is located at the Harrison County line...

    )
  • Abraham Korotki (Harrah's Atlantic City)
  • Jeffrey King (Caesars Atlantic City
    Caesars Atlantic City
    Caesars Atlantic City is a luxury hotel, casino, and spa resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Like Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, it has an ancient Roman theme. Atlantic City's second casino, it opened in 1979 as the Caesars Boardwalk Regency. The . casino has over 3,400 slot machines, and is one of...

    )
  • John Spadavecchia
    John Spadavecchia
    John Spadavecchia is an American professional poker player from Lighthouse Point, Florida.Spadavecchia has been a regular on the poker tournament circuit since the 1980s, with his first finish in the money of a World Series of Poker event coming in the 1988 World Series of Poker in the $10,000 no...

     (Caesars Palace
    Caesars Palace
    Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....

    )
  • Peter Feldman
    Peter Feldman
    Peter Feldman is a professional poker player from Harper Woods, MichiganFeldmans's first major success in poker came in a 2006 World Series of Poker circuit event, where he won the tournament $532,950. Since then, Feldman has cashed in some World Poker Tour events and in the 2006 and 2007 World...

     (Harrah's New Orleans
    Harrah's New Orleans
    Harrah's New Orleans is a casino located in New Orleans, Louisiana near the foot of Canal Street a block away from the Mississippi River. It is a casino with approximately 2,100 slot machines, over 90 table games and a poker room. There are several places to eat ranging from buffet style to fine...

    )
  • Clint Baskin (Harrah's Lake Tahoe
    Harrah's Lake Tahoe
    Harrah's Lake Tahoe, is a resort casino, in South Lake Tahoe, at Stateline, Nevada. It is branded with the name of its former owner William Fisk Harrah and owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The 18-story tower and 525 rooms, plus of casino make it one of the largest resorts at South Lake...

    )

Sponsor Exemptions

  • Doyle Brunson
    Doyle Brunson
    Doyle F. Brunson is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.Brunson is the first player to...

  • Gus Hansen
    Gus Hansen
    Gustav "Gus" Hansen is a professional Danish poker player who lives in Monaco. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, the 2007 Aussie Millions main event and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament...

  • Phil Hellmuth
  • Mike O'Malley
  • Sarah Strom (contest winner)

2010

On March 15, 2010, Harrah's and the World Series of Poker announced that the WSOP Tournament of Champions returned on June 27, 2010 when 27 players competed in a freeroll for $1 million in prize money. The new format is an All-Star Event format, where the public decided which players participated in the event from a list of 521 current, living WSOP bracelet-holders.

The public decided the 20 players via an online vote at www.WSOP.com/TOC. Voting was open from March 15, 2010 until midnight ET on June 15, 2010.
Voted in were: Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey
Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables...

, Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...

, Doyle Brunson
Doyle Brunson
Doyle F. Brunson is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years. He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.Brunson is the first player to...

, Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality...

, Chris Ferguson
Chris Ferguson
Christopher Philip Ferguson is an American professional poker player. He has won five World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

, Allen Cunningham
Allen Cunningham
Allen Cunningham is an American professional poker player.Cunningham studied civil engineering at UCLA before dropping out of school to play poker professionally. At the age of 18, he began playing at in Indian casinos...

, Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan (poker player)
Johnny Chan rather than his Chinese birth name. born in Guangzhou, China in 1957) is a Chinese American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively....

, Scotty Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen
Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn is a Vietnamese American professional poker player who is a five time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and the 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship...

, Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the...

, John Juanda
John Juanda
Johnson "John" Juanda is a Chinese Indonesian professional poker player based in Marina del Rey, California. Juanda lives in Los Angeles.-Personal life:...

, Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title.In 2010, he was inducted as a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.-Early life:...

, Jennifer Harman
Jennifer Harman
Jennifer C. Harman-Traniello is an American professional poker player.-Early life:Harman was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. She started playing poker in 1972 at the age of eight...

, Huck Seed
Huck Seed
Huckleberry Seed is an American professional poker player best known for winning the main event of the 1996 World Series of Poker.-Early Life:...

, Dan Harrington
Dan Harrington
Dan Harrington is a professional poker player, best known for winning the main event world championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He has earned one World Poker Tour title, two WSOP bracelets, and over six million dollars in tournament cashes in his poker career...

, T.J. Cloutier, Sammy Farha, Howard Lederer
Howard Lederer
Howard Henry Lederer is an American professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke, and author and poet Katy Lederer. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

, Greg Raymer
Greg Raymer
Gregory Raymer nicknamed "Fossilman," is a professional poker player. He is best known for winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event.-Early life:...

, Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem
Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for winning the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. He was the first Australian to win the main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.The next year, Hachem won his...

 and Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari is a professional poker player, known for his elaborate chip tricks.-Early life:When he was 9 years old his family moved to San Jose, California...

.

Five of the seats were automatically awarded. The reigning WSOP Champion Joe Cada
Joe Cada
Joseph "Joe" Cada is an American professional poker player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker ....

, the reigning WSOP Europe Champion Barry Shulman
Barry Shulman
Barry Shulman is an American poker player who has enjoyed success in competitive poker tournaments over the past 15 years, and is the CEO of CardPlayer Magazine.-Life and career:...

 and the three previous TOC winners: Annie Duke
Annie Duke
Annie Duke is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000...

, Mike Matusow
Mike Matusow
Michael Matusow is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table...

 and Mike Sexton
Mike Sexton
Michael Richard Sexton is an American professional poker player and commentator. He is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.-Early years:...

.

The remaining two seats were awarded as sponsor exemptions by Harrah's, to Andrew Barton and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier
Bertrand Grospellier
Bertrand Grospellier , also known as ElkY is a poker player and former pro gamer from France who has won a World Poker Tour , a World Series of Poker bracelet and a European Poker Tour title...

.

On June 27, the 27 players began play in the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The final nine players returned to play the final table on July 4, 2010 in the same location.

Final table

Position Competitor Prize
1st Huck Seed
Huck Seed
Huckleberry Seed is an American professional poker player best known for winning the main event of the 1996 World Series of Poker.-Early Life:...

$500,000
2nd Howard Lederer
Howard Lederer
Howard Henry Lederer is an American professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke, and author and poet Katy Lederer. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

$250,000
3rd Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan (poker player)
Johnny Chan rather than his Chinese birth name. born in Guangzhou, China in 1957) is a Chinese American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively....

$100,000
4th Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem
Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for winning the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. He was the first Australian to win the main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.The next year, Hachem won his...

$25,000
5th Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the...

$25,000
6th Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...

$25,000
7th Jennifer Harman
Jennifer Harman
Jennifer C. Harman-Traniello is an American professional poker player.-Early life:Harman was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. She started playing poker in 1972 at the age of eight...

$25,000
8th Annie Duke
Annie Duke
Annie Duke is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000...

$25,000
9th T. J. Cloutier
T. J. Cloutier
Thomas James "T.J." Cloutier is a professional poker player from Richardson, Texas. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.-Early years:...

$25,000

External links

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