The one event top poker players wait for all year starts on June 26th, 2009. But despite all the drama and hype and some changes to the gaming structure this year, several well-known players feel that the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event could use even more changes.
Over the past few years, the H.O.R.S.E. event has become one of the most prestigious bracelet events at the World Series of Poker. Well-known as the "players championship, it features the biggest buy-in cost at the series and features different poker variants that truly test the skill of a poker player.
Past H.O.R.S.E. champions include Scotty Nguyen, Freddy Deeb and the poker player for whom the title is now named after, the late Chip Reese. As with all the events at the 2009 World Series of Poker, the event will feature a fifty percent increase in total chips this time around.
Poker pro Daniel Negreanu said that participants will have more chips, but starting at a higher level. Negreanu said that the overall tournament structure is good.
Andy Bloch, who finished in 2nd place to Chip Reese in the first year of the event, is also happy with structures this year but stated that the H.O.R.S.E. could start a little higher. He added that percentage-wise, beginning off on almost one hundred big wagers in a limit event and once you get deep, it becomes meaningless.
After only 4 years, the H.O.R.S.E. event is still in its infancy and a lot of industry insiders feel that there are a lot of things to work out. In fact, ESPN dropped the coverage of the tournament this year because it does not make for good television.
During its inaugural year, World Series of Poker organizers made the final table of the H.O.R.S.E. event a No-Limit Holdem only game. But due to the complaints of the players, that format was changed in 2007 and they moved back to playing all poker variations.
Negreanu, who helped make the format, thinks that was a wrong decision. Negreanu said that he made the format because he thought that it would satisfy ESPN and the television viewers. He added that it was a mistake to dismiss the format and he intends to lobby for No Limit Holdem format's return and get it back on television.
H.O.R.S.E. five game mix, including Omaha 8, Limit Holdem, Stud and Stud eight, Limit Holdem, is usually the same type of poker enjoyed in the biggest cash games all over the world, including the $4,000 /$8,000 "Big Game" at the Bellagio.
07/02/2009 21:36 PM