In 2004 Scott Fischman won the WSOP’s H.O.R.S.E. event. The buy-in was $2000 and the grand prize was $100,200. At the 2006 WSOP the buy-in was bumped all the way up to $50,000. David “Chip” Reese walked away with the gold bracelet that year along with a payout of $1,784,640. With the giant buy-in, a whopping payout and the mystique surrounding this event, 2007 was guaranteed not to disappoint.

Before we dive into our review of this year’s event, some of you may not know exactly what H.O.R.S.E. is. It is basically a form of poker where play cycles through rounds of different variations. The H is for (Texas) Hold ‘em. O stands for Omaha (8 or Better), R is for Razz, S is Seven Card Stud and E is for Seven Card Stud Eight or Better. Now that you know what H.O.R.S.E. is, we can explain what went down at this year’s WSOP.

With a buy-in of $50K, not everyone can afford to play in this five-day event. 2006 had 143 participants and as predicted 2007’s number grew. It wasn’t very much though, as the total this year was only 148. In that field were some of the toughest professional players in the world. Just to name a few, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Todd & Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, woman poker pro Annie Duke, Howard Lederer and many many more.

Day one had some notable eliminations. Jeff Lisandro, who has been fairing well overall at this year’s WSOP, busted out along with David “The Dragon” Phan, Josh Arieh, Andy Black, Lyle Berman, Gus Hansen, Minh Ly, and Chau Giang. The chip leaders at the end of Day one included Eli Elezra, Bruno Fitoussi, David Oppenheim, Gavin Smith and Barry Greenstein.

Day two witnessed some more top guns fall short. Mike Sexton, the 2006 World Series Of Poker Tournament of Champions victor, was eliminated along with Tony G, Jen Harman, John D’Agostino, John Phan, Hassan Habib, Robert Williamson III, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Ted Forrest, Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier, Todd Brunson, Patrik Antonius, “The Professor” Howard Lederer, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Kristy Gazes, Allen Kessler and Gavin Smith. By the end of Day two, only 52 players remained and John Hanson was the chip leader.

Day three would whittle away to only 21 players. Among the top pros to be defeated were Cyndy Violette, David Sklansky, defending champ Chip Reese, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, David Oppenheim, Erick Lindgren, Robert Mizrachi, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Eli Elezra, Tuan Le, Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Toto Leonidas and the final woman poker player Isabelle Mercier.

The ESPN TV crew showed up for Day three and some of the interesting match-ups you might see from that day include John Juanda busting David Williams, Daniel Negreanu busting both Scotty Nguyen and David Oppenheim, Erik Seidel vs Dewey Tomko, Bruno Fitoussi putting Phil Hellmuth on tilt and Barry Greenstein eliminating Huck Seed.

Entering Day four, Amnon Filippi was the chip leader and Gabe Kaplan (yes that one) managed to make it into the top ten chip stacks. The goal for Day four was to get down to a final table of eight. ESPN had all the players mic’d and prepped for camera and the first elimination of the day was none other than Daniel Negreanu. Shortly thereafter followed pros Max Pescatori and Justin Bonomo. With just 17 players left the action was slowed to hand-for-hand play as there was just one elimination until the money. Noah Jefferson was the unlucky player on the bubble and the rest of the guys let out a sigh of relief. No matter what, they would walk away with something. Play online poker.

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow survived an all in against Barry Greenstein when they split the pot in Omaha 8 or better, but Matusow would soon after be eliminated. Two bust-outs following “The Mouth” was 2004 Main Event winner “Fossilman” Greg Raymer and then Tim Phan and Stephen Wolff. The final two players to exit on Day four were Dewey Tomko in 10th place and Gabe Kaplan, who made it so close to the final table but was knocked out in 9th place.

The final table going into Day five looked like this:

Seat 1 Kenny Tran Arcadia, CA 2,445,000

Seat 2 David Singer Las Vegas, NV 1,330,000

Seat 3 Bruno Fitoussi Paris, France 895,000

Seat 4 John Hanson New York, NY 1,995,000

Seat 5 Freddy Deeb Las Vegas, NV 3,500,000

Seat 6 Thor Hansen El Segundo, CA 40,000

Seat 7 Amnon Filippi New York, NY 4,015,000

Seat 8 Barry Greenstein Rancho Palos Verde, CA 750,000

When the final table began, there was only 1 minute and 30 seconds left of Seven Card Stud Eight or Better. During that last minute, short-stacked Thor Hansen pushed all in. Thor Hansen’s two pair were defeated by John Hanson’s better two pair and Thor was eliminated on the very first hand at the final table. Thor Hansen took home $188,256 for his eighth place finish. Play $500 match poker bonus.

On the next hand, the game moved to Limit Hold ‘em and Freddy Deeb played the aggressor as he picked up some chips throughout the round. The game continued to change and the blinds kept moving up. Barry Greenstein was the next to fall. After a raise, Barry pushed all in pre-flop and had two callers. Amnon Filippi would eventually bet John Hanson out of the pot and then eliminated Greenstein with three Nines and an Ace kicker. Barry Greenstein took seventh place and was awarded $259,296.

When the game turned to Razz another player was gone. This time the victim was David Singer. He exited in sixth place and took home $337,440 for his efforts. Coincidently, Singer was also eliminated in sixth place at last year’s WSOP $50K H.O.R.S.E. event. An interesting note to go along with this is the fact that he actually made more money with last year’s payout rules. In 2006, he won $411,840.

Just like the variation of poker, the chip lead continued to switch. Limit Hold’em turned to Omaha Eight or Better, which moved to Razz and continued on through the dinner break after hand #113. Coming off the dinner break, Bruno Fitoussi held a large chip lead with 6,935,000 as the next closest person was Freddy Deeb with 3,220,000. On that very first hand (#114) after dinner, Kenny Tran was knocked out in 5th place. Tran won $444,000. Many hands later during a round of Seven Card Stud Eight or Better, Amnon Filippi’s two pair Queens and Sixes fell short against Bruno Fitoussi’s Nine-high Flush. Filippi was eliminated in fourth place and earned $586,080. Download poker wallpapers.

At one point while there were three players left, Fitoussi had a massive chip lead. His 10,805,000 dwarfed both John Hanson’s 2,800,000 and Freddy Deeb’s 1,715,000. But in the end, it would be the experience of Freddy Deeb that prevailed.

Deeb fought back and outlasted the other two players deep into the night. John Hanson succumbed in third place and won $852,480 while Bruno Fitoussi took home $1,278,720 for second place.

The grand prize of $2,276,832 and a WSOP gold bracelet went to the champion Freddy Deeb. The entire final table lasted 14.5 hours and comes in as the fourth-longest recorded final table in WSOP history!

At the post-tournament press conference, Deeb said, “"When I sit down to play, I do not ask anyone what is the game," Deeb said when asked about the mix of poker games in H.O.R.S.E. "I just play whatever the game is dealt….You see what level they are at, and you go a level higher. That's how you win."

Poker News Source: All in Mag