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Tom Dwan screen name durrrr has a nice little chip lead in the 2010 WSOP Event #55: Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship. Tom is going to have to “dodge some bullets” to remain atop these final 33 players. One of those bullets is Phil Hellmuth who is probably foaming at the mouth, trying to get his 12th bracelet. In 17th is Alexander Kravchenko who is excellent at riding short stacks to the final table. Blair Rodman is one of my favorite tournament players and has great instincts. Michael Binger is a “rock” and has a fairly healthy stack. Daniel Alaei is one of those silent assassins always lurking. Benjamin Lamb might be a future Phil Ivey but unfortunately hes riding a short stack with little room to make moves.

1 Tom Dwan 910,000
2 Danny Wong 563,000
3 Julio Marines 539,000
4 Ludovic Lacay 528,000
5 Seamus Cahill 495,000
6 Daniel Harmetz 490,000
7 Miguel Proulx 468,000
8 Dmitry Stelmak 448,000
9 Alessio Isaia 443,000
10 Ville Mattila 416,000
11 Michael Binger 391,000
12 David Ulliott 380,000
13 Phil Hellmuth 347,000
14 John Racener 335,000
15 Daniel Alaei 325,000
16 Stephen Ladowsky 302,000
17 Alexander Kravchenko 284,000
18 Leandro Pimentel 254,000
19 Blair Rodman 240,000
20 Jordan Smith 224,000
21 Fabrice Soulier 218,000
22 Jason Mercier 213,000
23 Matthew Wheat 208,000
24 Tony Cousineau 193,000
25 Shawn Hattem 181,000
26 George Abdallah 170,000
27 Stephen Pierson 165,000
28 Trevor Uyesugi 152,000
29 Benjamin Lamb 145,000
30 Jason Lester 143,000
31 Ben Blackmore 99,000
32 Nenad Medic 74,000
33 Timothy Flanders 64,000

Prizepool
1st $780,599
2nd $482,265
3rd $354,218
4th $262,208
5th $195,631
6th $147,138
7th $111,524
8th $85,180
9th $65,568
10th-12th $50,867
13th-15th $39,906
16th-18th $31,288
19th-27th $24,815
28th-36th $19,839

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In 2006, the World Series of Poker instituted a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event to meet the demands of professionals for a higher buy-in event. The winner of the event and of subsequent events became known as the “True World Champion of Poker.” After the 2009 WSOP, the decision was made to change the format of the game to an 8 Game format and as such the event is now known as “The Poker Player’s Championship.” Somewhere between 100 and 150 of the top poker players from around the world will take part of this event, and today I thought I would make some picks at whom might do well in the event.

Phil Ivey

It does not matter what game is being played, if Phil Ivey is in the mix, he is a force to be reckoned with. Ivey made the final table of the 2006 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event and also cashed in the event in 2008. He holds major titles in every variant of the game played in the Player’s Championship. A focused Phil Ivey is a force at the tables, and with this event being the first open event of the WSOP, expect him to come out swinging.

Jason Mercier

Many people when they think of Jason Mercier don’t think of him as a mixed game player. In December, he took down the $5k H.O.R.S.E. event at the Doyle Brunson WPT Classic and he also has a bracelet in PLO. Mercier has been one of the hottest tournament players on the circuit in the past couple of years and don’t be surprised to see him go deep in this event.

Erik Seidel

With the exception of stud games, Erik Seidel has bracelets in every form of poker being played in the 8 Game event. While he doesn’t have a stud bracelet, he did make the 10k stud final table in 2008. Seidel made the final table of last year’s $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. and should be poised to make another deep run.

Freddy Deeb

The 2007 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Champion is always a threat in this event. He finished 14th last year in the event and may have momentum going into this WSOP with a recent win in the WPT Paris High Roller’s Event. Deeb also has three WSOP final tables in 2-7 lowball, including a bracelet.

Annie Duke / Jennifer Harman

When it comes to mixed game poker, in all honesty there aren’t very many women that consistently compete at a high level year in and year out. Annie Duke and Jennifer Harman are the exception to that rule. Annie is always making a final table in a non-Holdem event yearly at the WSOP and Jennifer Harman is always a threat to make the final table when she is focused. I put both of them into the same pick because depending on how they are running either of them or maybe even both of them can make the final. With this being the “Year of the Woman”, do not be surprised if one of them makes the final table.

Of course, every year there seems to be someone that comes out of nowhere to do well in the 50k event. Will a relative unknown do well this year or will some internet phenom step up and take his shot with the best in the business. The $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship kicks off May 28th at 5 p.m. at the Rio in Las Vegas.

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The first three months of 2010 has provided some epic matchups nearly every week during Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. poker. We have seen former champions return to glory, red pros step up and show why they are the best, and virtual unknowns go on amazing runs to take down what is one of the most coveted weekly mixed tournaments on the internet.

The January 3rd edition saw a rare seven handed final table. The final was a virtual list of unknowns with depahs eventually heading into heads-up with a more than 3 to 1 chip lead. His lead held and he eventually took down the event. Brandon Leeds “BrandonPL” took down the 4th largest scores of his online poker career when he took down $9,000 for the January 10th edition of Sunday Night HORSE.

On January 17th, Esther Rossi became the first Full Tilt Poker red pro to win Sunday Night HORSE since this site started following the event. She was outchipped 3 to 1 heads-up at one point but made a strong comeback thanks to strong play in Seven Card Stud to take the title. Allie “The Prescott” Prescott had made a few final tables in Sunday Night HORSE prior to the January 24th edition and looked primed to win the title. However, NestOfSalt came back during Stud to take the lead and eventually the title. The final Sunday Night HORSE of the month was headlined by red pro Alan Boston and former multi-time champion INTERCEPTOR. INTERCEPTOR started the final as chip leader and Boston third in chips. Boston quickly donked off his stack and finished in 8th. INTERCEPTOR did quite the opposite and continued to build his stack. Ultimately, he cut a deal with justakid69 and INTERCEPTOR was declared champion yet again.

The first Sunday Night HORSE of February had an incredibly strong final table with TurnRiva, We Are Wolves, msueagles40, and red pro Scott Fischman all at the final. Ultimately, it was We Are Wolves against msueagles40. In the end We Are Wolves took down the title. Msueagles40 made the final table of Valentines Day edition of the event as well. Joining him was red pro Diego Cordovez and former champion Ryon Nicholson. For the 2nd straight week msueagles40 made heads-up play where he faced red pro Diego Cordovez. Unfortunately, Cordovez got the better of him and Diego Cordovez became the 2nd red pro this year to win Sunday Night HORSE.

The February 21st edition should have been LOLcats edition of Sunday Night HORSE as both icanhazchipz and chsburgereddy both made the final table. However, it was 8-SnipeR-8 that won the event. The end of the month edition of this event on February 28th saw both INTERCEPTOR and Ryon Nicholson make the final table. However, it was chip leader MarMoss that would walk away the winner.

March started off with a rare three way chop to end the March 7th edition of Sunday Night HORSE. In a table of virtual unknowns, the final three came down to NuttyNut, JD_Upper, and areastm_19. The betting limits were high and the three decided that it was a virtual crapshoot at that point. The three chopped up the money via a chip count deal and NuttyNut was declared the champion.

Goldfishman7 and Brandon Leeds both returned to the final table on March 14th, but it was KentyKent that took down the event. The March 21st edition of Sunday Night HORSE had one of the strongest final tables in the history of the event. Red pros Marc Karam and Michael Craig were in attendance as well as Turn Riva, paulgees81, Kevin Iacofano “kice32″, and dsindy. It was Iacofano that dominated late and took down the title in what was a highly entertaining final table. Both Marc Karam and Kevin Iacofano made the final table of the March 28th edition as well. This time, Marc Karam emerged victorious to become the third red pro this year to win Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E..

Of course, we cannot forget about our most recent installment from April 4th that saw former champion digablemars return to the final along with Tapp that Ace, thehoffix, and TurnRiva. In the end, loldazzlements ran like God against GodlikeRoy to come back from a huge deficit and win the event

As always, Sunday Night HORSE is one of the largest mixed tournaments of the week online. Pros and amateurs alike turn out to take their shot at a guaranteed prize pool of $30,000. If you want to get in on the action, head over to Full Tilt Poker and sign up. Maybe soon we will be covering you winning Sunday Night HORSE.

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Tom Dwan screen name ‘durrrr‘ , Ilari Sahamies screen name ‘Ziigmund’, Cole South, and Viktor Blom screen name ‘Isildur1′ go at it in heads up in separate Pot Limit Omaha matches. Blom took on Cole South on six different $200/$400 tables, while Dwan and Sahamies sat at two different $500/$1000 games. At these stakes, and with some of the most active players in the world, these games were guaranteed to provide some of the highest stakes action in the world. They didn’t disappoint. Sahamies took our first pot of the day, winning both runs of this $100,000 hand.

Dwan used an all in shove of $20,000 in this hand to force Sahamies to fold.

While Sahamies flopped two pair in this hand, Dwan made the nut flush, shipping a pot of over $110,000.

Top set was good enough for revenge for ‘Ziigmund’ here, winning a pot worth nearly $75,000.

In our first hand from the other match of the day, Cole South used a big bet of $18,000 to force Viktor Blom to lay this hand down.

Flopping bottom two wasn’t good enough to save Blom here, failing to double up and losing this hand to top set.

Our next hand comes from a Cap Limit game, where Tom Dwan lost both runs of a big pot, losing $30,000 to the nut flush.

Dwan made a straight on both runs of this hand, taking $40,000 from Sahamies.

Blom once again got all the money in here. Both players showed top pair, but South’s ace kicker was good enough for this $56,000 pot.

Sahamies won the final hand of the session, with two seperate full boats.

On the session, South was up about $150,000 on Blom, while Tom Dwan fell to Sahamies to a total of $100,000.

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