Event 37 - $10,000 HORSE Championship - Live Updates

Fabrice Soulier and Shawn Buchanan returned to finish what they started last night: the heads-up match that would decide this year's $10,000 HORSE Champion!

Soulier enjoyed a massive chip lead, almost 7 to 1, and it didn't take long for him to hammer home the final nail in Buchanan's coffin.

After years of playing at the WSOP Fabrice Soulier has won his first gold bracelet, and a very healthy $609,130 first-place prize.

Just a few rounds into the match, during a hand of Omaha-8, Buchanan's remaining chips went into the middle. The flop read T♣ 8♦ 4♥ and although Buchanan was in the lead, he'd have to fade draws for both the high and the low to stay alive.

Buchanan: J♦ J♣ T♠ 7♥

Soulier: Q♦ J♠ 8♥ 6♥

The turn was the A♦, no help to Soulier, but the 6♠ on the river made Soulier two pair, eliminating Shawn Buchanan in second place for $376,458.

Soulier outlasted an intense final table headlined by Tom Dwan, and beat a very talented player heads-up to earn his first WSOP title.

Click here for the full results from this event.

The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship bracelet will either belong to Fabrice Soulier or Shawn Buchanan.

The two players are now heads-up after Andrey Zaichenko moved all in and got calls from both players in a Stud hand.

Soulier folded on 6^th street, when Buchanan had a set of sevens showing. The sevens turned out to be better than Zaichenko’s hand as well and he was eliminated in 3^rd place.

This will be Zaichenko’s eighth WSOP cash. It will also be his largest, he takes home $247,799.

When the players got heads-up, they weren’t the only ones wanting to gamble.

The bickering between the two rails increased. The French chanted about Fabrice’s numerous accomplishments and had a specific chant directed towards Canada.

Buchanan’s Canadian rail responded by saying that they didn’t know what they were saying. But Greg Mueller did add that they wanted to bet on the heads-up match.

One Frenchman stood up and decided he was up for the bet. That man was Nicholas Levi, he agreed to bet on the match.

They discussed the terms and decided to wager based on chip counts.

Buchanan had 4.4 million and Soulier had 2.8 million.

Mueller bet $8,800 to Levi’s $5,600.

“He’s getting a great deal on this,” said Mueller. “Chipstacks change every second.”

Before he was going back to his seat, Mueller got another buyer. An older Frenchman in a beige, tailored suit with designer glasses decided to book the bet.

“Now I’ve got a sweat going,” said Mueller. He’s either going to win $11,200 or lose $17,600 depending on the outcome.

I’d call that a sweat.

This has also ignited excitement among the crowd. With the $2,500 bagging up for the day, the British rail has gone to find greener pastures.

But the French have picked up the slack. They are breaking out in very elaborate,  very French chants that only they can understand. They’ve also been breaking out with the occasional wave.

Things are starting to look dire for the Canadians.

Not only are they being outplayed in crowd performance and accuracy, Soulier has also been attacking Buchanan’s stack ruthlessly.

Soulier has been winning pot after pot and is now up to arnd 5.9 million, leaving Buchanan with only 1.3 million.

Buchanan was chipped down even more during the level, but managed to score some timely double ups.

He now has 910,000 and against Soulier's 6,290,000.

Both players will be returning tomorrow at 3 pm to resume this heads-up match.

The chips and games of poker have been going round and round.

We’ve been three-handed for over a level and Shawn Buchanan has shot into the lead. He now has 3,380,000, more than half the chips in play.

The Canadian has been playing every game the way they’re meant to be played. He’s been betting players out of pots, winning important showdowns and making good calls.

Fabrice Soulier now sits in second with 2,030,000 and Andrey Zaichenko is in third with 1,775,000.

Zaichenko started the three-handed portion of the tournament in first place, but now he finds himself at the opposite side of the spectrum.

The sound of Soulier’s French rail has been drowned out by another, stronger, drunker rail. They’re so loud in fact, that they’re overshadowing this rail without even railing this tournament.

In the secondary feature table, the final table of the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament is being played out.

They’re down to five players, one of which is Thomas Middleton. And Middleton has brought a secret weapon: the British rail.

There are dozens of Brits with dozens of drinks chanting, cheering, hollering and screaming for Middleton. Their noise has flooded the Amazon room and made silence a thing of the past.

We still have distant memories of what it used to be like. The quiet sounds of riffling chips and clattering of keyboards.

But those days seem long gone now. The British have invaded, and they’ve won. The Amazon is theirs.

We have three players left.

They all went to go take one final break before they return for two levels of play.

Even if we get down to a winner, the tournament will continue to be dealt 1-handed until we reach 10 levels of play.

No, not really.

If we don’t reach a winner, players will return tomorrow for a three – or two – handed bracelet bout.

The first player to bust out after our last update was none other than Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Dwan will win no bracelet or bracelet bets today. After being beat down during the last couple of levels, Shawn Buchanan ended Dwan’s run.

In a stud hand, Dwan and Buchanan went all in. Dwan held 9s and was up against Buchanan’s 8s. Buchanan also had a diamond flush draw before the final card was dealt.

The Buchanan got his last card.

It was a diamond.

Dwan was eliminated in 5^th place and earned $134,480. A hefty sum, but we know Dwan was shooting for more.

Maybe next time.

Daniel Ospina would be the next to go.

In a Hold’em hand, Ospina went all in and got calls from Fabrice Soulier and Shawn Buchanan.

The flop came 4♥ J♣ 9♣ and Soulier bet. Buchanan called and a 9♦ came on the turn.

Soulier led out again, but this time Buchanan folded.

Soulier showed 4♦ 4♠ for the full house and Ospina was drawing dead. He became our 4^th place finisher and won $180,750.

A prise worth thousands and thousands of freshly farmed avocados.

Final Three

Andrey Zaichenko now leads the final three. He has 2,800,000 and is followed by Shawn Buchanan with 2,625,000.

Last place will go to Fabrice Soulier, who has 1,850,000. Despite having the shortest stack, Soulier has the loudest rail.

After the dozens of Dwan fans vanished into the night, Soulier’s French posse came out to drink and cheer.

The most popular chant so far is solely “Fabrice! Fabrice! Fabrice!”   

We’re down to our final five players of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

They’re guaranteed $134,480 for their finish, but all eyes are on the (biggest) prize now.  Every one of these five players are looking to win their first WSOP bracelet.

Those remaining are: Tom Dwan, Fabrice Soulier, Shawn Buchanan, Andrey Zaichenko and Daniel Ospina.

Fabrice Soulier will be leading the final five. He has 2,775,000, more than 1 million ahed of second place.

Dwan has seen his stack dwindle throughout this last level of play. He’s now fourth in chips after a tough Razz level.

Players are on a 20-minute break and will be returning to play 4 more levels.

Eliminations

Jacobo Fernandez came to the final table shortstacked and – despite a few double ups – remained short stacked.

He was looking for another double up when he went in all in against Tom Dwan in a Stud hand.  

Fernandez ended up with a pair of sixes, they were close to Dwan’s sevens, but not good enough to beat them.

Fernandez was eliminated in 8^th place and earned $61,160 for his finish.

Michael Binger was next.

Michael Binger saw his stack shrink for some time and then moved all in for 110,000. He got called by Andrey Zaichenko and they flipped over their hands.

The game was Omaha.

Binger showed Q-8-3-2 and was up against Zaichenko’s A-Q-4-2

The board came 5♣ 3♣ 7♦ 10♥ 6♠ and Binger became our 7^th place finisher. This will be Binger’s fifth WSOP final table, and the fifth time a WSOP bracelet has slipped through his fingers.

For his finish, Binger will be able to add $78,328 to the $4,904,729 he’s already won at the WSOP during his career.

Number six also fell victim Omaha.

Matthew Ashton moved all in and got calls from Shawn Buchanan and Andrey Zaichenko. Buchanan bet Zaichenko out of the pot and was left heads-up with Ashton.

The board read:

3♣ J♦ 4♠ 2♠ K♥

Buchanan flipped over ace-5 for the wheel and Ashton became our 6^th place finisher. Ashton will earn $101,813 for his first WSOP cash.

Not bad.

Chip Counts

Top 5 chip counts, courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Fabrice Soulier – 2,775,000
Andrey Zaichenko – 1,525,000
Daniel Ospina – 1,240,000
Shawn Buchanan – 945,000
Tom Dwan – 715,000

Our final table is set.

Max Pescatori has become the final table bubble. The popper was Tom Dwan.

Pescatori and Dwan went all in pre-draw on a Razz hand.

Pescatri showed 6-2-ace, ahead of Dwans 7-3-ace. Dwan then got an 8 and a 5 for an 8-low.

Pescatori got a 7, but then was dealt a king, followed by a jack. The last card was dealt and Pescatori needed a 3, 4 or 5 to stay alive.

He got none of those.

With that, Max Pescatori became our 9^th place finisher, earning $48,436.

The remaining 8 then took a short break while the floor counted their chips.

They returned and were introduced to the audience here at the ESPN stage. There seems to be more spectators than usual today.

We think Tom Dwan might have something to do with that.

Final Table

Here is the final table with a quick fact about each player.

Seat 1 – Tom Dwan – This is his 3^rd WSOP final table, but still no bracelet.
Seat 2 – Fabrice Soulier – He enjoys walks on the beach and Yoga.
Seat 3 – Jacobo Fernandez – He’s a father of 6.
Seat 4 – Shawn Buchanan – He was in the landscaping and framing business before poker.
Seat 5 – Michael Binger – Claims that aliens taught him poker.
Seat 6 – Matthew Ashton – He’s British.
Seat 7 – Andrey Zaichenko – Was in sales before he was in poker.
Seat 8 – Daniel Ospina – Grew up on an avocado farm.

Jacobo has doubled up twice since play at the final table began. Matthew Ashton has already got one double under his belt too.

Tom Dwan has managed to keep the chip lead. Dwan now holds 1,842,000. He’s followed by Fabrice Soulier with 1.7 million.

Ospina has been chipped down a bit, but still finds himself at 1.1 million. This is now good for 4^th place.

There’s bound to be more horsing around here at the final table.

Stay tuned. 

Chip Counts

Here are some final table chip counts, courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Tom Dwan – 1,842,000
Fabrice Soulier – 1,700,000
Andrey Zaichenko – 1,181,000
Daniel Ospina – 1,111,000
Shawn Buchanan – 826,000
Michael Binger – 358,000
Matthew Ashton – 225,000
Jacobo Fernandez – 125,000

The dinner break is upon us and we now have our unofficial final table at the big fancy ESPN stage.

Nine players remain in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship and Daniel Ospina has regained the chip lead in the last few hands of the tournament.

Before that, Tom Dwan went on a massive run. He won pot after pot and eliminated Kyle Loman in the process.

Both Dwan and Ospina hold more than 1.5 million. Third place has yet to break the 1 million mark.

The two of them hold more than 50 percent of the chips in play.

Max Pescatori has managed to avoid elimination, he was shortstacked with 11 players left but has managed to stay alive and make it to the feature table.

Players are now on a 1-hour dinner break and will return for six more levels of play.

Eliminations

Ram Vaswani was eliminated soon after our last update. He made a payjump and earned $38,916 for his 12^th place finish.

Joe Cassidy went out next in a Hold’em hand. Cassidy, who was shortstacked was forced to make a move with king-deuce and got called by Matthew Ashton with ace-ten.

Ashton hit an ace on the flop and then a flush on the river to rub it in. Cassidy finished in 11^th and added $38,916 to his tournament winnings.

Tom Dwan was responsible for what happened next.

It was an Omaha hand and Dwan and Kyle Loman were faced with a board:

4♠ 2♦ Q♣ 3♦

There was already more than 300,000 in the pot and Dwan continued to bet into Loman. Loman kept calling and a 4♣ came on the river.

Dwan led out once more and Loman called.

Dwan flipped over a 3♥ and a 4♥ for the full house.

Loman was crippled and Dwan then finished off the job in a Razz hand.

Loman gets $48,436 for his finish, a nice consolation prize for not being able to sit at the monolithic ESPN stage.

Pesky Pescatori

Shawn Buchanan crippled Max Pescatori in a Razz hand. Buchanan showed an 8-low and Pescatori mucked his hand, losing most of his stack.

Pescatori was left with around 70,000 and was in all-in mode.

That mode forced him to go all in against Daniel Ospina in a Stud hand. They got it all in before drawing any cards and Pescatori showed A♦ 10♠ 7♣ and Ospina held a pair of nines with a 6♥.

Ospina hit a third nine and Pescatori got a pair of sevens.

The board read:

Pescatori – (A♦ 10♠) 7♣ 7♠ 5♥ 5♦
Ospina – (9♠ 9♦) 6♥ 9♥ 4♥ A♠

“If you hit it you got it,” Ospina told Pescatori when they were deal their final card.

Pescatori squeezed his last card and then laughed, flipping over a 5♣ for the full house.

“This guy just doesn’t die,” laughed Buchanan. Pescatori would then double up again soon after in a Hold’em hand.

He’s at the pre-final table and he is indeed, still alive.

Chip Counts

Here are the top nine, because we don’t have 10 players. Courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Daniel Ospina – 1,720,000
Tom Dwan – 1,625,000
Fabrice Soulier – 985,000
Andrey Zaichenko – 953,000
Shawn Buchanan – 716,000
Matthew Ashton – 680,000
Michael Binger – 637,000
Jacobo Fernandez – 223,000
Max Pescatori – 210,000

Another three bite the dust.

We’re down to 12 players at the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. Ospina has managed to lose control of the S.S. ChipLead.

Another two players are now battling for the ships helm, Michael Binger and Shawn Buchanan are currently tied in chipcounts.

With 940,000 a piece, they share the chiplead.

Binger started the day as the chip leader but Buchanan has had more of an uphill battle. He started the day 6^th in chips and has now managed to make it near the 1 million mark.

Buchanan joins the list of bracelet-less chip leaders in the $10K H.O.R.S.E.  Buchanan has cashed and gone deep in several WSOP events, even making two final tables.

But the bracelet has kept on eluding him.

The closest he came was last year, when he finished second in the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six Handed tournament.

That bracelet went to Dan Kelly, but Buchanan still managed to take home $812,941.

Eliminations

The first player to hit the rail after our last update was the one and only Chau Giang. Giang was eliminated in an old fashioned Hold’em flip. He held jacks and was up against Matthew Ashton’s ace-king.

Ashton hit his ace and sent the ever friendly, always talkative Chau Giang home.

Giang takes home $26,350 for his 15^th place finish, just missing another payjump.

That jump would go to Fu Wong, who finished in 14^th .

Wong was shortstacked and after a series of raises and re-raises, he found himself all in against Andrey Zaichenko and Ram Vaswani.

Zaichenko bet Vaswani out of the pot on the turn and was heads-up against Wong.

Wong - A♣ Q♥ 3♥ 2♣
Zaichenko - A♥ 10♦ 8♥ 5♠

The board read 4♦ 10♥ 10♣ 4♠ and then the dealer dealt a 4♥ on the river.

Wong hit the rail and made the payjump to $31,719.

Erik Sagstrom would then fall to Zaichenko in a Razz hand. Sagstrom would finish in 13^th for $31,719 and Zaichenko would earn another kill on his Day 3 resume.

Tom Dwan is still going strong in the H.O.R.S.E. tournament. All the pros who have bracelet bets with him are beginning to sweat.

Chip Counts

We will give you 10, because that’s how many they allow us to give you. Courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Michael Binger – 940,000
Shawn Buchanan – 940,000
Tom Dwan – 870,000
Matthew Ashton – 825,000
Daniel Ospina – 810,000
Jacobo Fernandez – 790,000
Andrey Zaichenko – 735,000
Fabrice Soulier – 300,000
Ram Vaswani – 290,000
Kyle Loman – 260,000

We’re down to 15 players in the H.O.R.S.E.

Eliminations have been swift and brutal in the first hour of play. We’ve managed to lose 8 players, making our way down to our final two tables.

Robert Williamson III actually wasn’t the first player to be eliminated today. Despite starting the day as the tournament shortstack, with only 22,000, Williamson managed to outlast Chris Klodnicki.

Klodnicki finished in 23^rd place only to be followed by Williamson, who fell to Ram Vaswani in a hand of Hold’em.

Yuval Bronshtein was next, he finished in 21^st for $21,905. This is already Bronshtein’s fourth cash during this year’s WSOP. But, despite being a mincash, it’s the largest cash he’s had this year.

The players continued to fall rapidly until we hit 17. Brett Richey, Tom McCormick and John Monnette all busted out within a matter of minutes.

All of the sudden, we found ourselves at the two table bubble.

The person to take up that unlucky spot was Frankie O’Dell. O’Dell showed up to the event 45 minutes late and was getting blinded away.

When he did show up, he managed to bust out in 17^th, making him the last player to earn the $21,905 mincash.

But one of the final two tables would find themselves a bit short.

Before pausing to redraw, Tam Hang was eliminated by Daniel Ospina and finished in 16^th place.

He managed to make the payjump to $26,350.

The floor then took a quick break to redraw.

Chau Giang took this opportunity to run to the bathroom as quickly as he could.

Other players joined him but most stood around, waiting to get back to action.

When all was said and done, this is what the final two tables looked like.

Courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Table Draw

Table 1

Seat 1 – Andrey Zaichenko
Seat 2 – Erik Sagstrom
Seat 3 – Fu Wong
Seat 4 – Ram Vaswani
Seat 5 – Michael Binger
Seat 6 – Daniel Ospina
Seat 7 – Empty
Seat 8 – Shawn Buchanan

Table 2

Seat 1 – Kyle Loman
Seat 2 – Tom Dwan
Seat 3 – Chau Giang
Seat 4 – Max Pescatori
Seat 5 – Fabrice Soulier
Seat 6 – Matthew Ashton
Seat 7 – Jacobo Fernandez
Seat 8 – Joe Cassidy

We also have a new chip leader. For the first time of the tournament, Daniel Ospina has taken the chip lead with 845,000.

Ospina is a Colombian player who’s just recently started to show up on the poker radar. His first cash was during last year’s $1,500 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event where he finished in 12^th.

He cashed another two times that year and then made an LAPT final table in Lima, Peru. He’s now back in Vegas for another WSOP and has already cashed once.

He finished 44^th in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event for $4,146.

Ospina is now guaranteed his largest WSOP cash and is close to making his deepest run and first WSOP final table.

But Ospina still has to outlast a tough field to do that. He has the ever dangerous Tom Dwan in second place. Dwan is only 5,000 behind Ospina with 840,000.

We’ll keep you updated on more H.O.R.S.E. action.

Chip Counts

Here are 10, courtesy of WSOP live updates.

Daniel Ospina – 845,000
Tom Dwan – 840,000
Jacobo Fernandez – 700,000
Michael Binger – 690,000
Ram Vaswani – 650,000
Matthew Ashton – 590,000
Fabrice Soulier – 540,000
Shawn Buchanan – 490,000
Kyle Loman – 370,000
Max Pescatori – 330,000

Day 3 of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship is now underway.

We burst the money bubble in the final minutes of the day yesterday and only one player, Daniel Alaei, cashed.

He was out in 24^th place and earned $21,905. Today other players will join him on the results page.

23 players have returned to unbag their chips and play down to a winner.

Some of those players include, Tom Dwan, Chau Giang, Shawn Buchanan, Yuval Bronshtein and our chipleader, Michael Binger.

If you were following our coverage yesterday you might remember that at one point, Binger was short stacked and got into a verbal altercation with Daniel Negreanu.

There, the F-Bomb was dropped a couple of times and Negreanu was told to shut up twice.

Both players made peace after the hand though, and Negreanu busted later on in the day.

Binger on the other hand would chip up and end the day in the chiplead.

Despite being 15^th in the WSOP all-time money list and making five WSOP final tables, Binger has yet to win a bracelet.

We’ll see if he can change that today.  

Or maybe tomorrow.

If we reach 10 levels of play, then we’ll stop – with however many players are left – and return tomorrow for a fourth day of H.O.R.S.E.