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As I write this, it's been liss than a week since the passing of Chip Reese. BLUFF Magazine flew me down to Las Vegas the day after Chip presumably went to a better place, in order to do the cover story of this issue. It seemed to me that to make this month's Wise Hand of the Month any hand other than the one Reese is best known for would be like pretending not to notice the elephant in the room. The hand in question, of course, is the final hand of the 2006 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the World Series of Poker.
When the World Series started in 1970, the idea was that the best professionals should gather to see who was the best amongst them. In the early years, the event did a good job of crowning rightful champions, with Johnny Moss winning in 1970,’71, and ’74; Doyle Brunson in 1976 and ’77; and Hall of Famers Amarillo Slim, Pug Pearson, Sailor Roberts and Bobby Baldwin filling out the fi rst nine years of the event’s existence.
As the event’s stature within a then-sporadic poker community grew, so too did its popularity with folks who were not members of the fraternity of poker’s inner sanctum. Over the next twenty years, prestigious names like Johnny Chan, Stu Ungar, and Phil Hellmuth took titles, but those names were interspersed with others who history wouldn’t remember quite so vividly.
As poker boomed in the new millennium, so did its most prestigious event. While no one was complaining about the new cultural niche poker was creating, or the massive cash influx that came hand-in-hand, this new success brought with it a new problem for the old guard.
While the names of champions like Chris Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem are household names today, when those players won, there were members of the old guard who complained that the increasing size of the Main Event was reducing its validity as a true world championship. Although being the world champion had at one time been synonymous with being the best player in the world, few could say they still believed that to be the case. The stars of the game sought to fi nd a solution that would maintain poker’s popularity, but would also give them a “player’s championship.” Thus, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event was born.
The logic behind the event’s creation was fairly obvious. The massive buy-in would scare away amateurs looking to take a shot in the dark. The mix of fi ve games – Hold’em, Omaha H/L, Razz, 7-card Stud, and 7-card Stud Eight-or-Better — would be a truer test of all-around poker skill and, as such, exclude the many Hold’em specialists the boom had evoked. This would truly be the test to fi nd the best all-around poker player in the world.
The format of the tournament heavily favored the regular participants in The Big Game, the $4,000/$8,000 dealer’s choice game usually played out of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Those players could not only handle the buy-in, but were also well versed in the strategies of the fi ve games, whereas many newfangled tournament pros had little experience outside of Hold’em. The edge showed in the composition of what is generally regarded as the greatest fi nal table roster of all time.
Reese entered the fi nal day’s play as chip leader. He was joined by two other men considered to be the leading players of their respective generations — Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey. Old schoolers TJ Cloutier, Dewey Tomko, and 1993 world champion Jim Bechtel added to the prestige, while three young, established pros – Andy Bloch, David Singer, and Patrik Antonius — rounded out the table. One couldn’t help but wait with bated breath for the action to commence.
While Reese was dominating early, the final table offered him one disadvantage as, for the purpose of television, the game was altered to straight Texas Hold’em (this would be changed the next year). For Reese, a man considered by many the best all-around player in the world, who generally shied away from high-profi le events and as a result had little use for the game, this represented an evening out of what had previously been an uneven playing fi eld. It apparently didn’t matter.
One by one, the legends were knocked out, with Ivey’s third-place fi nish leaving the fi eld at two, with Chip facing Bloch. Over the next nine hours, the two played back and forth, with Bloch even managing to get Reese all in more than once. Each time though, Reese prevailed and came back fi ghting. Finally, the hand would come that would crown poker’s rightful champion.
With Andy’s stack devastated by a previous hand, he called Reese’s A♣Q♣ all-in with 9♣8♠. The fl op was J♠7♣7♠, giving Bloch a straight draw for naught; the turn and river came 4♥ and 4♠. Reese, who’d say afterwards that he’d wanted to win because his kids were asking why they never saw him on TV, was $1.7 million richer. The community saw it not only as a triumph for the man, but for the event as well. Poker’s all-around champion had been crowned.
There will never be another like him.
Gary Wise savors the few opportunities he had to spend time with Chip Reese. He writes about those moments and other experiences with poker’s finest at www.wisehandpoker.com
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