HORSE Poker WSOP Bracelet Champions
Mixed Poker Games are a relatively new addition to the World Series of Poker. The first mixed game ever hosted at the WSOP was a HORSE event in 2002, which was at the 33rd World Series of Poker. When this event’s final hand was dealt, John Hennigan became the first World Series of Poker HORSE champion by outlasting a tough final table which included Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Phil Ivey. While Hennigan got the best of Phil Ivey in this particular event, Ivey got the best of all at the 33rd Annual World Series of Poker by picking up three bracelets that year, one of which was in the second Mixed Game ever at the WSOP, a S.H.O.E event.
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Our initial intention for this page was to list all of the past HORSE WSOP Champions. We decided, however, to expand this listing further to include all WSOP bracelet winners who won their bracelet in a mixed game format that involved at minimum the two key elements of H.O.R.S.E. – combining Stud Games and Flop Games into the same tournament. We’ve sectioned these off so you can easily see the H.O.R.S.E data and the data from the other games.
We’ll describe more on the games at the end of this article, but for now here is a list of all “WSOP Stud-Game+Flop-Game Mixed bracelet winners.
| Year | Buy-in | Game | Event Champion | 1st Place Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | $2,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | John Hennigan | $117,320 |
| 2003 | $2,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Doyle Brunson | $84,080 |
| 2004 | $2,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Scott Fischman | $100,200 |
| 2006 | $50,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Chip Reese | $1,716,000 |
| 2007 | $2,500 | H.O.R.S.E. | James Richburg | $239,503 |
| 2007 | $5,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Ralph Schwartz | $275,683 |
| 2007 | $50,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Freddy Deeb | $2,276,832 |
| 2008 | $3,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Jens Vortmann | $298,253 |
| 2008 | $50,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Scotty Nguyen | $1,989,120 |
| 2008 | $1,500 | H.O.R.S.E. | James Schaaf | $256,412 |
| 2009 | $3,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | Zac Fellows | $311,899 |
| 2009 | $50,000 | H.O.R.S.E. | David Bach | $1,276,802 |
| S.H.O.E WSOP Bracelet Winners | ||||
| 2002 | $2,000 | S.H.O.E. | Phil Ivey | $107,540 |
| 2003 | $2,000 | S.H.O.E. | Daniel Negreanu | $100,440 |
| 2007 | $1,000 | S.H.O.E. | Dao Bac | $157,975 |
| 1/2 Holdem 1/2 Stud WSOP Bracelets | ||||
| 2002 | $2,000 | Holdem/Stud | Dan Heimiller | $108,300 |
| 2003 | $2,000 | Holdem/Stud | Chris Ferguson | $66,220 |
| 2003 | $1,000 | Ladies H.S | Barb Rugolo | $40,700 |
| O.E WSOP Bracelet Winners | ||||
| 2008 | $2,500 | O.E | Freddy Rouhani | $232,911 |
| 8-Game Mixed WSOP Bracelet Winners | ||||
| 2008 | $10,000 | 8 Game Mixed | Anthony Rivera | $483,688 |
| 2009 | $10,000 | 8 Game Mixed | Ville Wahlbeck | $492,375 |
| 2009 | $2,500 | 8 Game Mixed | Jerrod Ankenman | $241,637 |
As we already mention H.O.R.S.E. was the format of the first ever mixed game event at the World Series of Poker. It also is the format where the most WSOP mixed game bracelet have been won and from 2006-2009 was the most prestigious game on the WSOP schedule with a $50,000 buy-in even each year. The first of these event was won by the late Chip Reese. After he passed away the WSOP announced that each year the winner of the H.O.R.S.E. World Championship would be given a Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. The first of these trophies was won by famous poker pro and 1998 WSOP Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen, which along with the trophy he pocketed $1,989,120 first place prize money and his fifth career WSOP bracelet.
In 2008 the WSOP introduced a new form of mixed game poker called 8-game mix. This game includes all five HORSE games, but also adds in No Limit Texas Holdem, Deuce to Seven Triple Draw and Pot-Limit Omaha. In 2010 this game replaces the $50,000 HORSE event as the largest buy-in event on the WSOP schedule, and going forward HORSE will be a $10,000 buy-in event, with the $50,000 buy-in event being 8-Game mixed. This will air on ESPN and is officially named “The Player’s Championship”
Other forms of mixed games which involve both flop games and stud games at the World Series of Poker have included S.H.O.E, which is basically HORSE without Razz, ½ Stud and ½ Holdem, and O.E which is Omaha Hi/Lo with Stud Hi/Lo. Each year, all mixed game events have been open events, with the exception of the 2003 WSOP where a $1,000 Ladies Only ½ Stud ½ Holdem event was hosted. This event was won by Barb Rugolo who topped runner up finisher J. J. Liu.
For listing of upcoming WSOP H.OR.S.E tournaments, refer to the official World Series of Poker website wsop.com. If you’d like to get some practice in prior, the top website for playing H.O.R.S.E. poker online is fulltiltpoker.com.
