"Big Daddy" Rides Away With HORSE Championship at Beau Rivage
*Bill "Big Daddy" Blanda Wins $34,046 and Defeats Las Vegas Pro Michael
Binger in Heads-Up Play*
Biloxi, MS (January 13, 2009) - If football is "a game of inches," then
poker is often a game of "what ifs." What would have happened if?….fill in
the blank. A few minutes before Event #14 started at this year's Southern
Poker Championship, Bill "Big Daddy" Blanda was sitting in a single-table
satellite game. He was not even registered to play in the upcoming
tournament. Beau Rivage Poker Room Manager Johnny Grooms walked by the
table and let Blanda know that there was still time to get one more player
into the event. Blanda finished his satellite, walked over to Grooms, and
announced his desire to play in that day's tournament. Blanda was the
130thand final player to register as the cards went into the air.
You can guess the rest of the story.
H.O.R.S.E. is* *an acronym for the five most popular poker games played
inside American cardrooms today. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments include a rotation
of the following games -- Hold'em, Omaha High-Low, Razz, Seven-Card Stud,
and Seven-Card Stud High-Low (also called Eight-or-Better). Many purists
consider H.O.R.S.E. to be the ultimate test of poker skill, since it
requires that players play all games with some competence in order to win.
The $1,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Southern Poker Championship
concluded today at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The
winner was Bill "Big Daddy" Blanda, a 53-year-old retired investor from
Galveston, TX. Following his fifth major tournament victory since 2004,
Torres was presented with $34,046 in cash and a custom-designed white gold
and diamond bracelet, which is the top prize at all SPC events.
Blanda's route to victory had many obstacles - not the least of which was
being the last player to enter just seconds before registration closed. After
most of the field was eliminated on the first day with 122 players gone,
eight survivors took seats at the final table. Day two began with Blanda
(444K) holding a massive chip lead over the rest of the table. In fact, he
had everyone at the table covered by more than a 2 to 1 margin. Perhaps it
was his destiny. Blanda breezed to victory in just over three hours, a
rocket-fast pace for a limit, mixed-game format.
Players were eliminated as follows:
*8th Place - *Christopher Tryba was the first player eliminated. He busted
out during the Razz round, and ended up as the eighth-place finisher. Tryba,
who splits his time between living in Las Vegas and his native
Massachusetts, has a number of high tournament finishes, including wins at
the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge and Binion's Poker Classic. He cashed 15
times at major events held last year. Tryba received $5,044. This was his
second time in-the-money at this year's SPC series.
*7th Place - *Peter Fricano finished eighth. He was short-stacked during
his one-hour stay in the finale. Fricano busted out on the Seven-Card Stud
round when his split tens failed to improve against a pair of kings. Fricano,
an attorney from the Chicago area, collected $6,305 in prize money.
*6th Place - *Michael Craig, the prolific poker writer/author from
Scottsdale, AZ was eliminated in sixth place. Craig, who made two WSOP
final tables in 2007 and has over half a million dollars in winnings at Full
Tilt Poker, was knocked out when his pair of aces lost to two pair on the
Seven-Card Stud round. Craig is perhaps most well known for his outstanding
poker narrative, ""The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King." Craig
earned a payout totaling $7,566.
*5th Place -* Benjan Rastamian ended up in fifth place. He was eliminated
during the Eight-or-Better round. Rastamian, who lives in Houston and works
in sales, collected a payout amounting to $8,827.
*4th Place -* Tournament pro Tony Cousineau is renowned for going deep in
many tournaments. He holds the record as the player with no WSOP wins but
most cashes in history. His results in this tournament were somewhat
typical. Cousineau was short-stacked throughout, but still managed to
scratch and claw his way to fourth place. He ultimately went out on the
Eight-or-Bettor round when he made a flush, but lost to quad-threes. Cousineau
received $11,349.
*3rd Place -* Ricky Totsch came in third. He was knocked out playing
Hold'em. On his final hand, Totsch was dealt pocket nines. The flop looked
good as 4-5-6 came on board. But his opponent had pocket sixes, good for a
set. Totsch, a supervisor from Joshua, TX, earned $15,132 for two days of
poker playing.
*2nd Place -* Michael Binger has been one of poker's hottest players in
recent years. He's won nearly $6 million in just the past three years
playing in tournaments. Binger brought a ferocious desire to win to the
duel with Bill Blanda. But Binger was never able to overcome his
adversary's insurmountable chip advantage. The players battled for about an
hour before Binger finally went out on the Seven-Card Stud round. On the
hand, Binger ended up with a pair of kings. But Blanda had a pair of fives
and then managed to catch an ace on seventh street to make two pair (aces
and fives). That ended the tournament and made Michael Binger the
second-place finisher. The former physicist-turned poker pro from Las Vegas
collected $18,915 in prize money.
1st Place -* Bill "Big Daddy" Blanda has previously won some impressive
tournaments, including The Wynn Classic (2008), and three events at the
Borgata Winter Open (2004, 2005, and 2008). He now has nearly $900,000 in
lifetime tournament winnings.
Through the end of the H.O.R.S.E. championship, a combined 4,397 players
have now entered the 13 events played at this year's SPC. With this event,
the total payout has been $2,595,195 in prize money paid out to winners. The
$10,000 buy-in championship event starts tomorrow and ends on January 17th. |
