Great Moments from the World Series of Poker pt III

Chip Reese Puts His Name on the $50K H.O.R.S.E. Event

Aaron Angerman

David 'Chip' Reese was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1951. Reese always had a knack for card games, something he picked up when he was still in elementary school. A bout with rheumatic fever landed Chip at home for most of a school year, where he spent the days playing backgammon and gin rummy with his mother, days he largely attributes to success at the tables.

Upon graduating high school, Reese went to Dartmouth University and quickly became a campus poker legend, taking pots and bankrolls from both teachers and students. Reese graduated and left Dartmouth in 1974, with plans to study law at Stanford University. On the trip west, Reese stopped in Las Vegas and never left. His $400 bankroll ballooned to $60,000 and the new grad didn't look back. He would later inform his parents that law was no longer going in his future and had his belongings sent to him in Las Vegas.

Doyle Brunson said of his friend and table mate at the "big game", "If my family's lives were threatened and I had to win a poker match in order to save them, Chip is the player I would definitely choose." Brunson called Reese the best seven-card stud player he's ever seen. Doyle cemented those comments by having Reese pen the stud section of "Super System". Reese would cement those comments by winning World Series of Poker bracelets in 1978 and 1982, both in stud events.

After capturing the second bracelet, Chip disappeared from tournament play, instead focusing on the cash games. Reese has been referred to by many as the greatest high stakes cash game poker player to ever grace the tables.

On December 4, 2007, Chip Reese passed away in his sleep at his Las Vegas home, just hours after visiting the hospital with symptoms of pneumonia. He was 56.

In the years before his passing, Reese returned to tournament play at the request of his kids, who wished to see their dad on television with the other poker legends. At the 2006 WSOP, the Hall of Famer outclassed 142 of the greatest poker players in the world to capture the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E Championship title. Reese survived a marathon heads-up session with Andy Bloch and a final table which may go down as the greatest ever to grab the gold bracelet.

July 14, 2006

While the WSOP Main Event winner is referred to by many as the World Champion, poker pros tend to hold the $50K H.O.R.S.E. bracelet winner in higher regard. Throughout the event, there isn't a soft seat at the house and the four day event was so grueling that many players insisted that future H.O.R.S.E. Championships be stretched over five days. Nine of the game's greatest would limp into the final table, bringing with them 27 WSOP gold bracelets. Of the 143 players who coughed up the $50K buy-in, the biggest tournament buy-in of all time, only nine would limp into Day 4, each with hopes of capturing the $1.7 million first-place prize and the satisfaction of conquering the toughest tournament field ever assembled. On paper, the seating chart read like a "Murderers Row" of poker. Chip Reese entered the final table as the chip leader.

Seat Name Chips

1. Jim Bechtel 841,000
2. Doyle Brunson 1,227,000
3. Chip Reese 1,756,000
4. Dewey Tomko 438,000
5. Andy Bloch 934,000
6. T.J. Cloutier 351,000
7. David Singer 745,000
8. Patrik Antonius 13,000
9. Phil Ivey 885,000

Patrick Antonious was the first to go, his short stack dispatched in the opening minutes by Reese's pocket eights. Doyle Brunson was in search of his 11th bracelet, which would have been good for the all-time record, but ended up being the next to go. 'Texas Dolly' would dump a large portion of his chips off to T.J. Cloutier in a race and followed that up by bluffing off the rest off to Jim Bechtel a short while later. Dewey Tomko would finish in 7th place after running his eights ran into Andy Bloch's pocket ladies. After Reese used pocket jacks to bust David Singer in 6th, he had improved to a 2-1 chip lead over Bloch. But the former member of the M.I.T. blackjack team would eliminate Cloutier, Bechtel and Phil Ivey to close the gap and clear the table for heads-up play.

Heads-up play finally began at 2 a.m. On numerous occasions, Bloch had Reese on the ropes, but Reese would persevere. A turned gutshot lead to one double up, later a flush draw materialized, leading to another.

After five hours, Reese had pulled even, thanks to a double up with kings against pocket nines. Two and a half hours later, on the 354th hand of the final table, a winner was crowned. Reese called a Bloch all in, his A-Q out in front of Bloch's 8-9. The cards ran out and after the longest heads-up match in WSOP history, seven and a half hours, Reese's ace high was enough to take it down. Reese captured the first-place prize of $1,716,000, the third and final bracelet of his career and a place in poker history, as the winner of the greatest final table in WSOP history.

The WSOP and Harrah's Entertainment announced that the 2008 $50K H.O.R.S.E. event, and every future World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event, will be played in honor of Chip Reese, with the World Champion receiving the "David 'Chip' Reese Award".

A statement from Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

"As a tribute to this great player who embodied the very best of our game, next year's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship will be played in Chip's honor and memory and the winner will receive the "David 'Chip' Reese Award", as well as a WSOP bracelet, to commemorate his achievement."

Last year, Freddy Deeb grabbed the H.O.R.S.E. World Championship bracelet and more than $2.2 million. Who will rise to the top this year? With the greatest players in the world waiting for the cards to be in the air for this year's H.O.R.S.E. event, will we see another historic final table, like in 2006? Poker Pages will have reporters on the tournament floor, bringing you the best in live coverage, not only for the event Chip Reese put his name on, but for the duration of the WSOP. Join us for all of your WSOP coverage, beginning Friday, May 30th.