Tong Runs Away with the Chip Lead on Day 3 of $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Stud Games: 30,000-100,000, 100,000-200,000, 20,000 Ante
Kristopher Tong admits he doesn’t play too many World Series of Poker tournaments, but when he does, he usually makes them count.
In 2023, Tong made the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, eventually bowing out in fifth place for a career-best score of $303,000. More than a decade ago, he finished runner-up to Mike Gorodinsky in a $2,500 Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo event.
The Dallas, Texas native has had some close calls in his rare appearances on the WSOP felt, but he’s never had a better chance at capturing an elusive bracelet than he has tomorrow as Event #55: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship heads to Day 4 at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, with four players remaining out of the 207-entry field.
Tong bagged an overwhelming chip lead with 7,145,000, nearly three times his closest challenger. Maximilian Schindler is far behind in second place with 2,680,000, while Brad Ruben (1,305,000) and Jason Mercier (1,295,000) round out the lineup that returns on Saturday at 1 p.m. local time to play down to a champion.
Final Four Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristopher Tong | United States | 7,145,000 | 30 |
| 2 | Maximilian Schindler | United States | 2,680,000 | 11 |
| 3 | Brad Ruben | United States | 1,305,000 | 5 |
| 4 | Jason Mercier | United States | 1,295,000 | 5 |
While Tong and Schindler are looking for their first career bracelets, Ruben and Mercier are chasing their own pieces of WSOP history. Ruben won his fifth bracelet earlier this summer, and all of them have come since 2020. A win tomorrow would break a tie with Jeremy Ausmus for most of any player this decade. Mercier would join Nick Schulman, Benny Glaser, and Brian Rast in the group of players to win bracelet number seven this year, and just the 15th overall in WSOP history.
Day 3 Action
A plethora of poker superstars, bracelet winners, and Poker Hall of Famers were among the 16 players who returned for Day 3. Huck Seed (16th), Cary Katz (15th), Todd Brunson (12th), and John Hennigan (11th) fell before the final table, and Dylan Smith busted in 10th place on the final table bubble.
Schindler led at the start of the nine-handed final table with 2,600,000, while Tong was in second with 2,350,000. PJ Cha entered as the short stack and was the first to bust, falling to Ruben’s pair of kings in a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo.
Mercier scooped a stud hi-lo pot off Walter Chambers to drop Chambers to a short stack. Chambers then had his aces cracked by Alex Livingston’s trip deuces on the river to fall in eighth place.
It was nearly four hours until there was another elimination, as every player at the table seemingly rose and fell like the ebbing and flowing of the tides. Scott Seiver nearly fell below a million, but climbed back up close to 3,000,000. Marco Johnson was nursing a short stack for much of the final table, but a series of double-ups brought him back up near 2,000,000.
The clock finally ran out on Seiver in a Razz hand against Mercier, who ended up with a 7-6-5-2-A to bust the Hall of Fame nominee in seventh. Tong then scooped a three-way pot in stud with trip eights as Livingston was eliminated in sixth place.
Johnson’s run finally ended when he ran his ace-deuce into Tong’s pair of sixes and found no help on the board as he was sent to the rail in fifth place. Ruben saved his wild swings for the last level, dropping down to 500,000 before making quads against Schindler to double.
Final Table Remaining Payouts and Results
| Place | Player | Country | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $452,689 | ||
| 2 | $301,786 | ||
| 3 | $206,747 | ||
| 4 | $144,965 | ||
| 5 | Marco Johnson | United States | $104,089 |
| 6 | Alex Livingston | Canada | $76,581 |
| 7 | Scott Seiver | United States | $57,766 |
| 8 | Walter Chambers | United States | $44,703 |
| 9 | PJ Cha | United States | $35,515 |
With the clock approaching 2 a.m., the call was made to end play for the night and return tomorrow. The action picks up on Level 26 with limits of 120,000/240,000. The final four have locked up $144,965, while the champion will earn $452,689.
PokerNews will be back providing all the action at the final table until a new H.O.R.S.E. champion is crowned.