The 2015 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship was completed mere hours ago. Andrew Barber from Sacramento, California won the event to collect his first-ever gold bracelet and the amount of $517,766.
The Championship drew 204 entries and a prize pool of $1,917,000 was created. It was distributed among the top 24 finishers, with the payouts starting from $18,619.
Generally speaking, H.O.R.S.E is a mix of five of the most popular poker variations – Hold’em, Omaha Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Eight-or-Better. Barber had really tough opponents at the eight-handed final table, as it featured 5 former bracelet winners, with 1998 WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen being among those.
Eventually, Barber faced Russian player Viacheslav Zhukov in a final heads-up play. Zhukov has previously won two of the prestigious pieces of WSOP jewelry. The heads-up battle started with Barber holding the majority of chips in play and lasted a little less than an hour. In fact, Zhukov did not get the chance to take the lead even for a second.
The last hand played was of the Seven-Card Stud variation. Zhukov completed and Barber bet 200,000. Zhukov made it 300,000 and his opponent called. The two players checked fourth street. Then, Barber bet 200,000 on fifth street. His opponent moved all his chips in and Barber called.
The eventual champion had ([Ah][4h])/[7s][Qc][6c] against Zhukov’s ([7c][3c])/[8c][10h][Jh]. Barber caught [5d] on sixth street and the Russian caught [Kh]. Zhukov showed [5c] on the river and the name of the champion became clear.
As for Zhukov, he grabbed $319,989 of the prize pool. Yet, the player was denied the chance to win his third WSOP gold bracelet. He collected his first two pieces in 2011 and 2012.
As mentioned above, Barber added $517,766 to his poker bankroll. He has cashed in 13 WSOP events and 17 Circuit ones. And it was a few hours ago that he captured his first WSOP bracelet.
Here are the rest of the players who appeared at the final table:
Nevada-based poker pro Don Zewin finished 3rd to receive $210,629. This was his 9th WSOP final table appearance. Jared Bleznick took 4th place for $153,638. Now, his Series winnings amount to more than $800,000.
Australian player Joe Hachem scooped $114,308 for his 5th place. He has previously won one gold bracelet and his career WSOP earnings total $8,199,098.
Two-time bracelet winner Frank Kassela took 6th place and received a $86,541 share of the prize pool. Nevada-based poker pro Scotty Nguyen finished 7th to collect $66,579. He has more than $5.2 million in career WSOP cash and has won 5 bracelets so far.
Arash Ghaneian captured $51,986 for his 8th place. A few weeks ago, the player won his first-ever gold bracelet for topping the field of the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E event.
