Scotty Nguyen Takes Down Another HORSE Event

Sixteen players returned to the Commerce Casino Wednesday for the final day of the $10,000 HORSE event.  It was the marquee event on the LA Poker Classic schedule and had attracted 96 of the most well known Poker Pros in the game and of those, only eight would make it to the money.  Those who fell to the rail included Howard Lederer, Nick Schulman, Chris Amaral, Gavin Griffin, Ralph Perry, Randall Skaggs, Steve Billirakis and Kenny Tran.

John Monnette was quickly eliminated in eighth place ($29,491) but the final seven players went for a full two levels before Amnon Filippi went out in seventh place ($40,550).  Next to go was Bob Golick in sixth place ($52,531) followed by Matt Graham who went out in fifth place ($66,355).  Scotty Nguyen became quite vocal at the table especially after eliminating Graham.  He quickly calmed down once tournament director, Matt Savage paid a visit to the table and warned players that they could no longer talk about hands at the table without incurring a penalty.
After that bit of drama, Chino Rheem went on a surge eliminating both Chris Tsiprailidis in fourth place ($86,630) and Jeff Madsen in third place ($122,573).  After his run Rheem was evened up with the reigning HORSE world champion going into heads up play.  Nguyen and Rheem then took a break and made an agreement to chop the prize money but with Nguyen as the champion of the event and Rheem as the runner up.