James Richburg came into the final table of this year's first H.O.R.S.E. event looking for his second bracelet. Seven eliminations later, Richburg had enough jewelry to adorn both of his wrists. A total of 382 players put up $2,500 to play limit hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, razz, stud, and stud eight-or-better. For his victory, Richburg walked away from the Rio with $238,881.
Richburg went into heads-up play looking to beat international grand master chess player, Walter Browne. This was Browne's second final table of the series; he finished seventh in the $2,000 no limit hold'em event. The final hand came during the razz level with Richburg raising Browne all in. Richburg was ahead with 4-3-2 against Browne's 7-5-2. Browne ended up making a 10-7-5-2-A low, but he was bested by Richburg's 6-4-3-2-A.
The win came with little fanfare as the event was played out away from the ESPN cameras and lights of the Milwaukee's Best Light final table stage. Instead, the final table took place in a small corner of the Amazon room, and it played late into the night with hardly any onlookers watching from the rail.
Coming into the final table the players' chip stacks were as follows: Ali Eslami ($507,000), James Richburg ($487,000), Robert Mizrachi ($262,000), Chris Bjorin ($227,000), Walter Browne ($207,000), Herb Van Dyke ($130,000), Harry Kazazian ($85,000), Tom Schneider ($20,500).
After Harry Kazazian and Herb Van Dyke were eliminated in eighth and seventh places, respectively, Robert Mizrachi hit the rail despite coming into the final table third in chips. Mizrachi finished in sixth, ending his bid to become the first of the Mizrachi brothers to win a bracelet. Ali Eslami experienced the biggest fall down the ladder. He came in as the chip leader but couldn't finish higher than fifth. Tom Schneider showed incredible resiliency to finish in fourth, despite coming into the final table extremely short-stacked. Schneider won event #5 (Omaha/seven card stud eight-or-better) earlier in the Series and he has definitely proven himself as a great mixed-game player. Chris Bjorin battled to the finish, but could not win his third bracelet. He finished just out of heads-up play in third place.
Here are the final results for the event, with payouts:
1: James Richburg $239,503
2: Walter Browne $131,790
3: Chris Bjorin $83,467
4: Tom Schneider $54,913
5: Ali Eslami $42,612
6: Robert Mizrachi $32,069
7: Herb Van Dyke $24,601
8: Harry Kazazian $18,011
By Julio Rodriguez
