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RE (2): Horsing Around

by , Jun 22, 2008 | 7:59 pm

Comments (4)

According to Seth Palansky, Harrah’s Communications Director, the buzz is definitely all about the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event coming up on Wednesday, and pre-registration is up. Technically, I don’t know what that means because official numbers are not being released, but that might be a good sign. Seth isn’t sure if he’d bet on the number going up much from last year…

2006 $50K H.O.R.S.E. – 143 players, $6,864,000 prize pool
2007 $50K H.O.R.S.E. – 148 players, $7,104,000 prize pool

My personal estimation is that the number will rise again. According to the pros I’ve been asking, they all think the number will go up, but no one is willing to give a number. It might be a bit pie-in-the-sky, but with the increased realization that the $50K H.O.R.S.E. is the real gauge of a world champion poker player, along with the wicked prize pool and a greater number of players becoming skilled in mixed games, I’m predicting 175. (Flame away if you must.)


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4 Comments to “RE (2): Horsing Around”


  1. DanM     says:
    June 22nd, 2008 at 11:12pm

    Though I’m hesitant to take any PR flak’s word on what the “buzz” is, I am curious to know, “Up from what?” Up from two days ago I’ll believe. Up from last year, though?

    The only thing working in favor of a larger playing field would be that more people are playing HORSE online. And maybe that’s what Palansky knows … the number of people that Full Tilt, PokerStars, et al are sending for this event. (I think it was in the single digits last year, though it might have been as many as 12)

    Granted, the sites mentioned above can’t directly buy people in … but the big sites have apparently figured out how to do the packages in a way that satellite winners don’t just take the money and bank it. So even though the WSOP can’t take care of bulk buy-ins, I suspect for logistics purposes they do have a pretty good idea of how many online qualifiers are being sent.

    Still, there can’t be that many online qualifiers, right? And have you seen gas prices? If you want to set the over/under at 175, I’ll definitely take the action on the under.


  2. Aaron     says:
    June 23rd, 2008 at 9:36am

    Pauly and I already took the under, get in on the action while you can!


  3. Ed     says:
    June 23rd, 2008 at 11:35am

    I was going to go with my gut and say 163.


  4. DanM     says:
    June 23rd, 2008 at 11:47am

    OK, I’ll take 145, 146, and 131. Oh, and 162, just in case.