Poker's top guns expected to play

LAS VEGAS - Kids around the neighborhood know 'HORSE' as a basketball game of "Can you top this?" Skateboarders and BMX enthusiasts are part of the radical X-Games.

Poker has its Extreme Tournament as well.

It is the World Series of Poker's biggest buy-in event ever, but the principle will be the same.

The $50,000-to-play H.O.R.S.E tournament - expected to draw most of poker's elite players - begins a three-day run today at the Rio Casino-Hotel.

H.O.R.S.E. - a rotation of Omaha high, hold'em, Razz, 7-card stud and stud, eight or better or Omaha high-low split is expected to attract more than 100 players who are accustomed to - and can afford it - playing high-limit poker.

Expect to see Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Joseph Hachem, Phil Hellmuth, Sam Farha, Michael Gracz, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Chris (Jesus) Ferguson, Greg Raymer, and Allen Cunningham - and maybe Annie Duke - among the entries.

Also starting today will be the $1,000 Seniors tournament.

On Monday, Mary Rogers won the women's title, leading a record field of 1,128 players who generated a $1,128,000 prize pool. Rogers' payoff was $236,094. Jennifer Tilly, the 2005 champion, was eliminated late Sunday.

Through Monday, the 2006 WSOP had 15,237 entries, who have generated a prize pool of $27,655,692.

The $10,000 World Series of Poker championship tournament begins July 28 and runs through Aug. 10.

The largest individual payoff to date has gone to Jeff Cabanillas, who on the Fourth of July won the $5,000 no-limit hold'em tournament and earned $818,546 out of a prize pool of $3,110,000. Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 World Series champion, was second and was paid $423,893.

Other top payoffs include the $803,274 paid to Mark Vos for winning a $2,000 buy-in no-limit event that attracted 1,919 players, and the $757,839 that went to Brandon Cantu for beating 2,775 opponents in the first $1,500 tournament of the WSOP in late June.

NOTES - As of July 9, more than 3,500 had entered the $10,000-buy-in championship tournament ... The over-under number on how many players will compete is 8,500 ... In 2005, there were 5,619 entries, with a prize pool slightly in excess of $53 million ... Joseph Machem received $7.5 million for his victory; if the number of entries surpasses 8,000, the payoff could be around $11 million, with at least 750 players getting paid ... And again, the players at the final table will receive at least $1 million.

courtesy of Don McDermott

News Added: 14 July, 2006

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