Defending Champion Hennigan Among Big Stacks in Event #29: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Day 1 of Event #29: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship has wrapped up with a total of 161 entries on the opening day of the event and the field has been cut in nearly half with 83 players remaining. Last year's number of 166 entries has almost been reached and may still be surpassed as late registration remains open until the start of Day 2 on Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 at 2 p.m. local time.
All those that jump in at the last minute will receive 60,000 in chips with upcoming limits of 4,000-8,000. More than four times as many chips belong to Daniel Ospina (255,000), Colombia's first-ever bracelet winner, who topped the counts at the end of the night.
Ospina is closely followed by Randy Ohel (253,000), Brian Hastings (250,500), Scott Clements (244,500), Eric Kurtzman (217,000), David "ODB" Baker (211,000) and Marco Johnson (211,000).
Defending champion John Hennigan sat down mid-way through the day right next to his predecessor, 2017 event winner David Bach. While Hennigan had a very successful day and bagged up a big stack for Day 2 with 235,500, Bach was among the many well-known players to hit the rail throughout 10 levels of 60 minutes each.
Other notables that advanced include Greg Mueller (193,000), Mike Sexton (186,500), Cary Katz (184,500), Daniel Negreanu (178,500),Jen Harman (157,500), Freddy Deeb (109,500), Brian Rast (101,500), Anthony Zinno (54,000) and Phil Ivey (50,000).
Ospina emerged as one of the big stacks in the last two levels of the day after he won a multi-way pot in Omaha Hi-Lo when he flopped the nut straight and rivered the nut flush against an opponent with the nut straight and second nut flush. For Hastings, things looked dire early on when he was down to just a few big bets, however, the four-time WSOP bracelet winner managed to spin that into the third-biggest stack when it came to bagging and tagging.
Some of those that fell on Day 1 and won't return for another shot at a coveted bracelet in this event are Frankie O'Dell, David Benyamine, Mike Wattel, Adam Friedman, John Monnette, 2018 finalist David "Bakes" Baker, Todd Brunson, Benny Glaser, Frank Kassela, Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Layne Flack and Brock Parker to name just a few.
Flack was ousted when he paired up twice in a Razz hand while Anson Tsang got his short stack in with pocket sixes in a Hold'em hand only to see Greg Mueller turn over pocket aces. James Obst fell in a three-way pot in Omaha Hi-Lo when he could not beat the top two pair of Cary Katz nor the nut low of Steven Loube.
The late entries of Alex Foxen, Shannon Shorr, Maria Ho and Calvin Anderson were also not met by success and they departed before the final level of the night.
All those that bagged up will return to the Amazon Tan section after a good night's sleep to play seven levels of 90 minutes and the money bubble is expected to burst late on Day 2. Another two tournament days remain after that to play down to a champion, and the PokerNews team will be on the floor to report all the action.
for two pair to force out Steven Loube. Once the game type changed, Makarov was all in again in Om aha Hi-Lo with the turn showing 
river, Katz bet and Loube folded.
, which Katz had beat with 
for a full house. The roller coaster ride for Katz continues once more, as he went from short stack to big stack again with less than half an hour to play.
turn and Tsang rolled over 
. Mueller had that dominated with 
and the river came the 
.
, Nicholas Seiken check-raised into a bet by Andrey Zaichenko and a call by Frankie O'Dell. Both opponents called to see the 
for a flush and an eight-seven low. Zaichenko shrugged, laughed and mucked 
/ 
/ 
/ 
for ace-high and no low. Brunson had 
for a set of jacks and scooped a nice pot.
