HORSE: The New World Championship?

The final table of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event is now down to its final five players. Lee Watkinson, a friend of Full Tilt, is in excellent shape, having taken over the chip lead with $650,000. This bracelet is one of the most coveted at this year’s World Series, and yet due to its placement in the schedule it is already getting overshadowed by the hype that’s brewing in anticipation of tomorrow’s $50,000 HORSE event.

We have already heard the feelings of Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson on the subject of whether the event warrants being billed as the true world championship. They’re not the only one who have an opinion on the matter. “I like the idea of that event being the new world championship,” said Carlos Mortensen. “I don’t think many amateurs will be playing in that event. Only the best players will be playing in it.”

How many players will be willing to put up $50,000 to enter such an event? Mortensen estimated there would be 100 entrants. Mike Matusow set the line a bit higher. “I got the over/under on the number of players entering that event at 200. If I say 150, you can bet over 150 for all you want.”

Is Matusow going to pad the numbers by entering the event himself? “If I can scratch together fifty grand,” he replied laconically.

He is also a fan of seeing the tournament replace the main event in status. “I would like to see it be the new world championship. You’re using all your skills, having to play all the poker games. It’s a big, big buy-in. I love it. At this point the world championship is just another $10,000 event. We have eighty million of them a year now.”

“I’d like to see the buy-in of the main event get bumped up to at least $25,000,” he continued. “When you’ve got 10,000 people in an event, it’s not a world championship. You think if they grabbed every golfer in the world and let them play in the U.S. Open that you could call the winner of that the world champion? You think Tiger Woods and Mickelson would be guaranteed to win? There are some great, great golfers that can shoot better than anyone during a weekend, but they’re not consistent.”

Doyle Brunson probably offered the most realistic assessment of the HORSE event’s potential for growth. “I think it should be [considered the world championship], but I don’t think it will be because the public’s been educated on no-limit hold’em, and I think that’s the format the TV people are going to want to keep.”