Latest HORSE Post

Everything about the World Series has grown bigger and more slick year-on-year since its inception. The most obvious representation is in the number of players and prize pool in the main event, and the advent of the HORSE championship three years ago also reflected the boom. A couple of hours...more

Barry Greenstein isn’t one of those players who carries a rabbit’s foot or wears some talisman at the tables. Apart from decades of poker experience, the only thing he brings to the felt is a copy of his book “Ace on the River,” and he only carries that to give...more

If you had ambled into the Amazon Ballroom at around 3.30pm today, you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd taken a wrong turn and wound up in the MGM Grand during a world title fight. Tournament director Jack Effel has clearly been practising his Michael Buffer impersonations in recent...more

Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein's career poker record doesn't need too much repeating. He's won WSOP bracelets. He's won WPT events. He's won just about everything. There is barely a poker statistic of any importance that doesn't have Greenstein's name on it. Well, here's a new one. In the three-year...more

After four days of paced, measured play in the $50,000 HORSE event, it's a bit unsettling to watch the fortunes change so drastically. The blinds and limits are such that one or two close hands can take a player from the top to the bottom in no time at all....more

Joseph "bigjoe2003" Michael is not a grizzled veteran of old Las Vegas, but as he sat in the three seat, he was firmly and deservedly in the big leagues. With Huck Seed on his right and Scotty Nguyen on his left, Michael looked as comfortable with the game as any...more

In most poker tournaments, the bubble's pop is cause for much revelry and no small amount of yelling. In the HORSE event, the only noise that we heard when Mike Wattell went out in 17th place was the door closing behind him. These seasoned professionals act like they've been here...more

There are a number of folks out there who see poker as entertainment. They put in their $200 buy-in and write off any losses as the cost of having fun. How many times have you heard such players say, "I would've spent more money at the bar than I lost...more

With 34 players remaining at the end of level 15, a remarkable five of them were wearing the livery of Team PokerStars Pro while a sixth, Joe Michael, is a Supernova Elite who paid the steepest buy-in in live poker using PokerStars frequent player points. You can read all...more

The $50,000 HORSE event was petitioned for by poker purists, designed by poker purists, played by poker purists, for the poker purist. And haven't those purists found reason to purr this evening. Just take a look at this photograph: For about three hours this evening on table six, these...more

Normally, during a break between levels, I’ll catch up players for updates from a primary source. With Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater I take a different approach. Few players are as focused as Katja during a tournament and prefer not to be disturbed. Just ask her husband Jan von...more

There are a lot of people here who would recognize the screen name "bigjoe2003" long before they recognize the guy in the fedora playing the $50,000 HORSE event. By the beginning of Day 3, however, the name Joseph Michael was well-known around the room. Michael doesn't hide his identity. In...more

This is the HORSE event, so amidst the rush of an Amazon Room shoehorned full to the doors with poker tables, a few equine puns and references might inadvertently slip in. Bear with me. Here’s the first. In the racing world the term “mudder” is a one of endearment...more

The first couple of days of the $50,000 HORSE event were played out in some of the most spacious conditions ever seen at the World Series. Recognising the fact that players coughing up $50,000 for a single tournament deserve, and have paid for, their space, the 148 connoisseurs who anted...more

There are numerous ways by which to measure the extent of poker's popularity: the number of players in the Sunday Million; the first prize at the EPT Grand Final; the amount of times per day you hear a story starting "So I had ace-king under-the-gun" to name but three....more