Event 49 - $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. Day 1 | 2009 World Series of Poker

06-26-2009 06:53 UTC-12

$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship

Welcome back to the Rio Hotel and Casino and our continued coverage of the 40th Annual World Series of Poker.

Today is one of the feature events of the series, the highly anticipated $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. In its short history, this event has grown in prestige to become one of the most coveted titles in the world of poker.

The Chip Reese Memorial Trophy is on the line as the best players in the world come together under one roof for five days of enthralling H.O.R.S.E. action. Giddyup!

06-26-2009 06:58 UTC-12

Delayed Start

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We've just been advised that the start time for today's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event will now be pushed back one hour to 1 p.m. We suspect the reasoning is to allow a few more last-minute registrations to come through before kick-off.

06-26-2009 08:03 UTC-12

Giddyup!

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After apologizing to the fans gathered on the rail for the delayed start today, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack turned the mic over to last year's champion Scotty Nguyen, who called, "Shuffle Up and Deal."

The 2009 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event is now officially underway.

Level: 1

Blinds: 0/0

Ante: 0

06-26-2009 08:08 UTC-12

Today’s Format

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As per 2009 World Series of Poker regulations, players are starting with three times as many chips as the buy-in, which means for this event they are starting with a record-setting 150,000 chips! While this is more than last year’s 100,000 start bank, the first level from last year (300/600) has been removed and we’ll be commencing play today at 400/800.

Levels will be 90-minutes in duration, with breaks scheduled after every level. The plan today will be to play six levels before we bag and tag for the day.

Last year we saw eight eliminations on the first day of play – perhaps eight more than we expected. One of those eliminations was 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who commented, “I didn't think it was possible to go out of this (tournament) on Day 1...I like to do things that are tough to do."

With such a huge start bank you would think it would be almost impossible to bust today, but crazier things have happened!

06-26-2009 08:12 UTC-12

Rail Outnumbering Players at Present

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The crowd on the rail is already two and three deep, but at the moment, only 60 players are registered in the tournament and even fewer are actually in their seats.

One player who did show up on time for the original 12 p.m. start was Mike Matusow, and as to be expected from "the Mouth," he has been vocalizing his displeasure not only with the delayed start, but for the WSOP's policy on late registrations.

"They penalize people for showing up on time. That's not right. I should take five minutes a hand, have them call the clock on me every time," said Matusow.

06-26-2009 08:18 UTC-12

The Early Birds

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Arriving in time for Level 1:

Table 72 - Freddy Deeb, Andy Black, Erik Seidel, Matt Hawrilenko, Pat Pezzin

Table 74 - Jani Sointula, Justin Smith, Eli Elezra, David Chiu, Alexander Kostritsyn, Frank Kassela

Table 76 - Mike Wattel, Doyle Brunson, Chad Brown, Vitaly Lunkin, Greg Mascio, Ville Wahlbeck

Table 79 - Todd Brunson, Yan Chen, David Bach, Chau Giang

06-26-2009 08:22 UTC-12

Some of the Lineups

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Table 58 - Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Bill Chen, Yuval Bronshtein, Matt Glantz

Table 60 - James Van Alstyne, Rob Hollink, Nick Schulman, Ralph Perry, Jim Bechtel, Johnny Chan

Table 62 - Cory Zeidman, Abe Mosseri, David Grey, Jeff Lisandro, Jon Turner, Mike Matusow

Table 64 - Jennifer Harman, Scott Clements, Kirill Rabtsov

Table 66 - Steve Billirakis, Jason Gray, Jerry Buss, Brett Richey, Justin Bonomo, John Hennigan

Table 68 - Fabrice Soulier, Farzad Bonyadi, Scotty Nguyen, David Singer, David Benyamine

Table 70 - Bryan Colin, Zac Fellows, Dan Shak, Thor Hansen, Bruno Fitoussi, Daniel Negreanu

06-26-2009 08:31 UTC-12

It’s All About the Numbers

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There’s always plenty of discussion and prop betting as to how many players will actually pony up a lazy $50k for an event like this.

Interestingly, the numbers for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. have been very consistent in its short history. The inaugural event attracted 143 players in 2006. That increased to 148 in 2007, before the same number fronted up in 2008.

This year has been an interesting one for prop betting on the size of fields. Tough economic times have seen a marginal decrease in numbers across most events, but does the state of the economy really have much effect on guys with this kind of bankroll?

You’d expect the number to decrease from last year's number, and the question is by how much? At the moment, we have around a dozen tables in action which suggests we’ll be somewhere around the 100 player mark. However, we're only at 70 registrations.

06-26-2009 08:38 UTC-12