2012 World Series of Poker

Event 27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Day: 1
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
kqq87
Prize
$267,081
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$1,200,150
Entries
889
Level Info
Level
31
Blinds
0 / 0
Ante
0

Event 27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.

Day 1 Completed

"Skip" Wilson Leads Day 1 with 165 Remaining; Cunningham, Idema & Elezra Lurking

Level 10
Allen Cunningham will return on Day 2 with a healthy stack of 55,200.
Allen Cunningham will return on Day 2 with a healthy stack of 55,200.

The 2012 World Series of Poker continued on Wednesday with Event #27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., which attracted 889 entrants and created a prize pool of $1,200,150. The top 96 players are slated to take home a minimum payday of $2,676, with the eventual winner taking home $267,081. The man best positioned to make a deep run is Karle “Skip” Wilson, who finished Day 1 as chip leader with 165 players remaining.

Play was low key for the first couple of levels, but then the eliminations began. One of the earliest was runner-up in this event in 2009, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri. His demise came when an unknown player in Seat 2 had the bring-in with the {4-Hearts} and Barbieri, who was fresh off a third-place finish in Event 13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em for $84,388, completed. A player in Seat 7, who was showing the {2-Spades}, made the call as did the bring-in and it was three-way action to the turn.

Barbieri proceeded to bet, which both his opponents called, and then he fired again on fifth street. Seat 2 got out of the way while Seat 7 called and then raised when Barbieri bet sixth. The raise was enough to cover the short-stacked Sugar Bear, and he committed his stack.

Barbieri: {2-Clubs}{6-Clubs} / {A-Spades}{J-Hearts}{10-Diamonds}{Q-Clubs} / {7-Hearts}
Seat 7: {7-Diamonds}{3-Clubs} / {2-Spades}{8-Diamonds}{Q-Spades}{A-Hearts} / {3-Diamonds}
Seat 2: (x-x) / {4-Hearts}{Q-Hearts}{J-Diamonds} fold

Seat 7 had a low but needed help if he was going to take the high. Unfortunately for Barbieri, the {3-Diamonds} on seventh gave his opponent a pair and the scoop. "Good game guys," Barbieri said. Other early eliminations included Shaun Deeb, Maxwell Troy, Owais Ahmed, Erick Lindgren, Greg Raymer, James Woods and PokerNews’ own Rich Ryan.

The middle stages of Day 1 were characterized by eliminations as the blinds caught up with the stacks. An extensive list of pros met their end during this time including Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Matt Glantz, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Jonathan Duhamel.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion fell during limit hold’em when action folded to him in the cutoff and he raised. Both the button and small blind got out of the way, but Ben Lukas opted to defend from the big. The {9-Diamonds}{A-Clubs}{8-Hearts} flop saw Lukas check and Duhamel, who had 1,400 left, put out a bet. Lukas sprang to like with a check-raise, Duhamel three-bet before calling off to a Lukas four-bet.

Showdown

Duhamel{10-Spades}{9-Spades}
Lukas{K-Clubs}{9-Hearts}

Both players had flopped middle pair, but Duhamel had kicker issues. Neither the {J-Clubs} turn nor {6-Diamonds} river would provide him the help he needed and he exited in the middle of Level 7.

The defending champion of the event, Aaron Steury, put up a good fight but ultimately succumbed in the last level of the evening during Razz. It happened when he had a {5-} out in front of him and was faced with a completion by an opponent behind him who was showing an {A-}. Steury then raised it up and his opponent quickly made it three bets to go. Steury flicked in his last remaining chips and the two players turned their hands over.

Steury: {6-}{8-}/{5-}{10-}{Q-}{7-}/{4-}
Opponent: {6-}{2-}/{A-}{4-}{3-}{8-}/{7-}

By the time fifth street had rolled around, Steury had got to his feet and started leaving the tournament area, ensuring that there would be a new champion.

While hundreds fell, some players managed to survive. Tom Schneider (28,300), Marcel Luske (28,900), Linda Johnson (30,500), Eli Elezra (35,500), Christian Harder (37,100), Rep Porter (41,500) and John Monnette (42,000) all advanced to Day 2.

Of course some managed to do more than just survive, they thrived. Joining Wilson toward the top of the chip counts is Steve Brown (73,600), Jason Brown (71,200), Daniel Idema (58,100), Justin Young (57,000), Mike O’Donnell (56,300), Allen Cunningham (55,200), Huck Seed (52,000), Chip Jett (49,000) and David Williams (45,600), just to name a few.

Day 2 will begin at 1 PM PST on Thursday, so join us then as the remaining field looks to play through the money en route to the final table.

Tags: Allen Cunningham

Various End of Day 1 Chip Counts

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Skip Wilson
Skip Wilson
74,900
Profile photo of Steve Brown
Steve Brown
73,600
16,600
16,600
Profile photo of Jason Brown us
Jason Brown
71,200
14,700
14,700
Profile photo of Daniel Idema ca
Daniel Idema
58,100
2,100
2,100
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Justin Young us
Justin Young
57,000
30,000
30,000
Profile photo of Mike O'Donnell
Mike O'Donnell
56,300
-10,700
-10,700
Profile photo of Allen Cunningham us
Allen Cunningham
55,200
20,200
20,200
WSOP 5X Winner
Profile photo of Bruce Hoyt
Bruce Hoyt
53,300
Profile photo of Yuval Bronshtein il
Yuval Bronshtein
53,000
33,000
33,000
WSOP 2X Winner
Profile photo of Huck Seed us
Huck Seed
52,000
7,000
7,000
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 4X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Chip Jett us
Chip Jett
49,000
Profile photo of David Williams us
David Williams
45,600
20,600
20,600
Profile photo of John Monnette us
John Monnette
42,000
21,000
21,000
WSOP 5X Winner
Profile photo of Rep Porter us
Rep Porter
41,500
22,500
22,500
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Christian Harder us
Christian Harder
37,100
16,100
16,100
Profile photo of David Sklansky us
David Sklansky
35,700
24,700
24,700
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Eli Elezra il
Eli Elezra
35,500
-16,500
-16,500
WSOP 5X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Cary Katz us
Cary Katz
35,400
20,400
20,400
$25K Fantasy
Profile photo of Steve Landfish us
Steve Landfish
35,400
5,400
5,400
Profile photo of Sam Grizzle us
Sam Grizzle
31,900
7,900
7,900
Profile photo of Linda Johnson us
Linda Johnson
30,500
23,000
23,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Tristan Wade us
Tristan Wade
29,300
10,300
10,300
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of Marcel Luske nl
Marcel Luske
28,900
9,900
9,900
Profile photo of Tom Schneider us
Tom Schneider
28,300
8,300
8,300
WSOP 4X Winner
Profile photo of David Plastik us
David Plastik
26,000
5,000
5,000

Read full

Three More Hands

Level 10

The tournament staff has just announced that the players will play three more hands before bagging and tagging. We're off to get some chip counts, so stayed tuned for those and a complete recap of Day 1 action.

Seed Plants Smith

Razz:

We didn't catch the betting, but we do known that Gavin Smith was all in against two opponents, one of which was 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Huck Seed. Action checked on seventh between Seed and an unknown player, prompting Seed to show an 8-6-5-4-3 low.

Seed: {4-}{8-} / {6-}{5-}{3-}{K-} / {3-}
Smith: (x-x) / {8-}{Q-}{Q-}{5-} / (x)

"Good game," Smith told Seed before taking his leave minutes shy of Day 2.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Huck Seed us
Huck Seed
45,000
23,000
23,000
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 4X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Gavin Smith us
Gavin Smith
Busted

Tags: Huck SeedGavin Smith

PokerNews Podcast: Running Pure feat. Aaron Steury

Level 10

Even though he just busted, we thought you might like what the 2011 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. champion had to say about this year's event over the dinner break in the latest PokerNews Podcast.

In this edition, the PokerNews crew breaks down all the news from the WSOP, previews Day 3 of the $5,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better Split event, and talks to Aaron "NDGrinder" Steury about defending his title in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Tags: Aaron Steury

Champ Sent Home

RAZZ

When we arrived at Aaron Steury's table, the defending champ had a {5-} out in front of him and was faced with a complete by an opponent behind him who was showing an {A-}. Steury then raised it up and his opponent quickly made it three bets to go. Steury then flicked in his last remaining chips and the two players turned their hands over.

Steury: {6-}{8-}/{5-}{10-}{Q-}{7-}/{4-}
Opponent: {6-}{2-}/{A-}{4-}{3-}{8-}/{7-}

By the time fifth street had rolled around, Steury had got to his feet and started making his way out of the tournament area.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Aaron Steury us
Aaron Steury
Busted
WSOP 1X Winner

Tags: Aaron Steury