I’m all in favor of the fans getting a say in the poker line up. The game of poker is so all about chance and skill that opinion doesn’t usually come into play. But for some of us, the professional poker players are celebrities in their own right, people that got famous for something other than looking pretty, being rich or being able to act or sing. Players are known by their skill and their fans are well aware of those abilities.

So when it was decided that the fans would vote for the players in this year’s WSOP Tournament of Champions to take place on June 27, 28 and July 4^th. It’s the only time the fans have a say and the fans have certainly spoken.

Thousands upon thousands of votes were cast and the results as publish on the WSOP home page are as follows:

Everyone in the top five received over ten thousand votes each. The race between first and second place between Ivey Negreanu was pretty tight. Phil Ivey received a total of 16, 267 votes and Daniel Negreanu received 16,239 votes. Both players must be pleased with their popularity and how the fans view their skills.

There are a lot of big names in this year’s tournament, making it hard for me to decide who I would like to see win the event. I mean, you are deciding who gets to go home with a million bucks. Well, that’s what will happen to the winner anyway.

The Tournament of Champions includes a few of the event’s previous winners including Annie Duke and Mike Sexton. There are two entrants included by sponsors. That means that 20 out of the 26 total players were chosen by you the poker fans of the world.

I just can’t wait to see how the cards fall.