WSOP Europe dumps H.O.R.S.E.

It is a shame to see the way that Harrah's Entertainment constantly disses fixed limit poker. The latest slap is the elimination of the HORSE event from the World Series of Poker Europe.

Since at least 2006, HORSE has been shown to be the ultimate test of poker skill. While one unknown player after another has combined skill with a lot of luck to win the Main Event $10K No Limit Hold'Em tournament, the $50K HORSE event has been won by some outstanding players:

2006 Chip Reese
2007 Freddy Deeb
2008 Scotty Nguyen
2009 David Bach

Granted David Bach is not as well known as Reese, Deeb and Nguyen, but Bach is an excellent player who has many prior WSOP cashes to his name.

Besides, let's look at the entire final table. I haven't run the numbers on 2009 and 2006, but here are the players that were at the final table of the 50K HORSE event in 2007 and 2008:
Barry Greenstein (in both 2007 and 2008) holder of 3 WSOP bracelets
Doyle Brunson 10 bracelets
T J Cloutier 6 bracelets
Phil Ivey 5 bracelets
Scotty Nguyen 5 bracelets
Huck Seed 4 bracelets
Lyle Berman 3 bracelets
Chip Reese 3 bracelets
Dewey Tomko 3 bracelets
Freddy Deeb 2 bracelets
Thor Hansen 2 bracelets
David Singer 1 bracelet
Erick Lindgren 1 bracelet
Jim Bechtel 1 bracelet
Kenny Tran 1 bracelet
Robert Williamson 1 bracelets

Or in other words, among the 17 people at those two final tables, every one of them already had at least one bracelet and collectively they had among them 51 bracelets. I tabulated that last year, so in fact the numbers may have gone up a little, as I think Ivey, Greenstein and Lindgren have each won an additional bracelet since then.

Anyway, the upshot is that the HORSE event is plainly the true test of skill at the WSOP. As it also was in the WSOPE. But not anymore. Because Harah's has dropped the event. Again.

WSOP Time!

Haven't updated the old blog in quite a while, but the WSOP is on and there are 5 Limit Hold'em events! Here's the line-up:

Event 14 - Fri, Jun 5th 5:00 PM - Limit Hold'em 6-Handed - $2,500 updates
Event 26 - Fri, Jun 12th 12:00 PM - Limit Hold’em - $1,500
Event 33 - Mon, Jun 15th 5:00 PM - World Championship Limit Hold'em - $10,000
Event 38 - Fri, Jun 19th 12:00 PM - Limit Hold’em - $2,000
Event 50 - Fri, Jun 26th 5:00 PM - Limit Hold’em Shootout - $1,500

Event 14 is underway - actually the final table of it is playing down right now. Daniel Negreanu is still in it with only four remaining. If Negreanu should take it down, then that will be his third bracelet in LHE, putting him in leagues with Phil Hellmuth only. Otherwise he will have to settle for keeping company with Tony Ma, David Chiu, Erik Seidel, and Jay Heimowitz, who all, like Daniel, have two LHE bracelets.

I think this is the first ever 6-handed LHE tournament in the WSOP. It is a format that has gained a huge following on the internet and its nice to see that the situation is not lost on the WSOP organizers.

Nice to also see that the organizers have scheduled it so that there is a Limit HE event every Friday in June, making it perhaps a bit easier to organize around the schedule - at least for the likes of the Mayor.