Lisandro Speaks On TOC Snub

Jeffrey Lisandro thinks the Tournament of Champions is in need of an overhaul.

The debate rages on about the 2010 Tournament of Champions, which played down to 17 players on Day 2 of the event Monday.

The WSOP opened the TOC selection process to the fans for 2010, allowing the public to go online and vote in 20 of the 27 players in the field.

While the TOC field is as impressive as it gets in poker, there are some players with impressive WSOP resumes that weren't invited to the tournament.

Jeffrey Lisandro, Carlos Mortensen and Ted Forrest are three of the best players in the history of the WSOP, with 11 bracelets combined amongst the trio.

Men "The Master" Nguyen is another WSOP legend, with seven bracelet wins, while Layne Flack has six.

Lisandro, the 2009 WSOP Player of the Year and owner of four gold bracelets, was blunt in his assessment of the Tournament of Champions.

"My thoughts? They should call it the Poker Players Committee Cup," Lisandro said.

"I think Harrah's should find a better way to determine who plays it. I didn't even know you could vote for me."

Tony G was another outspoken voice, and the controversial Poker News owner expressed his distaste of the TOC voting process on his blog, even threatening to pack up and leave for the rest of the 2010 WSOP.

His complaint centered around the selection process for the nine-player WSOP Academy tournament qualifier, won by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier for a seat in the TOC.

Tony G was upset that he wasn't invited to the nine-player qualifier and blogged about it on his official site:

"The list of players that have been chosen to play a 'sudden death-playoff' in a nine player sit-n-go tournament are: Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand "ElKy" Grospellier, Gus Hanson, actor Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, and Paul Wasicka."

"They are playing in this race to win a seat into the TOC and are chosen because they don't hold WSOP bracelets. Who chose them? Why do they have priority over other players that don't have gold bracelets?"

Joe Hachem, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer and Antonio Esfandiari are all one-bracelet winners that are in the TOC, while another TOC spot was awarded to online qualifier Andrew Barton.

Those four spots could have gone to players with more impressive WSOP credentials.

"It has nothing to do with being a Tournament of Champions," Lisandro said.

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage live from Las Vegas tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.