News
Second Annual H.O.R.S.E. World Championship Now Underway at The 2007 World Series of Poker
Poker’s All-Stars Compete for Over $7 Million in Prize Money
Las Vegas, NV (June 24, 2007) – The World Series of Poker presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light dealt in the biggest names in the game today, as a record 148 players each anted up a $50,000 entry fee to compete for one of the most coveted titles in poker.
The “H.O.R.S.E. World Poker Championship” is the ultimate test of all-around skill. It requires the participants to play a rotation of five popular forms of poker – including Hold’em, Omaha High-Low, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Stud Eight-or-Better. The winner of this event is generally regarded among peers as the most skilled poker player in the world.
The competition attracted a virtual “Who’s Who” of the poker world. Participants range from former world champions to relative newcomers to the excitement of tournament poker – some who won their way into this event through a much less-costly means called a “satellite” tournament. The competition attracted dozens of former WSOP gold bracelet winners and several former world champions including – Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Jim Bechtel, Scotty “the Prince” Nguyen, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.
Play will continue over the next five days. The final table will be dealt on Thursday, June 28th. The entire event is being filmed by ESPN, which will make the competition into a five-part series, to be shown later in the year on television.
Last year’s winner was Chip Reese. Fittingly even before he won, Reese had long been regarded as poker’s best all-around player for nearly three decades. Winning the inaugural H.O.R.S.E. World Poker Championship validated the claim. Reese collected $1,784,640 for first place and his third WSOP gold bracelet.
This year, each of the top 16 finishers will receive prize money. They will divide up a prize pool totaling $7,104,000. First place will pay $2,276,832.
