WSOP 3-Bet: Delayed HORSE, Biggest Ever, All Dolly

The WSOP 3-bet is a nightly rundown of three World Series stories that might have otherwise fallen through the cracks.

Keep reading for news on Stephen Chidwick, Ylon Schwartz and David Chiu going for WSOP gold, an absolutely enormous field in the Seniors event plus a preview of PokerListings.com’s coverage of the $10k HORSE championship tomorrow.

Any suggestions for the 3-bet can be left in the comments.

No Winner in $1,500 Horse, Three Return at 1pm

Play was halted three-handed in Event 27, $1,500 HORSE with Stephen Chidwick, Ylon Schwartz and David Chiu returning tomorrow to play down to a winner.

After reaching the end of the day’s ten levels the three remaining players had a pow wow to decide whether to play it out tonight, or come back in the afternoon.

David Chiu is going for his fifth WSOP gold bracelet.

 

Probably considering the slow nature of HORSE, the trio opted to bag the chips and get some rest before deciding a champion.

Two days ago 889 players bought into this low-stakes mixed-game event and now just Chidwick, Schwartz and Chiu remain.

Here’s how the three stack up heading into the home stretch at 1pm.

David Chiu – 1,920,000 Ylon Schwartz – 1,300,000 Stephen Chidwick – 785,000

All three of these players have credentials so it should be an interesting match.

David Chiu was down to the felt before play was halted for the night but surged into the chip lead during the final few orbits.

Those same skills have helped Chiu amass over $7.2 million in winnings, including four bracelets and a win at the WPT Championship.

Ylon Schwartz was an accomplished chess player before he ever took up poker, but since making the switch he’s earned $4.3 million, most of which came by way of a fourth-place finish in the 2008 Main Event.

Stephen Chidwick is a legend online, famously winning more than 100 seats to the WSOP Main Event before he was even old enough to gamble in the US.

Keep an eye on our WSOP 2012 section tomorrow for the update.

Seniors Set Record for Biggest Tournament Ever

There’s one part of the poker-playing population on which Black Friday barely had an effect, seniors.

4,128 seniors played poker today.

 

That fact was evidenced today in spades when 4,128 seniors descended on the Rio for the $1,000 Seniors event. That number was up 376 over 2011 and set the record for the biggest single starting day in poker history, period.

Getting underway at the unheard of hour of 10am, presumably to get the field off to dinner before 5pm, the Seniors event built a prize pool of over $3.7 million.

The first-place prize of $603,713 is the second biggest so far this summer, trailing Ashkan Razavi’s $781k win in Event 9, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em with re-entries.

Players must be 50 years or older to get into this event and as always “Oklahoma” Johnny Hale was on hand as self-appointed master of ceremonies.

Every year Hale brings the Golden Eagle trophy, on which the eventual winner’s name will be inscribed along with every other Seniors event champ.

Among the over-50s who played but busted today were actor James Woods, Eli Elezra, Sam Grizzle and Chad Brown.

Chip leader heading into Day 2 is Radwan Khuri with 112,600.

“All Doyle All the Time” Coverage in $10k HORSE

The $10,000 HORSE championship begins tomorrow and in honor of one of the greatest mixed-game players of all time PokerListings.com will only be following Doyle Brunson.

Tomorrow we only cover the legendary Doyle Brunson.

 

Click here to follow the coverage beginning at noon.

The Godfather of Poker tweeted on Wednesday that he’d be playing the $10k HORSE next, and we’re betting our coverage on it so we hope he makes good on his promise.

Brunson has reportedly been choosing high-stakes cash in lieu of WSOP tournaments, and given the stakes he’s playing for it’s hard to blame him.

The last time Texas Dolly was at the Rio was about a week ago, but he wasn’t there to play. He was railing his son Todd Brunson in the $5k Omaha Hi-Lo. The junior Brunson ended up finishing second to Adam Friedman.

In addition to playing poker Doyle has been betting heavy on the NBA finals. He tweeted a few days ago that he would win $200,000 if the Heat won their game by less than eight points. That prize is equal to winning first-place in a lot of bracelet events so far this summer.

And finally, speaking of Doyle Brunson, click here to see artist Barry Jazz Finnegan hand draw an enormous portrait of Texas Dolly.  

For all the action from the WSOP in Las Vegas click through to our 2012 World Series of Poker Live Coverage section, brought to you by 888poker.com.