Day Three H.O.R.S.E. - The Cream Rises To The Top! | 2009 World Series of Poker

While the H.O.R.S.E. World Championship is still in its infancy and the format has been altered over the years, we can take a look back to previous years to look for any trends to help us try to identify the true contenders in today’s field.

In 2007, we had 52 players survive to make day three action and by the end of the day we were down to 21 players. Amnon Filippi was a runaway chip leader with over 2.3 million in chips. He was followed by Kenny Tran, Bruno Fitoussi, John Hanson and David Singer, while eventual champion Freddy Deeb lurked in 6th chip position. Interestingly these top six chip leaders after day three would go on to capture the top six prizes in the event.

Last year we had 67 players return to day three with play halted once the action reached the final 24 players. This really was the day where the cream rose to the top. The day ended with Michael DiMichele, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Ralph Perry and Scotty Nguyen as the top five. All five would go on to cash, with Nguyen and DiMichele going all the way until the final card was dealt. Nguyen in particular had a spectacular day three, as he surged from the near the bottom of the pack at the start of the day, to end it amongst the chip leaders, to set up his run towards the coveted title.

However all hope is not lost if one has a bad day today, as Phil Ivey and Huck Seed were both in the bottom four chip stacks at the end of play on day three in 2008 and both managed to cash. Then again, not everyone is a Huck Seed or a Phil Ivey!

While anything can happen in poker, and the H.O.R.S.E. event only has a brief history, we can be relatively safe to assume that whoever is in the top five in chips at the end of today will play a big part in deciding who will walk away with the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy!