WSOP $50K HORSE Poker Tournament Is Scheduled

The World Series of Poker has announced the 2009 WSOP Tournament Schedule and HORSE fans will be pleased to see that the $50K HORSE World Championship event has returned. This is the third year that the event will be hosted at The Rio Casino in Las Vegas with its enhanced gold bracelet and the Chip Reese Memorial trophy that goes to the winner.

This tournament has had special meaning for professional players since it’s inception. For starters, the high buy-in and HORSE format essentially made the tournament a “true” players event. Mere mortal poker players and Internet wannabes didn’t have the skills or the bankroll to enter into this event so the pros tended to look upon this tournament as an elite field. As such, the winner is widely considered amongst his peers as the best poker player after winning.

What makes it even more special is that the first HORSE Champion was Chip Reese. Chip is still regarded as the best cash game player the game has ever known and his namesake is now attached to this event forever. Chip passed away suddenly in 2007 at the age of only 56 and the subsequent HORSE events at the WSOP have been held in his honor ever since.

Taking place on June 22 of this year, the HORSE Championship event will take five days to complete and will get two full days of airtime when ESPN airs the event later in the summer.