$5,000 H.O.R.S.E. and $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em WSOP Champions Crowned

LAS VEGAS -- The winner of the $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship was Ralph Schwartz from New York City. He is a 28-year-old money manager who works on Wall Street who specializes in managing hedge funds.

Schwartz
The World Series of Poker is the biggest poker event of the year.  is a graduate of Northwestern University and is currently single.

Schwartz has been playing poker seriously for about four years. Prior to this win, Schwartz’ one and only in-the-money finish occurred a few weeks ago in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em competition (Event #3) in which he finished 100th. He collected $3,500. This time, his cash prize was significantly higher at $275,683 for first place.

Bill Gazes was the runner up. He has a storied tournament record over the past decade, but he has yet to win a World Series gold bracelet. Gazes played remarkably well, overcoming a nearly impossible chip disadvantage at one point when play was at five-handed. He managed to survive and move up the money ladder but failed to catch the rush of cards necessary to go the distance. Gazes collected $153,408.

This was poker superstar Phil Ivey’s second final table appearance at this year’s World Series. He was the runner up in the Seven-Card Stud World Championship (Event #11) last week. His quest for a sixth WSOP gold bracelet fell short yet gain, as he ended up going out in fourth place.

Robert Mizrachi has already made it to two final tables this year. Remarkably, both have been in HORSE competitions. He was sixth in the $2,500 event (#16) and did a little better this time, taking fifth place.

Phillip Campbell went out in 8th place. He is a former tennis pro.

Alex Kravchenko, from Russia, was eliminated in 10th place. He won Event #9 at this year’s WSOP, which was the Omaha High-Low championship. He now has combined for over half-a-million in winnings at this year’s World Series.

There are three H.O.R.S.E. events on this year’s schedule (and also a S.H.O.E. event). The $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship begins June 24th.

Day Two played long, as 12 players were forced to return for Day Three. The final table of eight players was set after three hours. It then took seven more hours to determine the winner.

This was the second-shortest field of this year’s WSOP, to date. The 192 entries were slightly more than the 180 sign-ups for the $5,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship. This is the first time such an event with a $5,000 buy-in has ever been featured at the World Series.

The winner of the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event was David Stucke, from Henderson, NV. He is a 33-year-old university professor. He is married to wife Cheri, who cheered him on to victory throughout the tournament and at the final table.

Dr. Stucke is a professor of physics. He graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University, and received advanced degrees from Iowa State and Penn State.

Stucke has been playing poker seriously for about three years. However, he has never cashed in a major event previously. First place prize money for this tournament totaled $603,069. He also collected the coveted gold and diamond bracelet designed by luxury Swiss watchmaker Corum.

Early on at the final table, Stucke’s most critical hand took place when he moved all-in holding pocket threes. He was called by the chip leader holding two overcards (K-Q). Stucke won the “race,” which means he was essentially in a coin flip situation for his tournament life. The difference in prize money between elimination on that hand versus his actual payout was half-a-million dollars. So, pocket threes will most certainly go down as Stucke’s favorite hand and greatest poker memory.

Thai Ton was the 8th-place finisher. He collected $47,400. Remarkably, this was only the second live tournament Ton has ever played.

Sabyl Cohen was the 11th-place finisher in this tournament. She was the highest female finisher in last year’s world championship main event, finishing 56th in a record-field of 8,773.

Dr. Bruce Van Horn, from Ada, OK finished 35th. He is best-remembered for his second-place showing in the 1996 main event, losing to Huck Seed in the heads-up finale.

David Williams gold bracelet winner last year and runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 championship event – finished 50th.

Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who finished in-the-money included Burt Boutin, Lee Watkinson, Minh Nguyen, and Vince Burgio.

Wendeen Eolis, from New York City, cashed out in 176th place. Eolis became the first woman ever to cash in the WSOP main event, in 1986. She also became the first woman ever to cash in the main event two times, with her second cash in 1993.

A few years ago, a 1,000-player field was big news. No more. Since the start of 2006 WSOP $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em events have attracted 2,998, 2,803, 2,776, and 2,126 players respectively. This event had 2,628 entries.

This was the sixth tournament of this year’s World Series carried “live” at the official website, www.worldseriesofpoker.com. Final table players were sequestered during play. Commentary was provided by Scott Lauer. Color was provided by noted poker theorist and full-time player Barry Tanenbaum.