Poker News: 2010 WSOP, Phil Ivey, Tournament Of Champions, Results, Winners

Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu And Doyle Brunson Occupy Top Spots In The 2010 WSOP Tournament Of Champions Roster.

On June 17th, the voting process to decide the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) "Tournament of Champions" roster has closed, and event officials have now announced the final lineup for this prestigious event.

Of the 20 poker pros voted into the "Tournament of Champions", Phil Ivey took the top spot, very narrowly beating out Daniel Negreanu for second place. Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Chris Ferguson rounded out the top 5 places.

The complete list, along with numbers of votes is as follows (thanks to Poker News Daily):
1. Phil Ivey – 16,267
2. Daniel Negreanu – 16,239
3. Doyle Brunson – 13,796
4. Phil Hellmuth – 12,673
5. Chris Ferguson – 11,585
6. Allen Cunningham – 10,486
7. Johnny Chan – 10,434
8. Scotty Nguyen – 9,834
9. Barry Greenstein – 9,806
10. John Juanda – 8,835
11. Erik Seidel – 8,802
12. Jennifer Harman – 8,206
13. Huck Seed – 8,180
14. Dan Harrington – 7,342
15. T.J. Cloutier – 6,281
16. Sammy Farha – 6,085
17. Howard Lederer – 5,596
18. Greg Raymer – 5,404
19. Joe Hachem – 5,272
20. Antonio Esfandiari – 5,129

The Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas is one of the most prestigious poker event of the year. Players will compete against the very best of the best for a prize pool of $1,000,000.

Few events in the poker world carry the weight of the World Series of Poker. When you put 25 former champions together at the felt, the sky's the limit. That's why, for the first time in 4 years, the WSOP has put $1,000,000 for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions to be held in Las Vegas this summer.

Past WSOP Tournament of Champions winners Annie Duke, Mike Matusow and Mike Sexton are being included automatically in the match. “Joe Cada and Barry Shulman are also in by virtue of winning last year's Main Event and Main Event Europe, respectively,” writes the Las Vegas Sun.

“The 2 final slots went to sponsor exemptions. Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier won a one-table playoff to earn the World Series of Poker Academy's exemption, and Andrew Barton won a United Kingdom online competition through wsop.com,” the Sun continues.

Beginning on June 27, the Tournament of Champions will be a no-limit Texas Hold 'em game, that will, as with all World Series of Poker events, be aired on ESPN. As a largely ceremonial game, the tournament will be played without money and NO gold bracelet will be awarded to the winner.