I have not seen an all star line-up like this since the annual NBA event held last year here in the greatest city of them all. The 2^nd WSOP $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Tournament held at the Rio this past week included a virtual Who’s Who in the world of pro poker. There were not many “who’s he?” in this starting line-up!

This year 148 “wanna be all around king of poker for a year” put up $50,000 each, down from last years’ 214 entries. Could the decline in the number of players be, because many think $50,000 is a lot of green, that can be used for many smaller buy-in tournaments with lucrative pay-offs. Of course that means they’ll have to put their egos aside also…

Even with 66 less players than 2006, thanks to the WSOP’s restructuring of pay-outs for all events, this years H.O.R.S.E. champ will take home $560,000 more than 2006 winner Chip Reese. See last week’s WSOP column.

The tourney ran this past Monday through today (the finals were held last night, Thursday, at VCO’s press time; but using the juice I have with founder/publisher Marleen Marino, we had the presses stopped until the winner was crowned…)

The first three days of this year’s event, to use a sport’s betting term, were a dead “under” if you could bet a total on the number of hands played, the under betters would collect. Most players proceeded with caution, thereby leading to a lot of check calling in most rounds. Defense was the style many players employed. Even “lovable” Phil Hellmuth was not offensive, well… most of the time.

Thought shorter in stature than the aforementioned NBA All Stars, the final two or three tables of H.O.R.S.E. players matched up ability wise albeit in a different type of sporting event. Some readers may question whether poker can be classified as a sporting event, but did you know that Johnny Moss made the cover of THE sports magazine “Sports Illustrated.” Included in that edition of year’s gone by, was an article about his poker prowess and his WSOP triumphs.

Speaking of the NBA, does not Phil Ivey remind you of Tim Duncan, in looks and demeanor? What Phil lacks in height compared to Duncan is usually made up by his chip stack size. Like Duncan’s all around ability on the hardwood, Ivey is a force to be reckoned with at the green felt arena, in ALL forms of poker.

Most players this past week held their own in several of the variations of H.O.R.S.E. However some displayed their outright disgust with (anti-poker) Razz... One player was reported to ask if he could sit out the round of Razz… 

The 138 player to answer the opening bell consisted of a few legends; many many soon to be legends and only a small number of wanna be legends. Of course the reference to the latter group is just my opinion, I could be wrong…they may ALL become legends; for some just being able to afford the buy-in says a lot! Hell, that’s the total amount of money Johnny Moss won in that first WSOP final.

The final four players were:

1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place	4th Place
Freddy Deeb	Bruno Fitoussi	John Hanson	Ambon Filippi