Six tournaments. Six winners. One final table.

A season of the Tournament of Champions is six events. Each one is a multi-table tournament of 100 players, 6 to a table: the six members of the cast as the professionals in the field, and everyone else a mind written as hand charts, the same way a challenger is written. Win an event and you take a seat. When all six seats are filled, the six champions play the final table, and the winner of that wins the season.

Season 4: the seats

Next up: Season 4 · Event 3 of 6. Nobody sits twice: if an event is won by someone who already holds a seat, it goes to the best finisher who does not.

Past champions: Season 1, Hattie Ueda · Season 2, Vi Rourke · Season 3, Rosa Shapiro

The episodes

Every event is played live, then cut into a series: Day One, the play-down, and the final table with every hand, uncut. Episodes appear here as they are released. One in the edit is exactly that: the tournament has been played, and the cut is being made.

The cast, against the field

Six pros in a field of ninety-four chart minds, every event. Auntie Rose was the first of them to win a seat (Season 2 · Event 3), and finished 2nd at the Season 2 final.

The events

Season 3 · Event 5

Mack Sandoval won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 240 rounds · 1,659 hands · 3 h live · best of the cast: Auntie Rose, 9th (cashed)

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 65 players · 33 hands · ~44 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

65 → 15 players · 35 hands · ~43 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 40 hands · ~42 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 64 hands · ~53 min

Season 2 · Event 6

Vi Rourke won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 229 rounds · 1,731 hands · 1.4 h live · best of the cast: The Machine, 9th (cashed)

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 73 players · 33 hands · ~46 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

73 → 15 players · 36 hands · ~42 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 44 hands · ~40 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 48 hands · ~36 min

Season 2 · Event 5

Carmen Vasquez won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 259 rounds · 1,778 hands · 1.5 h live · best of the cast: Vera, 31st

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 72 players · 31 hands · ~40 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

72 → 15 players · 36 hands · ~41 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 5 players · 45 hands · ~43 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

5 → 1 players · 59 hands · ~43 min

Season 2 · Event 2

Gil Rourke won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 241 rounds · 1,751 hands · 1.8 h live · best of the cast: Auntie Rose, 19th

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 74 players · 31 hands · ~46 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

74 → 15 players · 38 hands · ~45 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 43 hands · ~34 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 59 hands · ~42 min

Season 1 · Event 6

Omar Draper won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 224 rounds · 1,504 hands · 1.4 h live · best of the cast: Auntie Rose, 42nd

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 73 players · 29 hands · ~42 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

73 → 15 players · 33 hands · ~43 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 43 hands · ~40 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 37 hands · ~32 min

Season 1 · Event 4

Hattie Shapiro won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 238 rounds · 1,572 hands · 2.1 h live · best of the cast: The Machine, 16th

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 75 players · 31 hands · ~43 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

75 → 15 players · 34 hands · ~43 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 48 hands · ~41 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 52 hands · ~40 min

Season 1 · Event 2

Dmitri Imani won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 209 rounds · 1,338 hands · 1 h live · best of the cast: The Professor, 30th

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 76 players · 31 hands · ~45 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

76 → 15 players · 30 hands · ~41 min

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 6 players · 41 hands · ~40 min

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

6 → 1 players · 55 hands · ~46 min

Season 1 · Event 1

Hattie Ueda won it, and a seat at the final table. 100 players · 250 rounds · 1,207 hands · 2 h live · best of the cast: Auntie Rose, 17th

Episode 1

Day One, Part 1

100 → 82 players · 31 hands · ~43 min

Episode 2

Day One, Part 2

82 → 15 players · 34 hands · ~45 min

awaiting release

Episode 3

The Play-Down

15 → 5 players · 50 hands · ~41 min

awaiting release

Episode 4 · uncut

The Final Table

5 → 1 players · 77 hands · ~55 min

How it is played, and how you see it

The tournament is played live, all of it, every table in lockstep: you can watch the rail as it happens, with featured hands cut a few minutes behind the room. Every table moves in lockstep: one hand per table per round, so the blinds rise on the same hand for the whole room. Then the studio cuts it into a series the way the televised main events are cut: Day One, from the first hand to the money bubble; the play-down, in the money to the final table; and the final table, every hand, in order, uncut, however long it takes. A pro's hand is shown from inside that pro's head. Everything else is the table cut: every card up, every mind in the order it spoke. Nothing is predicted and nothing is staged; it is post-production of something that already happened.

The latest event

The pros

The money

Every shuffle is provable

The seating draw, every table break, every balancing move and every deck in the tournament derive from one master seed. Its hash was fixed before the first hand; the seed is revealed after the last. Re-derive any hand and you get the same cards.

commitment e3079eea626a796e653b6a9119f3fb0492c56a992ea43e3d731dca8b852c0e64
seed 919134caa7c0784b428bb6b85971bb6c

The room

A field player is a set of hand matrices written from a style: how tight, how aggressive, how sticky, and whether they know what to do with a short stack. The room is filled on purpose the way a real one fills itself: mostly weak, a few strong. Every entrant has a name, and is the same person in every replay.

The structure

10,000 chips to start, 200 big blinds deep. A level lasts 12 rounds. No antes, no rebuys, no re-entry: a bust is final. The top 15% are paid. Tables break as the field shrinks and balance to within one player; when the field fits on one table, everyone redraws for a seat.