The WSOP Tournament of Champions fan balloting has been underway for over a month, and the top 20 players in voting is full of familiar faces. There are two “sponsor’s exemptions” left to fill out the field, and it appears at least one of them will be available through Harrah’s WSOP-branded online poker site unavailable to US players.

The promotion details two ways to get into their TOC qualifier, either by playing in 100 raked pots between April 15th and June 5th or winning one of the nightly $1 satellite tournaments at 20:00 GMT. The winner of the TOC qualifier will receive an additional $5,000 along with airfare for two from the UK, luxury accommodations at a Harrah’s property, and an additional $2,000 for expenses. The full terms and conditions can be found on the next page:

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Supposedly some 140,000 ballots came in during the first week of WSOP TOC fan voting. Our eligible pal Tom Schneider’s not in the Top 50 yet, let alone the all-important Top 20. As Harrah’s continues its First Annual Worldwide WSOP.com Email Harvest Tournament of Champions All-Star game, many pros are realizing that they may not get in just on the merits of being tied for 39th among all-time bracelet winners (with dozens of others holding two) and having a twitter account.

So DonkeyBomber is making a desperate unique attempt at getting himself on this uber-elite invite list … check it out … this just showed up in my inbox from everyone’s favorite 2007 Player of the Year:

This year, the World Series of Poker is having a Tournament of Champions. Only 27 players will play and 21 [sic.] of them must be voted in.

Here’s the deal.

You vote for me, Tom Schneider, and ONLY ME, and you will be part of the pool that will split half of what I win. First place pays $500,000. 50% of what I win will be split by people who have voted for me. If I win $500,000, $250,000 will be split by my voters. It’s that simple, and if I get voted in, I will be competing against only 27 players.

The site below is where you vote.

http://www.wsop.com/TOC/TOP50/

They will send you an email with a code in it. That code must be entered when voting.

After you have voted. Send this email to me and the verification email you receive from the WSOP site to tom@bigstackmedia.com and you will be part of the pool. I really would like to play in this tournament and your vote is very important to me. That’s why I’m paying for it.

One more important request. Please email this to any friends or family you have that you think might find it fun to own a piece of someone playing in the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Please vote and then wish me luck.

Thanks again,

Tom Schneider
2007 WSOP Player of the Year

GL Tom! I will so laugh if you make it to #21 and think you’re in when you’re not. I kid, I kid — I haven’t even voted yet, nor decided how I will. If you win, I’m concerned about the cost of stamps eating away profits.

Click below for the current Top 50 (in random order):

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Those looking to cash out from Pitbull Poker may have to wait in perpetuity.

From LasVegasVegas:

Pitbull Poker has seemingly closed its doors for business.
Players can visit the website but are unable to login to the poker client, and sources say the owners in Costa Rica were seen moving out computers in the middle of the night.

Pitbull was originally launched under WSOP.com, a domain registered by former Binions employee Federico Schiavio … Recently Pitbull Poker had been accused of having “superuser” accounts, similar to the Absolute Poker scandal, in which one player can see everyone else’s hole cards.

WSOP.com was one of the first big post-boom poker lawsuits … with Harrah’s successfully wrangling the domain name from the old Binion’s tech guy who held onto it after Binion’s handed over the keys to the WSOP.

We all knew this sorta thing would be coming … but how it would come (and continue to shake down) is, of course, a little less clear. The buzz:

• Matthew Parvis has resigned from his position as editor-in-chief of Bluff. This is confirmed fact.
• Supposedly he is headed to PokerNews.com. Not confirmed, and in what capacity not sure.
• Lance Bradley will take over as EIC of Bluff. Confirmed, and makes sense, since he has previously served as the top editor of Bluff’s website, and by proxy, WSOP.com, which Bluff loses control of any day now.
• Nick Geber has reportedly been “fired” from Bluff, or at least “let go”. Not confirmed … circumstances unclear. Nick is supposedly a part-owner of Bluff Media, too … so extra layer of complexity there.

Interesting … to at least about a dozen or so Pokeratizens. Also, we can go ahead and debunk the wild rumor started here that Nick Geber’s kerfuffle at Bluff was sparked by his intent to go to Soccerati.com to replace SangyFarha. Simply not true.