David Bach is Surprise $50k H.O.R.S.E. Winner
With many of the earlier World Series of Poker tournaments setting records for attendance and prize money, it was a shock to see so few people enter the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. Just 95 players shelled out the $50k buy-in and this meant that the overall prize pool was definitely down from last year as well. But that didn’t deter many of poker’s greatest players from showing up as Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, Erik Siedel, Scotty Nguyen, and others were on hand for this tournament.
Even Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss was in attendance, and he fought his way to a respectable 36th place finish in the tourney. However, the big story of the H.O.R.S.E. event was that David Bach won his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Many people who are well versed in poker know David Bach, but he is a virtual unknown outside the game, and has yet to make a major name for himself despite $2.4 million in career earnings. But after winning what many consider to be the toughest tournament in the world, Bach has certainly made a name for himself now.
What’s really interesting about Bach is that he used to be a professional bowler before he decided that poker was his true calling. After making the switch to poker, Bach is definitley glad with his decision since he’s now $1,276,802 richer after beating John Hanson in a tough 7 hour session.
Other notables who cashed include Vitaly Lunkin, Gus Hansen, Huck Seed, Erik Siedel, David Chui, Tony G, and Freddy Deeb.