And es fO

WHAT'S IN A NAME?Always an interesting question when itcomes to the Tournament of Champions.Last November's version, held in amakeshift card room deep in the bowelsof Caesars Palace's convention area,invited 114 players-top finishers inWSOP events and a few controversialsponsor-requested "exemptions"-tocompete in a $2-million freeroll. Oneyear earlier, Harrah's hosted a tournamentwith the same name at the Rio, only as asingle-table, invitation-only, winner-take-all affair. Neither version shared much incommon with the original Tournamentof Champions, the much-beloved (and,sadly, short-lived) creation of lawyerChuck Humphrey and future WPT hostMike Sexton, where qualifiers playedalternating rounds of Limit Hold 'Em,Omaha, and Seven-Card Stud beforeswitching to No-Limit Hold 'Em on thethird and final day to crown a championamong champions.

This year, the format was tweaked yetagain, as Harrah's re-invented theTournament of Champions as a kickoffevent to the World Series of Poker. The 27invitees-12 WSOP Circuit Event winners,the nine men who reached the final TVtable at last year's WSOP Championship,and six sponsor exemptions-met at theRio for a two-day No-Limit Hold 'Emfreeroll for $2-million in prize money anda World Series bracelet. And while therewas little of the rancor that marked lastyear's TOC, there was, once again, a lot ofincredible poker and an ending withenough drama and poetry to satisfyanybody who had enough endurance tomake it all the way to the end.

Mike Matusow's victory in the 200STOC-maybe the best story of personalredemption through poker since StueyUngar's run to the WSOP Championshipin 1997 - was nearly overshadowed by aseries of spirited exchanges between PhilHellmuth and Steve Dannenmann. There

Who & HowThe complete

field of 27Tournament

of Championsparticipants,

broken down bytheir means ofqualification:

2005/2006WSOP Circuit

Event Winners:Greg MerkowChris FergusonVinnie VinhKido PhamChris Reslock

Daniel NegreanuAbe KorotkiDarrell Dicken

John SpadavecchiaJeff King

Clint BaskinPeter Feldman

2005 WSOPMain EventFinal Table:

Joseph HachemSteve Dannenmann

lex BarchAaron KanterAndrew BlackScott Lazar

Daniel BergsdorfBrad KondrackiMike Matusow

SponsorExemptions:Doyle BrunsonGus HansenPhil HellmuthMike O'MalleyMike SextonSarah Strom

would be no follow-up this year.Hellmuth was the second player elimi-nated from the tournament when he hadthe misfortune of finding pocket queensagainst Chris Ferguson's aces. About twohours later, Dannenmann (pocket eights)and 2005 WSOP Champion JosephHachem (pocket queens) both got all oftheir money into the middle in a three-way pot with Daniel Negreanu, whose

Ad-Qc looked to be an underdog.Negreanu spiked an ace on the flop,however, and it held up to knock both ofhis opponents out of the tournament.

Combine Negreanu's immense skillwith a better-than-average run of luck,and you are probably looking at the mostdangerous poker player on the planet."Kid Poker II would single-handedlydispatch nearly a third of the players

eliminated on the first day, includingcrowd favorite Sarah Strom. AfterNegreanu opened with a raise, Strom, anamateur who won a sponsor exemptionthrough a Quiznos promotion, pushed allin with Ah-Qh and a short-stack. The potodds pretty much demanded that thesomewhat embarrassed Negreanu callwith his Sh-2h. "I'm sorry," he joked ashe turned over his cards. "I have a

straight." Less than a minute later, aneven more embarrassed (but bizarrelyprescient) Negreanu was hugging Stromgoodbye, having flopped 6-4-3 for thenut straight.

Poetic justice? Negreanu-who, lastyear, was one of the more vocal critics ofthe tournament's sponsor exemptionpolicy - would go on to eliminate yetanother sponsor-selected opponent, MikeO'Malley, shortly after the dinner break.Let the record show that Negreanuearned his way into the tournament thehard way, winning the 2006 WSOPCircuit Event in Tunica.

Despite the hot streak, Negreanuwould still finish the day second in chipsto Andrew Black; the Irish pokerpro/Buddhist monk was even hotter,building a stack of nearly $100,000 inchips, more than twice as many asNegreanu, and almost four times as manyas the third-place contender, Sweden'sDaniel Bergsdorf. If the lO-player finaltable appeared to be listing to one side, itwas because Black and Negreanu, placedside by side in Seats Five and Six, controlledaround half of the chips in play.

The severe chip imbalance, left as is,

would have made for a short final day.The average stack was about $27,000,while blinds had increased to$2,000/$4,000 with $500 antes, meaningthat everyone who wasn't Black orNegreanu was in immediate danger ofelimination. Hoping to stretch out the day,the players and organizers agreed to add azero to the end of each of the finalists'chip counts at the start of the second day:

Seat OneSeat TwoSeat ThreeSeat FourSeat FiveSeat Six

Seat SevenSeat EightSeat NineSeat Ten

Kido PhamChris Ferguson

Darrell DickenMike MatusowDaniel Negreanu

Andrew BlackMike Sexton

Gus HansenChris ReslockDaniel Bergsdorf

$238,000$166,000$154,000$213,000$443,000$942,000$161,000$74,000$64,000

$245,000

Only nine players would make themoney. The unlucky 10th turned out tobe Gus Hansen, who, about 20 minutesafter play resumed at 2 p.m. on June 26,lost with A-K against the unstoppable Blackand his pocket nines. Negreanu managedto keep pace, flopping yet another nutstraight against Bergsdorf's pocket kingsto reduce the field to eight players. Itseemed that Black and Negreanu weredestined for a massive showdown.

The inevitable took less than fourhours to arrive. Black, riding high aftereliminating Kido Pham in eighth place,decided his A-K was good enough toopen the betting at $45,000. Negreanu re-raised, Black came over the top with all ofhis chips, and, suddenly, the two biggeststacks were battling for more than halfthe chips on the table. This time, however,Negreanu actually had a hand-two black

kings-that held up to reduce Black'sstack to a shadow of its former glory. Hewould hang around for another couple ofhours, outlasting Ferguson and Darrell"Gigabet" Dicken, before running intoanother pair of kings, this time belongingto Matusow. Black, once seeminglyunbeatable, was out in fifth place.

Shortly after 9 p.m., WSOP CircuitAtlantic City winner Chris Reslock bustedout in fourth place, leaving the ecstaticTOC organizers, for the second yearrunning, with a trio of outstanding play-ers to battle for the title. Negreanu waschip leader, with about $1.2-million, butenjoyed only a small margin over popularWPT host Sexton ($905,000). As might beexpected, Matusow ($400,000) did mostof the talking - WSO P media directorNolan Dalla described their highly enter-taining banter as a "modern day perform-ance by poker's version of the Rat Pack" -until about 11 p.m. After Negreanu madea relatively small raise to $25,000, calledin turn by Sexton, Matusow decided totake a shot at stealing the pot, movinghis remaining $200,000 or so into themiddle with A-4 offsuit. Negreanu folded,but Sexton made an excellent decision tocall with pocket sevens, which held up towin the showdown. "Mike played amaz-ing poker," Matusow would readily confess."I've played against him a thousandtimes. He made the right call. I am thefirst to say I was defeated."

Given the matchup's aesthetic appeal-Negreanu and Sexton are two of the morewell-liked players in the game-one mighthave forgiven them for bringing thenight to an early end. After all, both menwere guaranteed at least $325,000 in prizemoney, not a bad haul for a two-dayfreeroll. And, as the clock approached

FINAL STANDINGS: One Champion, Nine Contenders1. Mike Sexton2. Daniel Negreanu3. Mike Matusow4. Chris Reslock5. Andrew Black6. Darrell Dicken7. Chris Ferguson8. Kido Pham9. Daniel Bergsdorf10. Gus Hansen

LasVegas, NVLasVegas, NVLasVegas, NVAtlantic City, NJDublin, IrelandWaterloo, IA

Pacific Palisades, CADallas, TXUmea, SwedenCopenhagen, Denmark

$1,000,000$325,000$250,000$150,000$100,000$75,000$50,000$25,000$25,000

$0

"Tocome back again all these years later andwin this tournament, especially against such

tremendous competition, really makes me proud."

midnight, both men were registered forthe "official" start to the World Series, a$1,500 buy-in No-Limit event scheduledto start in about 12 hours.

Instead, the two champions went at itas if their lives depended on it. Theyplayed nearly flawless poker for the next6'12 hours, battling through more than300 heads-up hands as the momentumrocked back and forth. "It reminded meof the scene in Rocky I or II," Negreanuwould later blog, "when Apollo Creedand Stallone, they went at it real heavyand then were, like, dead for six months.I seriously felt like that's what me andMike were like at the end ... Once you'rein it that long, your emotions get tied toit. There's no other way around it."

The pivotal hand wouldn't be played

until just before 6 a.m., when egreanu,enjoying a slight chip lead, pushed all in,having flopped four cards to a flush.Sexton called with top pair and held onto win. Just a few hands later, Sexton usedpocket aces to put an end to a final tablethat took more than 16 hours to complete.

It was a sweet victory for a man who,nearly a decade earlier, was a foundingfather of the original Tournament ofChampions. "To come back again allthese years later and win this tourna-ment, especially against such tremendouscompetition, in addition to defeating agreat champion like Daniel Negreanuafter five hours, really makes me proud,"Sexton announced. Adding to the feel-good atmosphere (for everyone exceptthe exhausted Negreanu, that is) was the

fact that Sexton had previously pledgedhalf his winnings to charity. He plans tospread a cool half-million over five causesranging from injured war veterans tounderprivileged school kids.

It's too early to tell how Harrah's willtweak next year's TOC, but it almostcertainly will undergo yet another re-imagining-neither Sexton nor Negreanuhad the energy to play in the next day'sWSOP kickoff, while an exhaustedMatusow, who did decide to play, made avery early exit. What is clear is that thereis something very special about this tour-nament, designed to select a championfrom among champions, as it buildsupon a growing reputation for prodUcingsome of the highest quality and mostentertaining poker of the year. ~