WSOP Update #13

A Nguyen-win situation

While several tournaments have come to a conclusion over the weekend, it was the $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. tournament that has grabbed centre stage. Scotty Nguyen (pronounced 'Win' for those not familiar, which is what makes the headline quasi-funny) earns his 5th bracelet and almost doubles his career WSOP earnings taking down the huge $1,989,120 pot by outlasting the strongest field of any poker tournament, including a very good group at the final table.

With big names like Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein and Erick Lindgren at the final table, Scotty was typically charismatic and entertaining. Scotty has played well over the past year, and is ranked 87th on Bluff Magazin'e Player of the Year standings currently, but winning this tournament should give him a huge boost up the standings. His last big splash in the world of poker came at last years WSOP $10,000 main event, where he finished 11th in the massive 8,000+ field, almost making the final table, but still grabbing a very healthy pay day.

Chip and a Chair, anyone? - As the money and the bracelet were brought out on the table the floor made an interesting discovery under the rail where Erick Lindgren was sitting. They found a single 5,000 chip that Lindgren overlooked when he played his final hand. Now, Erick wasn't able to fully cover the last raise Scotty Nguyen made in his knockout hand, but if he'd had enough chips to match Scotty's raise...well, anyone who knows the story of former World Champion Jack Strauss and his "chip and a chair" story would get an eerie feeling. That said, Scotty DID have Erick covered, and when the extra chip was discovered it was merely added to the mass of Scotty's stack.

Other tournaments underway include the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha and the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournaments.

Several big names remain in the PLO tourney, including Josh Arieh, Michael 'the Grinder' Mizrachi, David Williams, David Singer and Johnny Chan. Again, I'm rooting for Johhny here. Sure he has a lot of bracelets already (10 to be exact), but he's a class act, a nice guy, and had a cameo in rounders. With 381 entrants, only 87 remain after day 1, all fighting for the top prize of more than $850,000.

Conversely, Phil Hellmuth (11 bracelets, making him the all-time leader) is the early leader in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. Amongst the the remaining 183 other players include Joe Hachem, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and Allen Cunningham.