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David Bach wins the 50k H.O.R.S.E and the coveted David Chip Reese Trophy. David Bach had to beat one of the hottest and fiercest final tables of all time. And to get the final table, David had to beat about 95 of the best poker players in the world. David Bach is not a household name in the poker world, but he will be soon. His career is on the rise and hes just won the “players main event”.

The final table was a grueling 20 hour session of poker, which was about an hour longer than the 2006 50K. Heads up play was 6 hours compared to the 7 hours back in 2006. This is good for the game in my opinion. To win the most prestigious event in poker, you have to have stamina and be able to beat people over a large number of hands. Mental focus and the ability to contain tilt are key attributes to being the best player in the world. This is unlike NL Holdem events where you get coolered in 20 minutes and the tournament is over, or you get lucky hitting a set vs AA. The blinds going up at slow levels makes the tournament almost a hybrid or the big cash game and a tournament. This structure allows big game cash specialists and tournament stars to play on a level field. This 20 session with 6 hours of heads up reminds me of the movie The Hustler, when Fast Eddie Felson takes on Minnesota Fats. In the beginning Fast Eddie (played by Paul Newman), is up an enormous amount of cash and whipping Fat’s but. Fats wants to end the night but Fast Eddie wants all of his money and wants the prestige of breaking Fats.

Fast Eddie Felson Vs Minnesota Fats

Minnesota Fats freshens up every hour, shaves, and doesn’t go on monkey tilt. Fast Eddie, on the other hand, starts drinking and rubbing it in. In the end a fresh Minnesota Fats wins all of his money back and wipes out Fast Eddie. You could say David Bach grinded down each player and survived by his humble low profile. I didn’t think he was going to win and barely noticed him at times because of the two players who were on hot streaks (Vitaly Lunkin and Ville Wahlbeck). Not to mention Erik Seidel trying to win his ninth bracelet. The point I’m trying to make is that a “heater” or luck is not going to win this event, It might get you to the final table, but your not going to be able to win.

Other players like Tony G made themselves huge targets by trying to intimidate or “tilt” other pros. Tony G got in a big confrontation with Freddy Deeb, and Freddy threatened him several times. I believe Freddy got a penalty at a key point of the tournament and that could have cost him a million. Tony G later admitted he will take any edge he can to win this high stakes tournament.

Vitaly Lunkin had a huge chip lead at one point and perhaps grew a little complacent. I saw a photo Poker News had taken of him with this big grin on his face (I had a bad feeling after that).
Here’s what his stack looked like:
Vitaly Lunkin 4,765,000
Erik Sagstrom 2,910,000
John Hanson 2,710,000
Ville Wahlbeck 2,335,000
Huck Seed 900,000
David Bach 795,000
Vitaly wins this, and I probably win my Full Tilt Fantasy league!

David was the shortest stack and overcame overwhelming odds to win just like Minnesota Fats in the fictional match between him and Fast Eddie.

David Bach has had some success as he cashed four times in last years WSOP. He finished in the money in Pot limit, NL holdem, Limit Holdem, and he finished 11th in the 50k H.O.R.S.E.! Congrats to David Bach for grinding his way to win the most prestigious event in poker!

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The final table of the 2009 50K H.O.R.S.E is set after Full Tilt Poker Pro Gus Hansen was eliminated in 9th place. Gus did an amazing job of playing the best limit players in mixed games after playing heads up Pot limit Omaha Hi the whole winter and spring. The Full Tilt Poker Pros are abundant at the final table with Huck Seed, Vitaly Lunkin, Erik Seidel, and Chau Giang.

Seat 1 - Ville Wahlbeck 645,000

Seat 2 - Erik Sagstrom 3,675,000

Seat 3 - John Hanson 1,700,000

Seat 4 - Huck Seed 1,380,000

Seat 5 - Vitaly Lunkin 2,490,000

Seat 6 - David Bach 2,345,000

Seat 7 - Erik Seidel 965,000

Seat 8 - Chau Giang 1,075,000
Source Poker News

Eric Seidel is looking to get his 9th Bracelet and sneak up on Johnny, Doyle, and Phil Hellmuth. Chau Giang is an accomplished Bobby’s Room player and most likely has the most high stakes poker experience out of the final table. Vitaly Lunkin is looking for his 2nd Bracelet of the series after having won the 40k Holdem and 2nd in the 10k Pot Limit Omaha. Huck Seed won the National Head up competition this year for $500,000. I’m really pushing for Vitaly Lunkin to win this and become immortalized as one of the greats.

David Bach is no joke and will be one of the players to beat. Erik Seidel is a very aggressive but is at less then a million chips so I’m wondering if it will tone him down. Erik Sagstrom aka Erik123 is a less experienced but has been playing a ton online since the 90’s. Erik Sagstrom, Tony G, and Gus Hansen had created an online poker room a few years back called Pokerchamps.com. John Hanson finished 3rd in the 50k Horse back in 2007 for around $850k. Ville Wahlbeck already has 5 cashes and 1 bracelet in this years WSOP which is amazing by itself. It would be very interesting to see Ville Wahlbeck VS Vitaly Lunkin for the bracelet.

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Full Tilt Fantasy League

Right now I’m steaming because most of my picks to win the 2009 50K H.O.R.S.E are felted. What has me really fired up, is they were the chips leaders after day one. Justin Smith AKA bostedJ was my number 2 pick in the event and he was doing very well on day one. Andy Bloch is out… How does this happen? I think Huck seed is the only person left from my predictions for the 50K H.O.R.S.E./ I do have people in my Full Tilt Poker Fantasy league that are left in the event. Jon Turner AKA PearlJammer was also one of my picks and he was doing well day 1. I wait all year for this event and I’m really pissed off about about the number of buy ins. ESPN should have done TV coverage of the event and there would have been at least 200 entries, instead there were 97. I really don’t think it’s the economy that effected the event, I think it was absence of TV cameras. The event was headed to be the “new main event” since over 5000 people were playing in the real main event making it a 10k “LOLdonkament” as Barry Greenstein would say. OK Freddie Deeb was one of my picks, so I have at least 160k since he was in B section.

I really made a couple “dark horse” picks that should have made the final table. One was Justin Smith as I mentioned, and the other was Jon Turner. You might not think Jon Turner to be a dark horse, but hes not a household name in poker yet, and when I made my predictions
it was before the start of the WSOP. I also mentioned another dark horse “Yuval Bronshtein” in the article and he was playing strong. I was unsure if he was going to buy into a 50k event , so I didn’t put him on the list. Be sure to look for Yuval Bronshtein in future live H.O.R.S.E events as he dominates them online. David Benyamine was was one of my top picks and he was the chip leader for some stretches.

2009 50k H.o.r.s.e Update

To my surprise Gus Hansen is the chip leader. He wasn’t even playing in any WSOP events and he finally made an appearance. I did not peg him to even be in it at this point since he’s playing so much heads up Omaha Hi. I figured he’d have tough time adjusting to the 8 person limit tables. I once again under estimated the Great Dane and his ability to acclimate to any poker table.

The Russians are looking to take over the poker world once again with several contenders. I want to call Mikhail Tulchinskiy a pot limit Omaha specialist but can’t because of his NL Holdem and H.o.r.s.e finishes. Vitaly Lunkin won the 40k NL Holdem event and is aiming to win the H.o.r.s.e. That would be the sickest poker accomplishment. Oh BTW, he finished 2nd this year in the 10k Pot Limit Omaha.
Full Tilt Poker pro Vitaly Lunkin is on a hot streak like many of the seasoned pros at the 2009 WSOP. There are several players with multiple bracelet wins and Lisandro won 3 this year. This is definitely
the year of the pros and I think it’s because of the economy. I don’t think the fish are able to afford to buy in these tournaments and the sharks are eating the donks that did enter real fast.

As I said earlier, I totally think the low turn out for the 50k H.O.R.S.E is from ESPN not airing the event on TV. I don’t think Phil Hellmuth even enter and surely he would enter if it was televised. IMO the WSOP is well run, but they should have advised ESPN to keep airing the 50k until in gained momentum. They didn’t give it a chance. I also disagree with Daniel Negreanu wanted to make the final table of the 50k NL Holdem again. Horse is Horse and not NL.

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Jeff Lisandro is red hot in the 2009 WSOP! He just won his 3rd bracelet of the series making this one of the greatest poker accomplishments of all time. He just beat Full Tilt Poker blogger and writer Michael Craig heads up in Event 44 - $2,500 Seven Card Razz. Jeff Lisandro dominated the final table with a monster stack to earn his 4th bracelet and 3rd this year. Jeff Lisandro came to the final table with double the next highest stack with 814,000 in chips.

Seat 1 - Michael Craig 343,000
Seat 2 - Warwick Mirzikinian 271,000
Seat 3 - Steve Diano 96,000
Seat 4 - Allen Bari 55,000
Seat 5 - Ryan Fisler 412,000
Seat 6 - Jeff Lisandro 814,000
Seat 7 - Kenna James 210,000
Seat 8 - Eric Rodawig 171,000

Lisandro is silently becoming one of the greatest players of all time with over $4,000,000 in tournament winnings. Will Jeff Lisandro take down the 50k H.O.R.S.E next? This would undoubtedly be in the top five of all time poker achievements if he takes a 4th bracelet of the series in either the main event or the 50k H.o.r.s.e.. And btw, I had him as my a list choice in the Full Tilt Poker fantasy league! I think I had Michael Craig picked for my list and changed at last second :(. Micheal comes up with a big second place win that is much deserved. The $116k prize will help ease the pain of not taking 1st.

Good Luck to Jeff Lisandro to win his 4th of the series!

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