Early Voting Strong for WSOP Tournament of Champions
March 18th, 2010
Prahlad Friedman wants your help to get a WSOP TOC invite.
The World Series of Poker recently announced that it would be bringing back the Tournament of Champions for 2010, this time as a 27-player invitational with most of the lineup determined by the public at large.
Some players like 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada and former TOC winners Mike Sexton and Mike Matusow got automatic invitations to the event, but the remaining participants are being selected by a public vote. After the first day of voting the WSOP announced that more than 40,000 fans had already cast their votes. Now a number of players who are eligible to play in the tournament are now campaigning on Twitter and other social networks for a shot at the $1 million freeroll.
Prahlad Friedman, the rapping WSOP bracelet winner who simultaneously set off a firestorm of criticism and won over new fans in 2003 after using his bracelet win as an opportunity to launch into a tirade against the Iraq War, has been campaigning on social networks to get fans to vote him into the TOC. Among his supporters is Poker After Dark commentator Ali Nejad. Meanwhile Dr. Pauly at the popular poker blog Tao of Poker has launched an unlikely campaign to get three-time bracelet winner Paul “Eskimo” Clark into the TOC, one that has gathered some steam thanks to support from fans and other poker blogs like Pokerati.
Of course, the idea of public voting for the TOC hasn’t been without criticism from some of the poker community. Typical of the critics was PokerNews editor-in-chief Matthew Parvis, who wrote on Twitter, “I wish people would take the WSOP TOC voting seriously, and not turn this into a popularity contest. I guess i just wish everyone had the integrity of the WSOP and poker in mind, which i know is an impossible request.”
Votes can be cast only once, but poker fans have until June to help their favorite players get a shot at the million. If you haven’t had your say on the Tournament of Champions lineup yet, what are you waiting for? Head over to the WSOP’s TOC voting page and help a brother out.
