2010
On March 15, 2010, Harrah's and the World Series of Poker announced that the WSOP Tournament of Champions would return 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, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington, T.J. Cloutier, Sammy Farha, Howard Lederer, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Antonio Esfandiari.
Five of the seats were automatically awarded. The reigning WSOP Champion Joe Cada, the reigning WSOP Europe Champion Barry Shulman and the three previous TOC winners: Annie Duke, Mike Matusow and Mike Sexton.
The remaining two seats were awarded as sponsor exemptions by Harrah's, to Andrew Barton and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier.
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.
Read more about this topic: World Series Of Poker Tournament Of Champions