World Series of Poker event 49: David Bach Wins $50K HORSE Event

The 2009 $50,000 HORSE event attracted 95 of the world's best poker players. The number of entrants decreased from the previous year which attracted 148 entrants. As play began, player's speculated as to the reason why the numbers decreased so dramatically. Was it the economy? Was it Scotty Nguyen's drunken tirade last year? Many believed that it was ESPN's unfortunate decision to not televise this year's final table. Even though the field decreased, the players still had a full five days of play. 87 players would be eliminated on the way to a star studded final table. After 20 hours of play, David Bach was proclaimed the winner of the 2009 $50,000 HORSE event. He took home the bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial trophy, and the $1,276,806 first place prize.

The start time for Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE event was pushed back an hour due to the fact there were so few entrants registered. At the scheduled start time of 12:00 p.m., the tournament clock read only 60 players entered for the event. The players were outnumbered by the fans watching on the rail. It was a strange occurrence as this is one of the most prestigious events at the WSOP. It was quite a change from previous events this year, as many sold out quickly. The players finally took their seats and with such a strong field, there were going to be some challenging tables. One of the toughest tables to start consisted of last year's 3rd place finisher Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey who has captured two bracelets this year and was hoping for a third, and Matt Glantz who also final tabled this event last year. Former champions Freddy Deeb and Scotty Nquyen were also in the field. Many of the fans were snapping pictures of Scotty wondering if he would show similar antics this year as he did the previous year. As the day progressed, so did the number of fans on the rail. They were all hoping to get a glimpse of their favorite player. Crowd favorite, Daniel Negreanu was seen signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans. The players would play five levels on Day 1 before calling it a day. Dan Shak and Steve Zolotow were two out of the four players who would be eliminated on Day 1. Hasan Habib, on the other hand, would have a better day as he led the remaining 91 players into Day 2 action.

Day 2 of the $50,000 HORSE began at 4:00 p.m. local time and the remaining 91 players would play another five levels. Early on, we saw a few eliminations in Jennifer Harman, Ali Eslami and Greg Mascio. As the day progressed, certain players were able to get a hold of key pots. Gus Hansen was one who took advantage of his table. Gus' aggression paid off throughout the day despite being moved around. He was once at Phil Ivey's table then to Daniel Negreanu's and then to Freddy Deeb's. However, more eliminations were to come. Justin Bonomo, Greg Raymer and Max Pescatori were a few more to go. Andy Bloch and Jeffrey Lisandro were next. Lisandro was going after his 4th bracelet this year, but ended up bricking a flush draw to be sent packing. After play was completed on Day 2, only 53 players would still have chips for Day 3. Hasan Habib relinquished his chip lead over to Gus Hansen. However, Hasan Habib was still in the top five players. Reigning champion, Scotty Nguyen would also finish in the top five chip leaders and had hopes of having as good of a tournament as he did last year.

It was Day 3 and you could tell the remaining 53 players were ready to make their move. Leading into Day 3, Gus Hansen was showing his aggression early on and taking down key pots. Once again, the remaining 53 players were outnumbered by the fans on the rail. Phil Ivey, a fan favorite, was one of the first players to go out. Following him throughout the day were Nick Schulman, Doyle Brunson, David Benyamine, and 2008 final table member, Barry Greenstein. When John Hennigan was eliminated in 25th place, the remaining 24 players were condensed to three tables. A disappointment came to many fans on the rail when Scotty Nguyen would be eliminated late in the day. He did not seem to be too upset, as he kindly signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans. The last elimination of the night brought the number of players down to 19. Those 19 players would then come back for Day 4, three of them to go home without a cash.

First to go out on Day 4, was short stacked Todd Brunson. The crowd seemed to grow as the tournament progressed and were excited to get a glimpse into history. The next player to be eliminated before the money would be Brett Richey.

The bubble boy came in the name of Frank Kassela. He just missed the money finishing in 17th place. Eliminations seemed to go at a steady pace throughout the entire day once the bubble had burst. 2007 champion Freddy Deeb would be eliminated in 14th place, just missing the final table. The play was down to nine players and Gus Hansen was on the short stack. He would not be able to overcome his chip disadvantage and ended up going out in 9th place. That gave us our final table of eight players. Play was over for the evening. Here is how the chips looked going into the final table:

Erik Sagstrom 3,675,000

Vitaly Lunkin 2,490,000

David Bach 2,345,000

John Hanson 1,700,000

Huck Seed 1,380,000

Chau Giang 1,075,000

Erik Seidel 965,000

Ville Wahlbeck 645,000

Eric Sagstrom led the remaining eight players into the final table. Like Day 1, the final table start was pushed back. Eric Seidel was the first to be eliminated from the tournament in 8th place. He came into the final table looking for his 9th bracelet, but his day would end early as he could not hit his draw in Stud 8 or Better. A few hands later, Chau Giang would be eliminated in 7th place. He would get it all in against Eric Sagstrom in Hold'em on the flop of AQ high. Chau held Q9 to Sagstrom's AQ. He would not improve and Chau's tournament life would be over. Next to be eliminated would be Ville Wahlbeck. He would be all in during the Omaha 8 or Better round against David Bach. He would not be able to hit his open-ended straight draw/low draw and Bach made a full house. 5th place was awarded to Huck Seed when he became short stacked and was all in during the Hold'em round. He could not beat the top pair of John Hanson and left in 5th place. 4th place would go to Vitaly Lunkin. Lunkin's elimination came in the Stud 8 round when he was all in with trip threes and a low draw and bricked on 7th street. Eric Sagstrom's three Aces ended up holding to take play to three-handed.

Three handed play went for quite some time. David Bach battled back from the short stack to get even in chips. He then took key pots away from Eric Sagstrom. Sagstrom had six bets on the table and was all in for his last few during Omaha 8 or Better. He was not able to catch an out and became the third place finisher. Play was then heads up between John Hanson and David Bach. When heads up play began, the players were almost dead even in chips. However, John Hanson was able to chip down David Bach and take the chip lead away. Not long after, David Bach regained the chip lead and would continue in the lead for the majority of the rest of the match.

They were heads up for some seven hours, taking a break after each level. The number of hands reached 400 and David Bach had a commanding chip lead over John Hanson. Hanson was not able to overcome his short stack and was eliminated in second place. David Bach played a great match having overcome short stack status earlier in the evening during final table play. John Hanson and David Bach battled at the longest final table in WSOP history having playes 492 total final table hands.

David Bach wins the $50,000 HORSE event. He played a solid five days of poker to take the title. He takes home the honor of carrying the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and receives the first place prize of $1,276,806.

Here are the final table payouts:

1st $1,276,806 David Bach

2nd $789,199 John Hanson

3rd $522,394 Eric Sangstrom

4th $368,813 Vitaly Lunkin

5th $276,610 Huck Seed

6th $219,655 Ville Wahlbeck

7th $184,087 Chau Giang

8th $162,382 Erik Seidel

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