WSOP Glory Awaits at the Finish Line of Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Seven players with a combined 17 World Series of Poker titles between them are all that remain from a field of 185. One more shiny gold bracelet and $422,747 awaits one of them when the final day of Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship gets underway at 4 p.m. local time.
This prestigious event, combining five poker variants and forcing players to utilize every facet of their knowledge and talent, is the ultimate test of poker acumen. So it’s no surprise that Mike Gorodinsky is atop the leaderboard heading into the final table. Gorodinsky won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and Player of the Year in 2015, establishing himself as one of the top mixed-game players in the poker world. A victory today would only bolster that reputation. Like Secretariat at the Belmont, he accumulated chips late yesterday like a tremendous machine and pulled away from the field, ending up with 3,695,000.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Gorodinsky | United States | 3,695,000 | 23 |
| 2 | Alex Livingston | Canada | 2,160,000 | 14 |
| 3 | Brad Ruben | United States | 1,930,000 | 12 |
| 4 | Brian Yoon | United States | 1,445,000 | 9 |
| 5 | Scott Seiver | United States | 990,000 | 6 |
| 6 | Carol Fuchs | United States | 515,000 | 3 |
| 7 | Christopher Claassen | United States | 265,000 | 2 |
Gorodinsky’s six challengers each have something to play for today besides the bracelet and the money. Canada’s Alex Livingston had made five WSOP final tables, including a third-place run in the 2019 Main Event, before breaking through with his first WSOP bracelet last year. He comes into today in second place with 2,160,000 as he looks to get into the winner’s circle for the second straight year and capture the biggest title of his career.
Brad Ruben has made winning WSOP bracelets seem easy in the last three years. He’s won four, all since 2020, in a variety of games including the Dealers Choice event in 2022. He’s in third place with 1,930,000 and is trying to join an exclusive list of poker legends with five bracelets. The short length of time it would’ve taken him to get there would also place him in an elite pantheon. Only Jeremy Ausmus, Jeff Lisandro, and Chris Ferguson won five bracelets in a span of four WSOPs over the last 40 years.
In fourth place is five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon, who already has one at the 2023 WSOP in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. Yoon would become just the 21st player in WSOP history to win six bracelets, joining Brian Rast and Shaun Deeb who already won their sixth this series, and begins today with 1,445,000.
Scott Seiver can join Yoon in the five-bracelet club with a victory today, but he’ll be playing catchup right from the start. Not only is Seiver coming back on a short stack of 990,000, but he also faces a one-round penalty to begin the day after crumpling up one of his cards on the final hand of Day 3.
No woman has won a WSOP bracelet so far at the 2023 WSOP. Los Angeles entertainment attorney and screenwriter Carol Fuchs (515,000) can change that today. Fuchs already has a bracelet, taking down the Dealers Choice event in 2015. If she can overcome the odds and make a move up the leaderboard at this final table, she’ll join Jen Harman, Kristen Foxen, Loni Hui, and Vanessa Selbst as the only women to win multiple WSOP bracelets in open-field events.
Christopher Claassen enters today’s final table as the short-stack with just 265,000, good for only two big bets. Claassen is the only player at the table without a bracelet already on his resume. His lone WSOP final table came in the $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship in 2022. He’s already guaranteed the second-largest tournament cash of his career; the top prize today is nearly triple his previous tournament earnings.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $422,747 | |
| 2 | $261,278 | |
| 3 | $187,406 | |
| 4 | $136,649 | |
| 5 | $101,319 | |
| 6 | $76,412 | |
| 7 | $58,633 | |
| 8 | Esther Taylor | $45,789 |
The race to be the last player standing begins at 4 p.m. on the main feature table inside the Horseshoe Event Center. PokerGO will stream the action on a 60-minute delay beginning at 5 p.m.
These seven players have already navigated through one of the most stacked fields on the WSOP calendar. All that remains is to see who will be the one to cross the finish line. PokerNews will be following all the action and providing updates as one player seeks to make WSOP history here today.