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Scotty Nguyen Conquers First Ever LA Poker Classic $10K HORSE Event
Thu, Feb 19th, 2009 @ 12:00am
After three days, Scotty Nguyen was the last man standing in the first-ever LA Poker Classic $10,000 HORSE Championship.
Nguyen was just one of 96 player to enter the inaugural event. Also showing up with $10K in-hand; Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Jesus Ferguson, Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Allen Cunningham, Layne Flack, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Nick Schulman, Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler and Jennifer Harman. By the end of Day 1, they were down to 70 players. After Day 2, only a pair of eight-handed tables remained. If you wanted to get paid, you had to be in the top nine.
Nguyen, the 1998 WSOP Main Event winner and 2009 WSOP $50K HORSE champ, was able to not only survive for 12 hours on the final day, but he would also outlast a stacked final table and November Nine member Chino Rheem in heads-up play to claim the title and $340,993. Rheem, a Los Angeles local, will add $182,477 in runner-up money to the $1.75 million he earned in the Main Event and the $1.5 million he won by taking down the WPT Five-Diamond in December.
Here are the final results:
"Before I came down to play this tournament, I told myself 'I'm going to dominate,'" an energized Nguyen said after the event. "This was a good field to play against. But the win here and at the WSOP has got to make people consider me number one in HORSE. And to win this major event before heading into the LA Poker Classic No Limit Hold'em Championship; it motivates me, brings my game up and gives me nothing but confidence, baby!"
The $10K HORSE Event was the first of three big buy-in events on the LAPC's 35 tourney schedule. The other two $10K events are a Heads-up event, which began Feb. 18, and the Main event, which kicks off Feb. 21.
"We felt the addition of two big-money events this year adds to the prestige of the LA Poker Classic and attracts top players from around the globe to Commerce Casino," said LAPC Tournament Director Matt Savage. "From the list of pros that came out for the HORSE event, I think we made the right move including this tournament in the LAPC lineup."
This year's LAPC main event begins at noon pacific time on Saturday, February 21st and runs for six days until a new champion is crowned on Thursday, February 26th.
In 2008, Phil Ivey broke his WPT winless streak, finally taking down the LA Poker Classic title after seven WPT final table appearances without a win. He bested the field of 665 players to take nearly $1.6 million and his long-overdue first WPT bracelet. It was a superior final table that featured Phil Hellmuth, Jr . (6th - $229,820) and Nam Le (4th - $411,770).
Kaelaine will be there to bring you live coverage of the main event beginning on Day 3. Summary coverage of Days 1 and 2 will also be available on the site, so keep your browser pointed to PokerPages.com.
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