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July 14th 2006
WSOP Update: $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament lives up to high expectations
Event #20, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated event of this year’s WSOP. Featuring a buy-in fives times the size of the championship event and providing the toughest test of player’s ability with five different poker disciplines this, say the players and the pundits, will be the one to watch.
The 2006 H.O.R.S.E tournament has generated so much discussion you would be forgiven for thinking it was the championship event. It has also generated a good deal of prop betting, not least on the number of players that would enter.
The final figure, we can now tell you, was 143. That generated a prize pool of $6.8 million, to be distributed among the top 16-18 finishers, with over $1.7 million heading to the winner, and over $1 million going into the pockets of the runner-up. But while that’s certainly not chump change there is something else on offer, something perhaps even more enticing. Among poker players and writers the feeling is this: that whoever wins the 2006 H.O.R.S.E tournament will be the true poker World Champion.
That’s because H.O.R.S.E is almost certainly the toughest test of a poker player’s ability. Featuring an even mix of Hold’em, Omaha eight or better, Razz, Stud and Stud eight or better, the tournament requires players to be experts at five different games. Played with fixed limits until the final table (which is exclusively no-limit Hold’em) bad beats and river card knock-outs are a far less likely occurrence with far fewer all-ins than in NL Hold’em. The $50,000 buy-in further ensures the tournament is contested by the crème-de-la-crème of poker.
Sure enough when the event kicked off on Thursday the line-up was a who’s who of poker, with tables crammed full of poker superstars. As mentioned, the format of H.O.R.S.E and a deep starting stack of $50,000 meant eliminations on Day One were few and far between and by close of play at 1am only 14 players had been eliminated. This would prove to be a factor in Day Two, with play continuing way past 4am.
Escalating blinds meant Day Two was more exciting than Day One. Knockouts happened thick and fast, and gradually the best of a very good field began to rise to the top.
By the time of writing (4am) the field has narrowed to just 18 players, with Tom Hufnangle out 19th. Jim Betchel, perhaps the least well known of the players on view (despite having won the WSOP main-event in 1993!), is leading the field.
The rest, however, need little introduction. In second place is David Singer, a Stud specialist but a man with over $1.6 million of tournament winnings to his name, mostly in Hold’em.
Third place belongs to 2005 player of the year Gavin Smith. Fourth is Patrik Antonius, the Finnish sensation who burst onto the scenes this year with a number of superb WPT performances including second place (worth over $1 million) in the Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Chip Reese, considered to be the best cash game player in the world, lies fifth, with Full Tilt’s Andy Bloch in sixth. T.J. Cloutier is seventh, with Doyle Brunson in 10th, Barry Greenstein in 12th, Phil Ivey in 16th and Allen Cunningham in 17th. It truly is a Hollywood style line-up.
With 18 still left at 4:30 am it looks like we could see play continue until past sunrise, though as tiredness sets in it is perhaps more likely that the final eliminations may happen more quickly. Play will continue until we are down to the final 9 players.
Watch this space to keep up with the action.
Submitted: 14/07/2006 12:35:47
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