The 67 players competing in Saturday's U.S. Army hold 'em tournament at the Rock Island Arsenal military base faced two extra distractions. One of them was my fault.

Not my doing was the hubbub over Northern Iowa's shocking defeat of top-ranked Kansas, playing out on eight TVs in the Arsenal Club bar next to the tournament area.

Because the base is on a Mississippi River island next to Davenport, Iowa's second-largest city, some players beamed with pride at the upset. Others fretted because they had Kansas going deep on their NCAA bracket sheets.

Meanwhile, despite everything going on, I conducted a little poll of the crowd to learn which pros they want in the elite field for this year's restored Tournament of Champions at the World Series of Poker.

The new TOC wrinkle is that 20 of the 27 seats in the million-dollar tournament this summer will be decided by online votes cast at wsop.com by the public. To be eligible, a player must have won at least one WSOP bracelet.

When I wasn't busy directing the tournament, I cornered players and asked them to pick five favorites from a list of the top 50 in early online balloting.

Three clear choices emerged in my poll: Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey.

"Daniel does so much for the game of poker," said Mike R. of Rock Island, Ill., in his support for "Kid Poker," who has four bracelets. Bob R. of Davenport agreed: "He's one of my favorites. I like his style, which I've tried to emulate with little success."

Brunson, who at age 76 has 10 bracelets, stirred the poll's simplest but most telling responses. "Doyle is a legend," said Todd F. "He's the Grandfather of Poker," said Ray H. of Kewanee, Ill.

Ivey, who won his sixth and seventh bracelets last year, "plays really well but sometimes seems unsure of himself," said Teresa J. of Davenport. Mark W. of Silvis, Ill., voted for Ivey "because I've heard his name before."

Phil Hellmuth, the all-time leader with 11 WSOP wins, didn't fare as well. "He's not in my top five," said Jon N. of Moline, Ill., who instead cast the lone vote for Johnny Chan, like Brunson a 10-time bracelet winner. "I like the way Chan plays," he said.

Indeed, Sam Farha tied Hellmuth in the poll. "Phil's too much of a brat sometimes," said Todd F., but Bob R. thought it was "kind of fun to watch the way he rags on people."

Other pros with well-documented table attitudes suffered in the poll. Scotty Nguyen and Jamie Gold received just one vote, Freddy Deeb and Men Nguyen none.

Also going unloved was the quiet Erik Seidel, who has eight bracelets. He got one vote, but that was one more than the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Layne Flack and John Juanda.

Mona W. of Davenport cast the sole vote for Eli Elezra. "He always beats me online, and I try so hard against him."

Playfully, Amy R. of LeClaire, Iowa, chose Erick Lindgren "because he's a hottie." Ten minutes later, she switched to Antonio Esfandiari. "I met him at the last WSOP. He's a good guy."

Not to be outdone, Amy's husband Tom cast a write-in vote for Vanessa Rousso "because she's a hottie." Then he noticed no one had voted for Jeffrey Lisandro, winner of three bracelets in stud games last year and WSOP 2009 player of the year. "Really? No votes? He needs to get in."

Meanwhile, with the basketball game and voting done, the Army tournament was marching to an exciting finish.

Late in the event, Brett Coplea of Bettendorf survived an all-in pre-flop with pocket sevens against his opponent's pocket queens. The eight of hearts on the turn gave Coplea a 10-high straight flush.

That big pot propelled him to the final table, where the "crazy eights" struck again. Holding A-8, he hit a river eight to come from behind in a huge all-in pot and stay alive, then spiked a set of eights to hopelessly cripple runner-up Jack Hoelscher of Davenport.

One hand later, Coplea had the tallest trophy and a $500 gift card. The six other final-table prize winners were, in order, Jon Nelson, Moline; Shawn Jensen, Moline; John Gockel, Bettendorf; Rick Kadlec, Bettendorf; Troy Peters, Moline, and Marco Andrade, Davenport.

E-mail your poker questions and comments to [email protected] for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit www.creators.com or www.luckydogpoker.com.