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July 17th 2006
WSOP Roundup: Reese takes down H.O.R.S.E while Madsen and Chen win Hold’em events
The $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event at this year’s WSOP was touted as being one of the most exciting and challenging events in the history of poker. It didn’t disappoint.
Event #20: $50,000 H.O.R.S.E
Day two of the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E even saw a field of over 120 narrowed down to just 9. With only limit games played in H.O.R.S.E that would prove to take some time, and it wasn’t until 9am that the final nine players were decided.
It was to no-ones surprise that these were nine players of the highest quality. Many people had predicted perhaps the strongest final table in WSOP history, and they were not wrong. The nine players had 37 WSOP bracelets between them and needed little introduction to the watching crowd.
In the lead at the start of the day was Chip Reese, with $1.75 million in chips. Next was the legend himself, Doyle Brunson, with $1.2 million. Then it was Andy Bloch, followed by Phil Ivey, Jim Bechtel, David Singer, Dewey Tomko, T.J. Cloutier and Patrik Antonius.
Antonius started the day with just $13,000 in chips, and it was no surprise that he was first out. But that Doyle Brunson would be the next to go was something no-one had expected. Starting second in chips he saw his stack decimated as a number of big bets fell foul to all-in re-raises. Perhaps the 19 hour session of the previous day had taken its toll. Whatever the reason, he was gone in eighth.
The next out was Dewey Tomko, eliminated by Andy Bloch. He was followed by David Singer, who lost out to Chip Reese, and then by T.J Cloutier and Jim Bechtel who both fell foul of Andy Bloch. On both hands Bloch had T-T against his opponent’s pocket sevens. On both occasions the tens stood up.
That left three players, but Andy Bloch and Chip Reese had considerably more chips than Ivey and Ivey bowed out after Bloch hit a flush draw when all-in against Ivey’s top pair.
The Reese v Bloch heads-up was one of the greatest battles in WSOP history, perhaps THE greatest. Of one thing there was no debating: it was the longest heads-up battle ever filmed.
For over 7 hours the two players fought, with the chip lead swinging two and fro. Still no-one was able to make the decisive blow and in the end, perhaps inevitably, it came down to a coin flip.
With a king high flush draw on the flop Reese check-raised Bloch all-in and Bloch called with top pair. A diamond hit on the turn and Bloch was crippled. 11 hands later he succumbed to the inevitable when all-in with 9-8 against Reese’s A-Q. The board blanked out and the title, along with the $1,784,640 first prize, belonged to Chip Reese. Andy Bloch took down $1,029,600 for second place.
Event #21: $2500 NL Hold’em Short Handed tournament
The final table of Event #21 saw a number of well known players. Mick Guttman had already finished 2nd in the $10,000 PL Omaha while William Chen had taken the bracelet in the $3000 Limit Hold’em. Also present was Harry Demetriou, the popular European pro who recently finished second in a WPT main-event winning over $1 million in the process.
Demetriou however was first out, his pocket jacks no match for Mick Guttman’s A-A. At that time Demetriou was second in chips, and the win gave Guttman a hug chip lead. He kept that chip lead right up until there were just two other players left, at which point he suffered a desperately unfortunate collapse. First he lost a massive pot to Nath Pizzolato, enjoying his first appearance at the WSOP. Guttman had a jack high flush, but Pizzolato had the nut flush, and that left him in the chip lead.
Then, ten hands later, Guttman was all-in with A-K against William Chen’s J-J. The jacks stood up, and a desperately disappointed Guttman was out in third.
That left Chen and Pizzolato with even chip stacks and a chance to replicate the epic heads-up battle of Reese and Bloch. They didn’t. The heads-up battle lasted exactly 2 hands. William Chen won the first hand to gain a slight chip lead and then on the second hand made the nut straight at the same time as Pizzolato made the bottom straight. The chips went in and Chen had his second bracelet along with the $442,511 first prize. Pizzolato picked up $238,280.
Event #22: $2000 NL Hold’em
Another huge field assembled for Event #22, with 1579 players lining up for the start of play. That created a prize pool of nearly $3 million and there were two British players on the final table trying to get their share.
Both were well known to the watching crowd after they faced each other at the final table of the 2002 WSOP championship. John Shipley, who started with a vast number of chips that day, ended up a disappointed man in seventh, although Gardener, who finished runner-up to Robert Varkonyi was perhaps even more upset.
This time both were looking to get their hands on a coveted WSOP bracelet, but once again both would fall short of that milestone. Shipley started with a smallish stack and pushed all-in with J-7. He was called by Paul Sheng with J-J and that was the end of his tournament.
Gardener did rather better, finishing in 3rd place and losing to the eventual winner Jeff Madsen. Madsen had been very fortunate to remain on the final table, after he found himself all-in preflop with QQ against Troy Parkins’ AA. He caught a miracle queen on the flop and never looked back.
Madsen already had a third place finish under his belt from the Omaha Hi/Lo event and he vanquished Paul Sheng in a single hand.
Just like in the previous event both players hit a straight on the first hand of heads-up play. Madsen flopped a jack high straight and when Sheng hit a ten high straight on the turn all the chips went in the middle. Madsen collected $660,948 for first and Sheng collected $330,485 for second.
Submitted: 17/07/2006 14:31:00
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