WSOP Academy is giving the opportunity for one lucky and talented player to take part in the WSOP Tournament of Champions (TOC): one SNG will determine who gets to participate in the one million dollar event. This event is an exclusive invitational freeroll poker tournament, usually only for WSOP champions. For several years, the TOC has been missing from the WSOP schedule. It has made its return only in recent times. It is a non-bracelet event, and the winner will receive a WSOP Trophy on top of the cash prize.
In total, 27 people are allowed to participate in this event, out of which three places are already taken by previous TOC winners (Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton) one by the winner of last year’s WSOP Main Event (Joe Cada) and one by the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event winner (Barry Schulman). Twenty of the remaining places will be left to voters and two so-called sponsored players will also take part.
Joe Cada – 2009 WSOP Main Event Champion
One player will be chosen by the WSOP Academy. They are on the hunt for someone who is not yet a WSOP champion, but have the ability to be the next one. In the end, they have chosen nine players to battle it out with a SNG on the 10th June to get that one entry into the TOC.
The line-up of players for this SNG will be: Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree and Paul Wasicka.
Although there will be a live broadcast of the event, only the WSOP Academy members will be able to follow it. The commentators will be Ali Nejad and Phil Hellmuth.
WSOP Academy was founded by Harrah’s in 2007, with an intention to train poker players that stand out from the crowd and have a good chance at the WSOP events. Among the trainers, we can see big names like Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer and Mark Seif.
Below is a list of the TOP 50 nominees (in random order):
