Tournament of Champions

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For other uses, see Tournament of Champions (disambiguation).

Envisioned as a continuing poker tournament series, the Tournament of Champions, shortened to "TOC" for simplicity, was founded in January 2005 by a small group of friends who had been playing Texas Hold'em and other poker variants on a regular basis for several years but wanted to expand their poker ring and challenge themselves to find the best player among them.

1 History
2 Tradition
3 Community
4 Point System
5 Final Standings
6 External links

[edit] History

Hosted in Arlington, TX, the TOC was designed to reveal the best no-limit Texas Hold'em tournament player in the area. The first TOC began with nine entrants. Only eight finished the 10-week tournament, but what blossomed from those weeks can never be forgotten and will be spoken of for generations to come. Each week a player would receive a point value for the position he finished. The points would be added as the weeks went on and the best (lowest) score would show the true champion. Over the course of 10 games, poker veteran Chad Boase acquired the first championship after a heated battle with Matt Cook, who lagged by only three points in the end.

[edit] Tradition

After many months of hyping how the TOC had heightened each player’s skills, it was decided that a second TOC event in 2005 should take place. This time the event brought in new, eager members, and certain aspects of the structure, i.e. blinds, points and payouts were adjusted. Ten players, five old and five new, vied for the coveted TOC championship. Josh Bishop, a casual player driven by the disrespectful odds given to him to win, came out on top as the second TOC champion. Bishop had a dominating lead that only last minute entrant Cody Ragsdale could possibly conquer, but it wasn’t to be. It was a new TOC for new players, and three of them surprisingly finished in the top half.

The third TOC concluded with a much smoother transition and a couple of honors have been added. This time around the field had grown to 13 players, including one female, with both previous champions absent from the proceedings. Once again, several aspects of the tournament structure were tweaked in an effort to make this TOC the best yet. Matt Cook has been awarded as the third champion with a monetary prize and a silver bracelet, a long anticipated idea that has finally come to fruition. Also introduced to the TOC tradition was a perpetual plaque, with each champions name engraved on it, to be passed around among the champions and placed on display at future events.

Historical happenings have taken place following the conclusion of the fourth TOC. A drop in the number of players and another few minor changes to the structure were nothing compared to the shocking result of who became our new champion. Linda Masingil, our first ever female TOC participant, held a steady course for eight weeks, with three second place finishes and never going home with worse than a seventh place. Yet, the most outrageous fact of this championship is Masingil was able to secure the championship title without ever winning a single event. Her highest spot, although she had many of them, was second place. During the eight week tournament first place finishes were handed out like refreshments, with Clint Hyslop the only person to win two of the eight nights, but it wasn't enough as Hyslop was the runner up to Masingil. Previous champion Matt Cook had another respectable TOC, finishing in fourth overall, as did TOC III runner up Mike Steed, finishing in third.

[edit] Community

Not only was 2005 a birth for the TOC, but it was also when a new website was created by Danny Zumwalt and dedicated to this event. Originally developed to simply document the progress of the tournament, FoldForFreewent online on January 25, 2005, just days after the first TOC had begun. It has since grown into a place for the players to discuss hands played at previous events and to plan and organize upcoming tournaments, both TOC and non-TOC related. It has become an online community, not just for poker, but for everything encompassing our culture, from national politics to personal news.

[edit] Point System

The point system used in the TOC has evolved from the linear one-point-per-place style system that was used in TOC I to a system based on the notion that the further a player advances in a tournament, the more difficult the tournament becomes. This is because of the frequency of the blinds, fewer players remaining in the field, and the number of chips on the table divided by these remaining players. The degree of difficulty to "beat out" one plaer and move from 10th to 9th place is far less than beating one last player to advance from 2nd to 1st since you are forced to be involved in more pots and play weaker hands. Thus, each time a player is eliminated from the field, the difficulty increases. To more accurately represent this phenomenon, the following point system (designed for between 10 and 16 players) was developed and was first used in TOC III. Since there are 12 players in TOC IV, it was decided that each place would receive different points.

(Lower points are better)