Welcome back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and the 2013 World Series of Poker for Day 1 of Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.
One of only two H.O.R.S.E events on the schedule - with the first seeing Tom Schneider defeat Owais Ahmed heads-up for the bracelet and $258,960 first prize - this $5,000 buy-in version can technically be deemed the H.O.R.S.E Championship although the buy-in has been halved for this year.
In 2012 David "Bakes" Baker trumped a 178-player field to collect his second career WSOP bracelet and $451,779 first prize after defeating John Monnette heads up. Ylon Schwartz captured the smaller $1,500 buy-in that year when he defeated last night's Event 23 Champion David Chiu heads up. The above mentioned players, as well as the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and Matt Waxman will all likely take a seat in an attempt to better last year's final table placings.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand throughout today, and until a winner is crowned, providing all the continuos live updates of every Omaha scoop, double bet and rolled down trips. Stay tuned right here as we write the path of the next WSOP gold bracelet winner!
Since the start of the tournament Table 379 has been clouded in controversy due to two players speaking in Russian; with one of those being Andrey Zaichenko.
Although both Zaichenko and his friend were cooperating with the WSOP rules of no speaking in a foreign tongue while a hand is being played, they both were having conversations after every hand in Russian.
A few of the players eventually called the Tournament Director over stating that they didn't think it was fair because they could be chatting about information of other players or if they had a flush draw in a particular hand. The unknown Russian stated that if they were talking about the table, what is the difference between standing up in-between hands to chat or chatting across the table.
Tournament Director Troy Iverson informed the players that there was nothing wrong with what they were doing because it is virtually the same as an English-speaking player whispering to another tablemate or texting them once the hand is over. And since the WSOP can't prevent players from texting or talking, speaking in Russian when not in hands is allowed.
Today, Friedman is in pursuit of his second gold bracelet, but even more exciting for him is that he's sharing the experience with his father, Marc Friedman. Last night Marc was able to win a satellite into today's tournament, and while the two aren't seated anywhere near one another, they're not far from each other's thoughts.
Catching the action on fifth street we found one player betting out only to have Mike Gorodinsky raise to 1,200. Bob Lauria made the call, as did the original bettor before Gorodinsky's bet on sixth was called round. On seventh, Gorodinsky bet out 600 and only Lauria made the call.
Gorodinsky: / /
Lauria: / /
Opponent: / /
Gorodinsky tabled his for trips while Lauria flashed his for a lesser two-pair.
The Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. has seen 261 players form a $1,226,700 prizepool with the top 32 players guaranteed a $8,525 payout with the final table payouts as follows.
Every time we checked in with Baker his stack only seemed to dwindle. The next thing we know, he was gone. We didn't catch his elimination hand, and when we asked Scott Clements if he knew what happened he indicated it was fairly uneventful.
"He ran bad and busted early," Clements said sympathetically. "He basically lost every hand he player, and it's not the easiest table."
Indeed, in addition to Clements, the table included Greg Mueller and Mark Gregorich. Oh, and Chad Brown sat down to replace the departed Bakes.
Meanwhile, Matt Glantz was also eliminated from the tournament.
"Hey PokerNews. Ivey and Seiver are all in." stated Allen Kessler towards the PokerNews blogging desk.
Rushing over to the table to see what was happening, we found Ivey and Seiver all in for their last few thousand.
Ivey started with / while Seiver had a pair of queens. The opponent that had them both covered had a dominating / .
Seiver mucked his hand knowing he was drawing dead on seventh while Ivey's opponent flipped over an ace to leave Ivey drawing to a seven or four. Unfortunately for Ivey he caught the and was headed to the rail alongside Seiver.
One of the summer’s most prestigious tournament—Event #29 $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.—took place at the 2013 World Series of Poker today, and 261 of the game’s best turned out to create a prize pool of $1,226,700. That will be distributed to the top 32 players, with $318,955 reserved for first. The man best positioned to capture that cash, along with a gold bracelet, is Chris Klodnicki, who led the surviving 151 players with 65,100 in chips. Not far behind with 62,600 is Tom Schneider, who won his third gold bracelet just last week.
This was a limit event, so action wasn’t as intense as it is in either no-limit hold’em or pot-limit Omaha. Still, the tournament saw its fair share of eliminations including Yuval Bronshtein, Jason Mercier, Scotty Nguyem, John Hennigan, Mike Wattel, Eric Crain, Frank Kassela, Shannon Shorr, Stephen Chidwick, Scott Seiver, Dan Shak, defending champ David “Bakes” Baker and the legendary Phil Ivey.
Ivey was crippled in Level 7 in a big hand against David Williams, who seemed to be among the chip leaders most of the day. It happened in Stud with the following cards showing:
Phil Ivey: / /
David Singer: / Fold
David Williams: / /
Ivey had the bring in with the . Singer completed with the , Williams called and Ivey came along to fourth. It appeared Singer, who caught an ace, led out and received calls from both Williams and Ivey. Singer then checked fifth, Williams bet and only Ivey called. Ivey then called a bet on sixth before folding to one on seventh. Ivey left himself with just 1,300 while Williams chipped up to 57,500. Not long after, Ivey would hit the rail in the same hand as Seiver.
While many fell, there are still plenty of stars in the field including the 2011 champ Fabrice Soulier (61,100); bracelet winner Adam Friedman (61,000); former November Niner Eric Buchman (50,100); South American sensation Nacho Barbero (48,000); current Player of the Year leader Daniel Negreanu (45,000); eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel (41,100); Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (29,500); thirteen-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (29,500); and Dan Kelly (24,000), who has already cashed seven times at the 2013 WSOP!
Day 2 is set to kick off at 14:00 PST in the Tan Section of the Amazon Room. Join us then as we look to make the money on our way down to the final table. Until then, check out the interview Sarah Grant did with Justin "Boosted J" Smith during a break in today's H.O.R.S.E. event.