Ian Gordon Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 43
Montana Poker Pro Gallops Away with H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Gordon Collects $611,666 in Prize Money
U.K.’s Richard Ashby Barely Misses His Second Victory – Finishes as Runner Up
Through 43 WSOP Events -- WSOP Attendance up 11 Percent from Last Year
For the tournament portal page for this event, including official results, click HERE.
OVERVIEW
Ian Gordon was the winner of the $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. World Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker. This marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory, following several notable online wins and cashes. Gordon earned a well-deserved, and some might say surprising breakthrough victory. He collected $611,666 in prize money.
Gordon is a 24-year-old poker pro. He attended Washington State University before starting to play poker full-time about two years ago. Gordon, who hails from the poker-centric town of Missoula, MT, arrived at the final table of the H.O.R.S.E. championship with the thinnest resume among the final eight players. But in the end, it was Gordon who ginned the win and surprised everyone.
The runner up was Richard Ashby, who won his first WSOP gold bracelet just two weeks ago in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud competition (Event #21). He was poised to become the sixth British victory holder at this year’s series, which would have padded the U.K.’s existing record for most wins by any non-host country within a single year. For now, the U.K. remains in a holding pattern with five wins in 2010. The second-place consolation prize in this tournament amounted to a very respectable $378,027 for Ashby.
The tournament's top 24 finishers collected prize money. The final table included two former WSOP gold bracelet winners – Richard Ashby (1 win) and Nick Schulman (1 win).
Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Scott Fischman (10th), Steve Billirakis (11th), Michael Chow (13th), Johnny “World” Hennigan (14th), Robert Mizrachi (17th), Todd Brunson (18th), Scotty Nguyen (19th), and Abe Mosseri (22nd).
Ten of the 24 players who cashed in this tournament were previous gold bracelet winners.
Former gold bracelet winner Johnny “World” Hennigan who finished in 14th place, won the 2008 Ante Up For Africa event.
1998 World Poker Champion Scotty Nguyen cashed in 19th place. Nguyen also won the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. World Championship in 2008. Had he won this tournament, he would have become the first two-time H.O.R.S.E. champion in WSOP history.
THE CHAMPION – IAN GORDON
The $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. world champion (Event #43) is Ian Gordon, from Missoula, MT.
Gordon is 24-years-old.
Gordon grew up in Montana and has lived there his entire life, except for a few years when he was in college.
Gordon says he loved to play sports even though he was not good enough to compete at a collegiate level. He discovered poker and decided it was the best game for him to pursue as a means of exercising his competitive spirit.
Gordon is a professional poker player. He has been playing full-time for about two years.
Prior to playing poker, Gordon was a student at Washington State University. He majored in astrophysics.
Gordon’s only other recorded tournament cash took place at The Wynn Classic three years ago.
Gordon collected $611,666 for first place. He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.
According to official records, Gordon now has one win, one final table appearance, and one cash at the WSOP. His career WSOP earnings now total $611,666.
Gordon joins an illustrious group of prior H.O.R.S.E. Champions. The list of former winners includes: Chip Reese, Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen, and David Bach.
WINNER QUOTES
On what his first WSOP victory means: “This is a huge step for me to get this. It’s a really big moment for me.”
On growing up in Montana, where there are many poker rooms and good players: “There is a ton of poker talent in Missoula. But I did not really start playing that much poker until I got to college. When I came back I found a lot of friends in poker who definitely know what they are doing. It’s been a good system for me to be able to talk to them and get on the same page – not just about poker strategy, but how to make poker work as a lifestyle.”
On making poker work as a lifestyle: “Just to be able to manage a bankroll and control your expenses and not let losing affect you too much – just to be able to have a balanced lifestyle while playing poker.”
On his future plans: “I do not necessarily think poker is something I want to do my whole life. I feel like right now it is a money-making opportunity. There is a lot of potential. After I get some decent capital, I think I would like to own a business someday. It’s just in the back of my mind for sometime in the future.”
On what winning the WSOP gold bracelet means: “It means a ton to me -- especially the 10K H.O.R.S.E. It is a field full of pros who all know what they are doing. To be able to win that is special. You have to get a little lucky to win a tournament but this feels really good to be able to hold my own against all the top pros and come out on top.”
THE FINAL TABLE
The final table included two former WSOP gold bracelet winners – Richard Ashby (1 win) and Nick Schulman (1 win).
The final table began eight-handed.
The final table included players from just two different nations, Great Britain (1 player) and the United States (7 players).
The runner up was Richard Ashby, from Watford, England. Two weeks ago, Ashby won the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship. He came within a few hands of hitting a gold bracelet parlay, but instead had to settle for runner-up status and a very respectable $378,027.
The third-place finisher was Eugene Katchalov, from New York, NY. Katchalov remains on the edge of a breakthrough victory. This marked his 18th cash at the WSOP since 2005. Third place paid $248,831.
The fourth-place finisher was Marco Johnson, from Walnut Creek, CA. This was his 12th time to cash at the WSOP, all since 2007. He was second in a WSOP event two years ago. Johnson passed the $800,000 mark in WSOP winnings with this cash, which paid $181,503.
The fifth-place finisher was Matt Glantz, from Philadelphia, PA. He is a 38-year-old former options trader turned poker pro. Glantz now has 13 WSOP cashes, including a fourth-place finish in the 2008 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship, which was won that year by Scotty Nguyen. Glantz, who now has more than $3 million in overall tournament winnings, added another $135,040 to an impressive list of cashes.
The sixth-place finisher was 2001 world poker champion Carlos Mortensen, from Alicante, Spain. “The Matador,” known for his prowess in just about every variation of poker, had chips late but suffered a bad run midway into the final table. Mortensen had to settle for $102,237 in prize money. This was his 20th WSOP cash. He now has more than $2.3 million in WSOP earnings.
The seventh-place finisher was former gold bracelet winner Nick Schulman, from New York, NY. He won the $10,000 buy-in Deuce-to-Seven Lowball championship last year. Schulman now has nine WSOP cashes, all since 2006. Schulman added $78,654 to his poker bankroll.
The eighth-place finisher was Marco Traniello, from Las Vegas, NV. The Italian-born poker pro has one of the most impressive cashing records of any WSOP player over the past five years. Traniello cashed for the 27th time since 2005 – the most in-the-money finishes of anyone within that time span. Traniello, making his fifth WSOP final table, earned $61,414.
The final table began at 10 pm and ended at 5:45 am, for a duration of 7 hours and 45 minutes. This finale was shorter than expected and did not come close to the H.O.R.S.E. marathons of previous years.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS
The top 24 finishers collected prize money. Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Scott Fischman (10th), Steve Billirakis (11th), Michael Chow (13th), Johnny “World” Hennigan (14th), Robert Mizrachi (17th), Todd Brunson (18th), Scotty Nguyen (19th), and Abe Mosseri (22nd).
Ten of the 14 players who cashed in this tournament were previous gold bracelet winners.
Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Scott Fischman finished in 9th place.
Former gold bracelet winner Steve Billirakis finished in 11th place. When he won his victory in 2007, he was the youngest title winner in WSOP history. The record was eclipsed by Annette Obrestad (age 18) at WSOP Europe, held three months later.
Former gold bracelet winner Johnny “World” Hennigan who finished in 14th place, won the 2008 Ante Up For Africa event.
1998 World Poker Champion Scotty Nguyen cashed in 19th place. Nguyen also won the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. World Championship in 2008. Had he won this tournament, he would have become the first two-time H.O.R.S.E. champion in WSOP history.
ODDS AND ENDS
This is the 871st gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history. Note: This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded. It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded to date at WSOP Europe.
The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight). The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year. The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm. The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played. The entire presentation is open to public and media. Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.
Gordon requested that the national anthem of the United States be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony, held Sunday June 28th, 2010.
EVENT HISTORY
This is the first year the H.O.R.S.E. championship had a $10,000 buy-in. During the first four years, the world championship buy-in was $50,000. The first three tournaments (2006-2008) were televised by ESPN. Last year’s championship, won by David Bach, was not televised. This year’s schedule featured the $50,000 buy-in “Poker Players Championship,” which used the H.O.R.S.E. format, plus two additional games – Pot-Limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold’em. Organizers reasoned that the Poker Players Championship would become the premier big buy-in event of the WSOP. Hence, the H.O.R.S.E. championship was grouped with other “championship” level events for other games, which all include a $10,000 buy-in.
The forbearer of H.O.R.S.E. was S.H.O.E. (a mix of games including Seven-Card-Stud, Limit Hold’em, Omaha High-Low Split, and Stud High-Low Split), which was introduced at the 2001 WSOP.
H.O.R.S.E. was played for the first time as a gold bracelet event at the 2003 WSOP. Organizers thought it would be interesting to hold one H.O.R.S.E. tournament to go with the S.H.O.E. event, which took place at Binion’s Horseshoe.
The first WSOP H.O.R.S.E. tournament was won by Doyle Brunson.
H.O.R.S.E. is an acronym for five popular poker games. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments include a rotation of the following games -- Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split (also called Eight-or-Better). Many purists consider H.O.R.S.E. to be the ultimate test of poker skill, since it requires that players play all games well in order to win. This claim was perhaps best illustrated at the 2006 World Series of Poker, where H.O.R.S.E. returned to the tournament schedule after a long hiatus. For more than two decades, the late poker legend Chip Reese had been widely regarded as the best all-around player in the world. Appropriately, he won the inaugural tournament which cost $50,000 to enter and became the first H.O.R.S.E. world champion.
TOURNAMENT PLAY
The tournament was played over three consecutive days, from June 23-25, 2010.
The rotation of games in this tournament lasts eight hands. In other words – following eight dealt hands of Hold'em, there are eight hands of Omaha High-Low followed by eight hands of Razz, and so forth.
There were 241 entries. The total prize pool amounted to $2,265,400. The top 24 finishers collected prize money.
2010 WSOP STATISTICS
Tournament attendance is up significantly from this point last year. Last year, through 43 events, there were 42,735 entries. Thus far this year, there have been 47,441 total entries, an increase of 11 percent.
Through the conclusion of Event #43, the nationalities of gold bracelet winners have been:
United States (29)
Great Britain (5)
Canada (4)
Hungary (2)
New Zealand (1)
France (1)
Russia (1)
Through the conclusion of Event #43, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:
United States (22)
Great Britain (5)
Canada (4)
Vietnam (2)
China (2)
Hungary (2)
New Zealand (1)
France (1)
Lebanon (1)
Russia (1)
Mexico (1)
Bangladesh (1)
Through the conclusion of Event #43, the breakdown of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:
Professional Players (30): Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Matt Matros, Yan R. Chen, Steve Gee, Carter Phillips, Jason DeWitt, Eric Buchman, David Baker, Richard Ashby, Dutch Boyd, Sammy Farha, David Warga, Will Haydon, Matt Keikoan, Mike Ellis, Luis Velador, Ayaz Mahmood, Phil Ivey, Luigi Kwaysser, Scott Montgomery, Steven Kelly, Steve Jelinek, Dean Hamrick, Ian Gordon
Semi-Pros (5): Frank Kassela, Tex Barch, Miguel Proulx, Jeffrey Papola, Frank Kassela
Amateurs (8): Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal LeFrancois, Simon Watt, Vanessa Hellebuyck, Jeff Tebben, Konstantin Puchkov, Harold Angle
Through the conclusion of Event #43, here is the list of repeat WSOP gold bracelet winners:
Praz Bansi
Men “the Master” Nguyen
Russ “Dutch” Boyd
Sammy Farha
David Warga (* his first WSOP win was in a non-open event)
Matt Keikoan
Luis Velador
Phil Ivey
Frank Kassela (two wins this year)
Through the conclusion of 2010 World Series of Poker -- Event #43:
Youngest Winner – Steven Kelly (21)
Oldest Winner – Harold Angle (78)
Female Winners (open events) – None
Multiple-Event Winners (this year) – Frank Kassela