On Tuesday night, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions made its return to the small screen. ESPN continued its coverage of the annual tournament series with the event’s 10-handed final table. PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein told ESPN cameras that the group reminded him of the original basketball Dream Team, equating himself to the great Charles Barkley.
The players at the 10-handed finale had a combined 41 bracelets and $32 million in tournament earnings. Up for grabs was a $500,000 first place prize and the fans primarily voted entrants in. In fact, out of the seven players that received automatic bids or qualified into the Tournament of Champions, just one (Annie Duke) made the final table.
ESPN makes the action easy to follow and now labels every position at the table with an icon next to a player’s name. Additionally, the player set to act is highlighted in yellow and the cards used to make the final hand are clearly labeled. ESPN has historically excelled above other networks in this capacity.
After a review of Jennifer Harman’s internet campaign to solicit votes to get into the Tournament of Champions, Full Tilt’s Erik Seidel was all-in with Q-8, including the queen of clubs, against Harman’s aces. Seidel had a royal flush draw by the river, needing the 10 of clubs to hit to win the hand, but a jack fell, sending him out in 10th place empty-handed. ESPN announcer Norman Chad boasted, “My gut told me we were gonna walk on the moon in ’69 and my gut tells me we’re gonna see the 10 of clubs on the river.” Sorry, Norman.
T.J. Cloutier, who was rocking a white Choctaw Casino/Resort hat and collared shirt, fell with A-J against Daniel Negreanu’s K-10 to depart in ninth. Then, UB.com pro Duke doubled up for the second time courtesy of Harman when her pocket jacks held against A-K. Duke was stoic at the table, leaving Chad to speculate, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Annie is here under court order.”
In the first Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, in which the hole cards of one player are obscured, 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan claimed the chip lead from Negreanu by picking up aces. Then, after doubling up, Greenstein sent Duke packing in eighth place by spiking a jack on the river with A-J against Duke’s A-Q. Greenstein struck again, eliminating the female population at the table by besting Harman’s A-4 with pocket kings.
The second one-hour episode began with Negreanu pushing his chips in with pocket aces on a seemingly harmless flop of 2-6-5. However, 2005 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Hachem showed pocket fives for a set and no help came for “Kid Poker” on the turn or river. Negreanu was the runner-up to Mike Sexton in the last Tournament of Champions, which played out in 2006.
Greenstein exited in fifth to set up a final four consisting of three former Main Event winners. Hachem was the next casualty, committing his chips with A-8 and running into the pocket eights of Howard Lederer. The final board read 9-5-5-J-J and the Aussie was relegated to the rails.
Huck Seed, who hadn’t won a pot shown by ESPN until the beginning of the second episode, doubled up through Lederer before giving much of his newfound stack to Chan. Then, Chan doubled up Lederer to fall to just three big blinds, which hit the middle with 7-5 on the next hand. Lederer held J-9 of hearts and flopped top pair to set up heads-up play.
The mano-a-mano match between Lederer and Seed lasted for seven minutes and three hands aired. In the defining pot, Seed check-raised all-in with 9-6 of clubs on a flop of 6-5-3. Lederer called with pocket tens, but a running 8-7 gave Seed a miracle straight and a stranglehold on the chip lead. Lederer ultimately shipped his chips into the middle with Q-8 of clubs, but could not draw out on Seed’s A-2 of spades.
Next Tuesday, the 2010 WSOP Main Event begins airing on ESPN at 8:00pm ET. A total of 27 hours of coverage will be shown.
