Event 1, HORSE - Live Updates

This tournament is over! Thomas Bihl was able to turn around his slide into infinity within the last hour, pulling even with Jennifer Harman during the latest Razz segment and then pulling ahead during Stud. By the time the players got to the Hold'em round Bihl had a 9:1 chip-lead and the German pro was able to ice the victory shortly after.

On the final hand, Bihl limped-in from the button and saw Harman check her option. The flop came K♠ 7♠ 7♣ and both players checked. The turn card was the T♠ and Harman check-raised all-in for her last $67,000. Bihl made the call and turned up 9-8 with one spade for a pair of draws, while Harman showed 10-x for two pair. The river card was a six and Bihl made his straight, earning the check mark and the tournament victory!

For the win, Thomas Bihl earns the honor of being the first-ever bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker Europe. He also earns £70,875 and, one presumes, a good night's sleep. Harman takes home £40,688 for her second-place finish.

Congratulations to both finalists and to the World Series of Poker on a successful beginning to the first-ever WSOPE!

This heads-up battle continues in full force, with high-profile railbirds like Daniel Negreanu, Marco Traniello, Marcel Luske, Jon Friedberg and Michael Craig sweating the action and Jennifer Harman appearing to take control of the situation.

During the Hold'em round, the diminuitive pro built her advantage from 7:3 to as much as 9:2, appearing to have opponent Thomas Bihl on the ropes throughout the Omaha round and nearly taking it all during the first few hands of the Razz segment.

The Buzzer was able to reverse the chip leaking, however, when with roughly $180,000 left he found himself betting into every street in Razz and committing most of his stack to the middle showing 10-4-7-5 to Harman's K-7-10-2. Just when it looked like curtains for the boy, Bihl turned up 8-2 in the hole for the 8-7 low and Harman, unable to compete, mucked.

Since then we've seen more of the same stalemate that characterized the earlier rounds, with Harman still holding the lead at $680,000 to $370,000 but with very little actual ground having been won or lost in the last hour.

We've played over an hour of heads-up play with a number of cycles and each game getting plenty of exposure. Neither player has been willing to give very much quarter to his/her opponent, and as such the chip counts at this point favor Harman by only about 3:2 ($650,000:$400,000). A slight edge, but with the limits about to increase it's an edge that could keep growing.

Harman recently augmented her stack when she and Bihl put chips in the pot on every street of an Eights hand, with Harman's up-cards winding up 8-Q-J-J and her hole cards producing another eight to give her two pair. Bihl could only muster a lower two pair with nines and fives and shipped a decent pot across the felt.

Stay tuned for more updates as the action continues.

In an Eights hand with Jennifer Harman, Kirk Morrison gets the last of his chips in on sixth street after check-calling his way throgh the earlier rounds and while showing 4♥ 4♣ K♠ 8♣ to Harman's J♣ 2♥ 7♥ K♦. Harman turns up a jack in the hole for a pair while Morrison has naught but a seven in the hole to help him shoot for the low with 8-7-4-2 as he awaits the final card. Seventh street is no help to the Kiwi Kid, who cannot make a low, or beat a pair of jacks for the high, and thus exits in third place for £26,250, ironically at the hands of the woman he'd intended to play heads-up for the title.

We are now heads-up between Thomas Bihl and Jennifer Harman, with both players having about $525,000 in chips.

The atmosphere is decidedly friendly as the three remaining players attempt to be the first player to win a WSOP outside the United States. Kirk Morrison is trying to convince Thomas Bihl to straddle but Bihl isn't buying it.

Morrison vs. Bihl

The two chip leaders, Kirk Morrison and Thomas Bihl, seem to be in a bit of healthy competition. After losing big pots in Hold'em and Seven-Card Stud, Morrison fought back and won a huge pot in Omaha Hi/Lo when he hit a full house. The two are pretty much neck-and-neck for chips right now.

Girl Power

Jennifer Harman has two ladies cheering very loudly for her from the rail. If there's a hand Harman wins it usually gets a hoot or a holler from these two.

The Daniel Negreanu Show

Even though Daniel Negreanu isn't playing in the final table he's certainly the center of attention. Apparently British Airways lost his luggage and he's not very pleased about it. He was heard shouting, "Shut them down! Shut them down!" to a group of poker fans who were laughing at his antics. Negreanu said he's going to wear the one shirt that he wore on the flight over all week to boycott the airline. Doesn't that hurt us more than it hurts them, Daniel?

Bihl and Morrison Go All the Way

Kirk Morrison and Thomas Bihl just went to seventh street in Razz. Bihl fired on sixth and seventh streets and Morrison called. Bihl proved he wasn't bluffing when he showed the wheel and won the pot. Bihl is getting very close to Morrison in chips.

Bring on the Booze!

Kirk Morrison and Jennifer Harman are enjoying a couple drinks to get them through the night. Morrison a white wine and Harman a double Baileys.

Harman on the Comeback Trail

Jennifer Harman is surviving and has battled her way back to $130,000 in chips.

Gimme a Break

Players are on a 20-minute break.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson's adversary in tonight's game finally got the best of him. While playing Seven-Card Stud Ferguson got all-in on fourth street against Thomas Bihl. The table looked like this:

Ferguson: 2♦ K♥ Q♣ 3♥

Bihl: 8♥ 3♣ 10♣ J♠

Thomas Bihl showed rolled-up kings while Ferguson showed A♣ 9♠. Ferguson was hoping to be dealt an ace and it never came. He is the fourth-place finisher in the very first event of the inaugural WSOPE.

Crowd Forming

The final table of the H.O.R.S.E. is beginning to draw some questionable characters in the audience. Among them are Daniel Negreanu, who has been bantering with the tournament director for the last hour, Michael Binger, Barbara Lewis and Jennifer Harman's hubby Marco Traniello. It's an interesting final table to say the least.

Chipping away at Ferguson

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is in trouble. After losing a number of small pots, Ferguson got involved with Thomas Bihl in couple of big hands. One of the hands occurred during an Omaha Hi/Lo split. Bihl bet out $20,000 in chips pre-flop and both Kirk Morrison and Ferguson called.

The board went 2♠ K♥ 3♦ 8♥ J♦ with both players firing back and forth at each other until the pot was sweetened to over $100,000. Finally the players showed their cards and it looked like this:

Chris Ferguson: A♣ 4♣ 2♥ 7♠

Thomas Bihl: A♥ K♦ 4♠ 9♣

The tournament director says that Ferguson has the low while Bihl has the high and it's a chop pot. Ferguson corrects him however and says, "Actually he wins the high and we split the low."

Being quartered put the hurt on Ferguson and he's now down below $100,000.

Harman Surviving

Jennifer Harman had a scare of her own when she faced off against Kirk Morrison in Omaha Hi/Lo. Harman raised pre-flop but Morrison three-bet and Harman called all-in for her last $30,000. She flipped over A♣ 3♠ 9♥ K♥ while Morrison showed A♥ 2♣ 3♣ 10♦.

The board went 2-A-3-T-6 and Harman scooped to keep herself from falling out of contention. Morrison looked down at the hand and exclaimed, "What just happened there?" then yelled out, "Cocktails!"

Time for the players to get something to eat. Check back in an hour for more of those patented PokerListings.com updates.

Change of Fortune

One-time chip leader Jennifer Harman has seen her gigantic stack of $420,000 sink down to $90,000. Harman lost large hands in Razz, Seven-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo. In one hand of Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo Harman went all the way to seventh street before folding to a bet from Chris Ferguson. Time to chip up!

Captain Takes the Bridge

When one pro falters another steps right in. Kirk Morrison has swooped in and taken over the chip lead for an impressive chip stack of $540,000.

No Rest for the Wicked

Chris Ferguson and Kirk Morrison, while on dinner break from the H.O.R.S.E. final table, are both playing in the Pot-Limit Omaha event which kicked off today. Guess there is no such thing as too much poker.

Chipperific chip count

Here are the updated chip counts for the remaining four players, courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com:

Kirk Morrison	$540,000
Thomas Bihl	$230,000
Chris Ferguson	$180,000
Jennifer Harman	$90,000

 

After dodging elimination on two separate all-in calls Alexander Kravchenko has finally relented and taken his place on the rail.

Kravchenko got all of his remaining chips in the pot while playing Omaha Hi/Lo on a board of 8♦ 6♥ K♠ J♥. Kirk Morrison made the call and both players flipped their cards over.

Kravchenko: A♣ 2♦ 4♣ 6♣

Morrison: A♦ 5♦ Q♥ 3♥

The river came 2♥, which made the Captain's flush and nut low so Kravchenko got scooped. That's all she wrote for the Russian.

We're back from break and here's what's been going on from the Empire Casino H.O.R.S.E. final table over the last hour:

Negreanu Entertains Final Table

Canadian Daniel Negreanu, who just busted from Event 2 of the WSOP, is currently hanging out with the audience watching the H.O.R.S.E. final table. Negreanu offered advice to a few players and then watched the action from afar.

Harman Looking Unstoppable

Jennifer Harman is putting on a poker clinic at the final table. She has well over $400,000 in chips and is winning pot after pot. In a recent tilt against Alexander Kravchenko while playing Razz she was showing 3♠ 9♠ A♠ against Kravchenko's 2♦ J♥-6d. Harman bet out $16,000 which quickly prompted a fold from the Russian.

Kravchenko Staves off Elimination

Alexander Kravchenko is sometimes known around these parts as the Barnacle because he never seems to give up. Kravchenko lived up to his nickname when he was pushed all-in against Thomas Bihl on third street while playing Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo. Bihl had a set of sixes (two of which were rolled up) while Kravchenko was in big trouble with only a pair of eights and a seven. Sure enough Kravchenko hit another eight to complete his set and then another seven to make a full house. There was no low. The Barnacle is holding strong!

Pride of the ATL, Razz specialist Yuval Bronshtein entered the final table second in chips, but has shockingly been eliminated in sixth place in this contest. Bronshtein was eliminated, ironically, during the Razz section when he got into a war with Thomas Bihl that saw all of the money in on seventh street with Bihl showing 3-K-5-A and Bronshtein 2-9-3-2. Bihl turned up an 8-7 in the hole, beating Bronshtein's 9-5-4 and sending the young American home with naught but £14,438 for his time.

Joe Beevers struggled with a short stack throughout his brief stay at the final table and has finally given up the ghost. He got all-in pre-flop with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Kirk Morrison during an Omaha segment and saw Morrison bet Jesus out on the river with the board having come K♦ T♣ 2♦ 7♦ J♠. K-Mo turns up the ace-high flush and Beevers auto-mucks, heading to the rail in seventh place for £11,812 in only his second H.O.R.S.E. tournament evar.

Captain Takes Charge

Kirk Morrison won a few hands and promptly took the chip lead away from Jennifer Harman. Perhaps Morrison is making good on his claim that he will face Harman in heads-up and battle for the bracelet.

Bihl Making Moves

Thomas Bihl is making moves of his own and has chipped himself up to 168,000, which is good enough for fourth place at the moment. Joe Beevers is still the short stack with just 46,000. Who will be the next to go in this prestigious European event? We wait with bated breath.

In a Hold'em segment, Gary Jones raises to $8,000 and Chris Ferguson makes the call out of the big blind. We're heads-up going to the flop, which comes J♣ T♠ 6♥. Jesus executes a heavenly check-raise but cannot scare Jones away, and the turn is the 8♠ with Jones down to his last $8,000. The last of the green-haired goblin's money gets in on fourth street and Jesus turns up 9-8 for a pair of eights with the gut-shot draw while Jones is on a cold bluff with Big Slick. The river card is a seven and Ferguson makes his straight unnecessarily, earning the check mark and sending Gary Jones to the rail. The Green Goblin will receive £9,188 for his eighth-place finish.