For those who thought that the major money would all be seen in the Main Event of the 2008 WSOP, they were proven wrong in a big way with the World Championship H.O.R.S.E tournament.
That’s because 148 players paid the mind-boggling $50,000 buy-in to make the prize pool worth $7,104,000. And many of those involved were among the top names in poker since this event, consisting of multiple card games, often defines the champ of champs.
People like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Gus Hanson were all trying to knock off the defending champion Freddy Deeb.
Speaking of getting knocked out of the tournament, Phil Hellmuth and David Williams were a couple of the unlucky ones to do so. Here’s how the leaderboards shook out after the first day:
Rank/Player/Chips
1. James Mackey 214,000
2. Pat Pezzin 200,400
3. Joe Cassidy 198,700
4. Ralph Perry 195,300
5. Stephen Wolff 192,700
6. Fu Wong 188,100
7. Douglas Ganger 183,200
8. Bill Chen 182,500
The field finally started getting trimmed down on the second day as Allen Kessler, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Tony G, and defending champ Freddy Deeb were all sent to the rail. In all, just 67 people would be coming back for day 3 and here is how the leaderboard looked after day 2:
1. Lyle Berman 507,000
2. Patrick Bueno 485,500
3. Barry Greenstein 473,000
4. Minh Ly 451,000
5. Chris Reslock 435,500
6. Joseph Michael 401,000
7. Erick Lindgren 397,500
8. Justin Bonomo 384,000
9. Daniel Negreanu 374,500
10. Doyle Brunson 366,000
The third day of the H.O.R.S.E. tournament wouldn’t go so well for Tom Dwan, Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, and Layne Flack. They would all be bounced from the tournament. 24 players were fortunate enough to make it to the last three tables and here’s the most fortunate of the group:
1. Michael DeMichele 1,351,000
2. Barry Greenstein 1,311,000
3. Daniel Negreanu 1,226,000
4. Ralph Perry 1,043,000
5. Scotty Nguyen 1,033,000
6. Lyle Berman 939,000
7. Patrick Bueno 806,000
8. David Bach 801,000
9. Doyle Brunson 777,000
10. Michael Mizrachi 701,000
Just 16 players needed to bust out for the final table to be complete and among these bust outs were Doyle Brunson, Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey. By the time everything was said and done, here’s how the final table looked:
Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Matt Glantz 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren 3,680,000
Patrick Bueno had the shortest stack coming into the final table and it wouldn’t go very far for him. He was knocked out in Razz by Erick Lindgren. Huck Seed’s diminishing stack doomed him to 7th place after he was eliminated by Michael DeMichele in Stud 8’s or Better.
Barry Greenstein tasted defeat when his two-pair was outdone by Scotty Nguyen’s set of 7’s. Lyle Berman would be next to go in 5th place as the World Poker Tour founder made a strong showing at this event.
4th place would go to Matthew Glantz when Nguyen scooped the pot against him in Omaha 8’s or Better. Erick Lindgren’s up and down final table run came to a screeching halt after he could get nothing against Nguyen’s 9 pair in Stud.
That left Scotty and DeMichele to battle it out for top prize. Nguyen finished Michael off rather quickly in Limit Hold’em with a pair of aces and the game was over.
Nguyen had earned himself a fifth bracelet and nearly $2 million to go along with it. Here’s how the rest of the cashers fared.
Rank/Player/Money
1. Scotty Nguyen $1,989,120
2. Mike DeMichele $1,243,200
3. Erick Lindgren $781,440
4. Matt Glantz $568,320
5. Lyle Berman $444,000
6. Barry Greenstein $355,200
7. Huck Seed $284,160
8. Patrick Bueno $230,880
9. Ralph Perry $177,600
10. Raymond Davis $177,600
11. David Bach $159,840
12. Phil Ivey $159,840
13. Daniel Negreanu $142,080
14. Joseph (Joey) Michael $142,080
15. Andrew Bloch $124,320
16. Doyle Brunson $124,320