H.O.R.S.E. tournament starts late, but with plenty of fanfare

24 June 2007

By Aaron Todd

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament got underway this afternoon, and 148 players entered with hopes to take down the most prestigious tournament in poker. Oh yeah, and then there's the $2.3 million first place prize.

The field is so stacked that the atmosphere before the tournament was more like a high school reunion than a poker tournament. Players walked around, shaking hands with each other and posing for pictures for spectators.

Tournament director Jack Effel tried his best to get the players to take their seats so he could start the tournament on time.

"I know you've got so many chips and the structure goes slowly," Effel said into his microphone. "But if we can at least get one player at each table we can get this tournament started."

Defending champion Chip Reese was waiting to give the order to "Shuffle up and deal," and Greg Raymer asked him why he was standing on the rail.

"I couldn't get anyone to put me in," Reese joked.

Finally, after a short speech by WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, Reese started the tournament about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time.

Players started the tournament with $100,000 chips and games will rotate every 30 minutes. All games are limit varieties, with betting levels increasing when games shift from community-card-based games to stud-based games, and again when the games switch back to community card games.