Cards are in the air, and though you technically can still buy in, the $50k HORSE event starts with 115 players. But we knew that was gonna be the case, right? Not a comment on the popularity of HORSE as a game, but just on the state of the poker economy at the top levels of the poker pyramid.
Some will suspect, I am sure, that this 20 percent drop in field size could be a foreshadowing of what\’s TK in the Main Event … but I don\’t think so. There\’s a big difference in a poker player\’s ability to get their hands on $10k for some No-Limit Hold\’em and $50k for Crazy Pineapple.
To that extent, the 2008 dip probably does more to enhance than it does hurt the HORSE event\’s prestige.
UPDATE: I now count 135 players. Gettin\’ up there, but surely not going to pass last year\’s totals in the next couple hours, right?
UPDATE: They\’re up to 140.
New prediction:the HORSE numbers this year, like so many other events, will be roughly the same as last year — either a little bigger or a little smaller — just took a few folks a little longer to buy in than before, for whatever reason.
UPDATE: Crap, wrong again on this … turns out to be not a little bigger, nor a little smaller, but the exact same size as last year, with 148