Monday, June 30, 2008

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2008 WSOP Day 32: H.O.R.S.E. win for Nguyen

Five-time bracelet winner, baby!

By Sarah Polson

The $50k World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event finally came down to a winner during the wee morning hours today with Scotty Nguyen finally toppling the rest of the final-table players for the bracelet, trophy and tremendous cash prize.

The $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event also played to a winner, while Event 49 played a second day and two more events got started.

Event 45

Aside from the Main Event, one of the most prestigious events of the World Series of Poker is the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. It draws the best and the brightest of the poker world, which makes for some tough rounds of poker.

This year 148 players, the same number as in 2007, ponied up the big money to participate, but it was Scotty Nguyen who got in good for the win.

It's been a long time since the Prince of Poker has registered a win at the WSOP. He last took home a gold bracelet in 2001, and in 2007 he busted out just short of the Main Event final table.

After four days of play, the final table finally came down to Nguyen along with Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, Matt Glantz, Lyle Berman, Huck Seed, Michael DeMichele and Patrick Bueno.

After Nguyen came out on top, he commented on who he considered his toughest opponents at the table.

"Barry Greenstein. He's the toughest opponent. Once he was gone, it was E-dog. I focused on him," Nguyen said. "When E-dog's gone, baby, everything's like a walk in the park. You see that. Not even 20 minutes, it's done."

Nguyen said on some hands he didn't have a hand at all, and his opponent would just muck it. If it had been Lindgren still in, he would play back at Nguyen and things may have turned out different.

"Even E-dog might stop for an hour or two, but there's nothing gonna stop me," Nguyen said in his post-game interview. "If I can knock out Phil Ivey, there's nobody can stop me. This is what I want, baby. It's my dream to win this event."

In the end it came down to Nguyen versus DeMichele and they finished the tournament on a Hold'em hand. DeMichele ended up committing all his chips pre-flop holding A 3 against Nguyen's A T.

The flop came A 9 6, pairing both players' aces, but Nguyen had the higher kicker and just needed to avoid a three on the turn or river. The rest of the board played out 7 4, and it was all over, baby.

Nguyen had his fifth WSOP gold bracelet along with more than $2 million in cash and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

"You know, the Main Event, I already have it. The H.O.R.S.E. event, that was so important to me," Nguyen said after the win. "I want to be the only man to ever win the Main Event at the World Series and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. and a WPT Main Event. And now I'm the only man that's ever done that."

He said he also wanted it for Chip Reese.

"The man was a legend. The poker world just misses him so much," Nguyen said. "He was a good player, and a gentleman. I wanted to be the first man to win his trophy, to remember him."

The $50k H.O.R.S.E. final table played out as follows:

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Scotty Nguyen	$1,989,120
2nd	Michael DeMichele	$1,243,200
3rd	Erick Lindgren	$781,440
4th	Matt Glantz	$568,320
5th	Lyle Berman	$444,000
6th	Barry Greenstein	$355,200
7th	Huck Seed	$284,160
8th	Patrick Bueno	$230,880

For more information about how the H.O.R.S.E. event played out, visit the Event 45 live updates.

Event 48

Brazil got its first WSOP bracelet winner on Sunday as Alexandre Gomes took down the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Gomes topped a 2,317-person playing field on the way to his win, including a final table that included Kirill Gerasimov, who has made several other WSOP final tables in the past as well as European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour final tables.

Gerasimov ended up out in sixth place, and it eventually came down to Gomez and Marco Johnson playing for the bracelet.

On the final hand, the players got all-in pre-flop, and Gomes showed A K versus Johnson's Q J. The board came 4 3 2 A 4 to give Gomes the hand and the win.

The final table played out as follows:

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Alexandre Gomes	$770,540
2nd	Marco Johnson	$491,273
3rd	Ryan D'Angelo	$326,812
4th	Robert Brewer	$274,101
5th	Alan Cutler	$223,497
6th	Kirill Gerasimov	$177,111
7th	Sverre Sundbo	$134,942
8th	Gabe Costner	$103,315
9th	Dan Rome	$71,687

For more information on how the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event played out, visit the Event 48 live updates.

Event 49

The final table of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event playing today will be a multinational affair with Canada, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and the United States represented at the table.

Leading the pack is Rasmus Nielsen, from Copenhagen, Denmark. He has just under $3 million in chips entering final table play today. Right behind him in the count with $1.4 million in chips is J.C. Tran, who is still looking for his first bracelet win after making two other final tables this year at the WSOP.

The final table includes:

Name	Chip Count
Rasmus Nielsen	$2,998,000
J.C. Tran	$1,438,000
Joe Pelton	$1,093,000
Peter Nguyen	$870,000
John Conroy	$501,000
Robert Kalb	$456,000
Jesper Hoog	$320,000
Christoph Kohnen	$293,000
Chad Siu	$185,000

Some of the pros who made the money but missed the final table are Men Nguyen, David Pham, Andy Black, Hevad Khan, Kristy Gazes, Van Nguyen, Greg Mueller and Doug Carli.

The final table will begin playing at 3 p.m. today with live coverage from PokerListings.

Event 50

The $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event got under way at noon on Sunday with 381 players taking to the felt for the final championship event before the Main Event gets started this week.

After a day of play, the field is down to 86 players and Josh Arieh is sitting on top of the leaderboard.

Plenty of other pros pepper the list of remaining players as well, including Shawn Buchanan, Michael Mizrachi, Eddie Scharf, David Singer, Nenad Medic, Noah Boeken, Scott Clements, Ross Boatman, Bill Chen, Chau Giang, Johnny Chan, Tony G, Robert Williamson III, Humberto Brenes and more.

The money bubble will burst at 36 today, but play won't stop until the final table is found. The players will return to begin battle again at 2 p.m.

To keep up on all the coverage, visit the Event 50 live updates.

Event 51

Just as one H.O.R.S.E. race was finishing up on Sunday, another got out of the gates with the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event that started at 5 p.m. The event drew 803 players, and it is managing to eliminate players at a much faster pace.

When play resumes today Phil Hellmuth will be in the lead of the 179 players still in the game. Other pros still in it include Joe Hachem, Chad Brown, John Juanda, Victor Ramdin, Michael Binger, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Luca Pagano, Mary Jones, Chip Jett, David Benyamine and Shannon Shorr.

See how your favorite players are doing when play resumes at 3 p.m. in the Event 51 live updates.

Event 52

The final $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for the 2008 WSOP gets under way today at noon. Poker fans can expect another large crowd for this event and plenty of action to keep up on.

For all the latest and greatest from the 2008 WSOP, visit the Live Tournaments section.

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• 2008 WSOP Day 31: The end is in sight
• 2008 WSOP Day 31: Last $10k before the Main Event

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