WSOP Event #30: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship (LIve Updates)

Day 3

David Bach Rides to Victory On A HORSE

02:39 PST, 18th June 2017

David Bach thanked God, literally, when he came through the slaughter in first place. Eric Rodawig, gave a good fight, going into heads up with a slight lead of 4,175,000 over Bach’s 3,325,000.

After roughly an hour of heads up play, with the betting limits now at 150,000-300,000 and the game Omaha hi/lo Bach raised his button with Ah-Jx-9h-8x and was called by Rodawig.

Rodawig donk-bet the Qc-Kx-Ac flop and Bach raised to 300,000. Rodawig reraised another 95,000 and Bach called.

Rodawig showed Jc-9c-9x-3x meaning neither of them could make a legitimate low hand, but a club would let Rodawig scoop the pot. Unfortunately the turn and river were two red cards: the 5h and 7d, putting Rodawig out on his ear and giving Bach his third bracelet.

The road to that final victory was pretty hard going, but Bach is not exactly an easy target on the tables. He has over $4million in lifetime tourney cashes and clearly knows his way around a couple of poker variants. “I pride myself on being able to play with anybody,” he told the cameras as he came off the table.

I think he may well have just proved it with that final table.

Down to Heads Up

01:44 PST, 18th June 2017

Jerry Wong was the first person to do the walk of shame out of the Thunderdome, when a few hands after Zinno’s elimination he found himself all in against Mercier and Don Zewin. His king-high did not beat the two pair over two pair which game Zewin the hand. Wong gets first $36,218 for his eighth place finish.

The game had switched to hold’em and the bets to 40,000-80,000 when Yuebin Guo went out in 7th for $46,687 with pocket eights racing pocket nines pre-flop. 

Negreanu followed in the next blind level with the game switched to Omaha hi/lo. Once again, DNeg was frustrated at the last hurdle in his bracelet hunt. 

The $61,667 he gets for 6th will be poor comfort.

There was no mercy for Jason Mercier. The defending champ took fifth for $83,415 in the following hand:

With the betting limits at 100,000-200,000 Mercier was dealt A-T / K at razz. He had just 18,000 in this stack, having been crippled by the last few hands, and was forced to bring-in for the lot. Andrew Brown isolated by completing to 100,000 and got no calls.

The final hands were:

Mercier: A-T-Q / K-8-K-7

Brown: A-6-3 / 7-T-J-8

Razz is a brutal game, and claimed Mercier’s back-to-back hopes.

Heads up play was reached after almost ten hours of play with Andrew Brown busting for $115,485 in fourth and Don Zewin, kicking himself for over playing A-K-Q-7 in an Omaha hi/lo hand. He lot his shot at the title but collected $163,557.

Official Final Table Lineup

Anthony Zinno Out in Ninth, Final Table Is Official

18:18 PST, 17th June 2017

With the betting limits now up to 30,000-60,000, Anthony Zinno played the following razz hand.

Completing his Jc-4c / Jd Zinno was raised by Eric Rodawig to 60,000 who was showing an ace. Rodawig called and his board ran out Jc-4c-Th / Jd-7s-2s-5h for just a pair of jacks against Rodawig’s Ac-8s-6c / Ah-9c-3c-2h

Zinno took $28,808 for his ninth place finish and the official WSOP HORSE Championship table has now been convened.

Going into the FT there is a clear split between the top four – Eric Rodawig (1,599,000), Don Zewin (1,485,000), Jason Mercier (1,448,000) and Daniel Negreanu (1,412,000) – and the other four players who consist of uber-short stacks Yuebin Guo (97,000), Andrew Brown (224,000)  and Jerry Wong (365,000) with two, four and six big bets respectively and the mommy bear stack right in the middle: David Bach with 872,000 in chips or about 15 big bets.

Six Down, One to Go Till the Final Table

17:16 PST, 17th June 2017

Over the course of the next few hours players were picked off one by one as they tried to make it to the official final table of eight players (or even the televised FT of nine).

In the end it was Richard Chase who went out in 10th for $28,808 following the eliminations of: Philip Wallace (15th -$16,951), Mark Gregorich (14th - $19,694), Mack Lee (13th - $19,694), Scott Bohlman (12th - $23,508) and Brian Rast (11th - $23,508).

Chase got his stack in on fifth street during a hand of stud with blinds at 25,000-50,000. He showed Qd-4d / Jc-4c-9d.

Richard Bach called with the 8h-5h / Th-6h-8s for a flush draw, inside straight draw and a pair of eights. He picked up the 7d face up and Ah in the hole to make his flush while chase caught a Td and 3s for just a pair of fours.

The unofficial final table was formed and the bubble for the real FT begins. 

Play Begins on Day Three

14:03 PST, 17th June 2017

Negreanu leads the final two tables of this HORSE Championship going into day 3 with 1,213,000. He is the only player over 1 million and with just 15 people, sitting behind much smaller stacks, he must be feeling today is his day. 

So far this series he has been so close to a bracelet so many times, finishing in the top three twice and taking fifteenth in another tourney. He has got to be feeling the frustration of these near misses now.

And even with the chip lead today will not be an easy ride for him, or anyone else. It is a tough field out there and every player in a mixed game event will have games that they excel at and other’s that they absolutely do not.

Play will begin with a round of hold’em and the betting limits will be 15,000-30,000 with 8,000-15,000 blinds for the flop games and bring-in/antes of 5,000/3,000 for stud.

Blinds under the system used by the WSOP will remain at 60 minute per level but will only go up every other level, making for two hour levels in practice. That should make for a nice slow skill game.

For those who want a catch up on yesterday you can read our reports below, or just watch the chip leaders take on it:

Day 2

Day 2 Ends With DNegs Up Top

02:08 PST, 17th June 2017

After the bubble broke play continued for another eight eliminations. Among these players who turned in their chips for cash included: Esther Taylor-Brady (18th - $15,000), Tom McCormick (17th - $15,000) and the last bust of the day: Brandon Shack-Harris (16th - $16,951).

On the final stretch though, there might as well have been no one but Negreanu as he plowed through hand after hand collecting chips from table mates Antony Zinno (who ended the day with 283,000), Brian Rast (553,000) and Jerry Wong (457,000).

In the end Daniel Negreanu lead the field with 1,213,000 a good 450k more than Scott Bohlman who has the second largest stack of 756,000. Behind them in third is Don Zewin with 704,000.

Jason Mercier is still in the running with 541,000 and the short stack – the only player below 200k – is Mark Gregorich with 137,000.

Tomorrow play will begin at 2 PM local time, with betting limits at 15,000-30,000 with blinds of 8,000-15,000 for the flop games and ante/bring-ins of 3,000/5,000 for stud.

If you’re interested in one of the guys who decides things like blind levels, when the tournament breaks etc… at the WSOP there was an inteview done recently with Jack Effel from Caesar’s Entertainment which you can watch below.

End-of-Day 2 Chip Counts

Bubble Boy Crowned, Min-Cash Next Hand

20:29 PST, 16th June 2017

After players getting over excited while playing blind and then looking at their cards, a couple of breaks and some hand-for-hand play the bubble finally broke.

The game was Omaha hi/lo and the blinds were at 4,000- 8,000 when Owais Ahmed looked down at Ac-Js-6s-5c and put his 12,000 chip stack in. David Bach isolated from the button and everyone else folded.

Bach tabled As-Td-4d-2s. There was no legal low on the board of 9-9-3-3-4 rainbow which rolled out so Bach’s pair of fours played and Ahmed became this tournament’s bubble boy.

The very next hand, Andrey Zhigalov picked up Ad-2c-7h-6c and with his stack of 26,000 opened the pot to 16,000.

Yuebin Guo three bet with Ac-8c-3c-2h Zhigalov got his stack in. The board here was unclear, but reports have Guo hitting two pair on the river. To scoop the pot without a low.

Negreanu and Hellmuth Clash As Players Fall

20:15 PST, 16th June 2017

With a short stack and Daniel Negreanu moved to the spot on his direct left, Phil Hellmuth was getting the rough end of the pineapple today. He soldiered on as good naturedly as the Poker Brat could but couldn’t catch the break he needed to get back in the game running his eight-low into Daniel’s six at razz and never catching that double up he needed.

Eventually was given the coup de grace and was able to leave to go buy into the Omaha 8-or-better tournament playing across the room.

A few hours later, as the bubble approaches players like Mike Sexton (who busted out when his 8-high straight draw failed to come in during a stud hi/lo hand), Randy Ohel, Howard Lederer, David “ODB” Baker, Maria Ho and Eric Wasserman joined him in the darkness beyond the rail.

John Racener Races Out

14:05 PST, 16th June 2017

Playing hold’em with betting limits still at 5,000-10,000. Brian Rast raised to 10,000 from middle position and was raised by Racener in the small-blind. Rast four-bet and Racener got his last 3,000 in on top of that.

Rast turned the Ah-2h up but was in bad shape against Racener’s pocket aces. The flop came down 5-3-A and Racener felt confident of his survival. Just the wheel draw could send him to the rail.

So the poker God’s gave him the 4d on the turn and Racener became the first casualty of the day.

Day 2 Begins With Mercier In The Hunt For A Back-To-Back

14:05 PST, 16th June 2017

57 players came back through the doors of the Rio to grapple in five different poker variants for a shot at the bracelet.

Of the 57 Jason Mercier had the most to prove having both the chip lead and having won this event last year. Plenty of big names have already bitten the dust but there’s plenty more to go at these tables.

Three generations of Phil Hellmuths – Phil classic, Phil Junior (33,500), and Phill III – descended on the Amazon room today. The Poker Brat’s father and his son were here to cheer the 14 time bracelet winner on to number 15. What’s more, they brought cookies.

Daniel Negreanu joined the field yesterday after not running as deep as he’d like in the triple-draw event, and today he’s back with 61,500.

Play begins with betting limits of 5,000-10,000 which means blinds of 2,500-5,000 for the flop games and ante/bring-in of 1,000/2,000 for the stud variants.

Shuffle up and deal!

Day 1

Day 1 HORSE Attracts 150 Players, Mercier At The Top

03:01 PST, 16th June 2016

Day one of the $10,000 HORSE Championship closed out with 150 players bought in. The eight levels of late registration meant big names were showing up well into the tournament. When you play all night, you occasionally oversleep.

One the latest to the party was last year’s winner of the HORSE championship: Jason Mercier. That didn’t stop him from rolling his 50,000 chip starting stack into the biggest in the field by close of play. He finished up with 385,500 chip in front of him, and must have that back-to-back feeling going in the pit of his stomach.

He leads the 57 players left in the tournament with Mack Lee following up with 347,500 and David Bach in third with 278,500. Way at the back of the running is the smallest stack, bagged by Scott Mauer who has just 12,500 to play with tomorrow.

Big Names Remain

In between is a rogues gallery of big names: Randy Ohel with 173,000 chips, Brandon Shack-Harris with 171,500 chips, Howard Lederer with 149,500 chips, Maria Ho with 90,000 chips, Mike Sexton with 74,000 chips, Daniel Negreanu with 61,500 chips, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with 47,000 chips, and Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth with just 33,500 in chips.

The 150 buy-ins added up to a $1,450,000 once the vig was skimmed off by the Rio, making for a first prize of $383,208; down significantly on last year’s $422,874. The rest of that $1,450,000 will be split between the other players down to 23rd place with 24th bubbling out with nothing.

But Not All Of Them

Plenty of big names have already collected their payouts of sweet Fanny Adams. So far these include: Jennifer Harman, Razz Champ James Obst, Sorel Mizzi, Todd Brunson, Mike Leah, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Eli Elezra.

Better luck next time. If the fields stay this strong they’re gonna need it.

Put on your leather chaps and polish your stirrups, its HORSE time at the WSOP. Until the player’s championship became an eight game mix it was a HORSE tournament. Now the $10k HORSE event is the most prestigious of the limit games on the schedule.

For the uninitiated, HORSE is an acronym made up of each of the games played, and squeezed a little to fit the basketball game. It is a five game mix of limit Hold’em, Omaha hi/lo eights or better, Razz, seven card Stud and seven card stud hi/lo Eights or better. The players will play one round of each game with limits going up every hour.

Favoring mathematical precision and flexibility this might be one to steer clear of if you came to the game for the succession of coin flips that is tournament no-limit hold’em.

Everyone will start day one with 50,000 in chips with betting limits of 500-1,000 and play for eight levels before finishing up day one.

Jason Mercier is the current reigning champion in this event after taking down a tough final table for $422,874; and giving Vanessa Selbst a serious sweat on their bet that he could win three bracelets in a year. Selbst gave odds of 170-1 on $10,000. 

This was bracelet number two for Mercier that year. This year the smaller $1,500 HORSE event played out earlier this week with David Singer taking it down for $203,709.

For a quick strategy refresher you could do worse than listen to $50,000 HORSE champion Chip Reese on how he played that event. And Daniel Negreanu has been vlogging short strategy guides for various non-hold’em games. That are worth a watch.