WSOP Event #16

The winner of Event #16, the $2,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament was James Richburg, from Henderson, NV. Richburg is 52 years old and spends most of his time managing his investments, originally from Alabama he has three grown children.

This was Richburg’s second WSOP gold bracelet after winning the Razz championship last year. Richburg now has seven cashes in his career, and total prize money of nearly half a million dollars at the World Series alone, after his first in-the-money finish at the WSOP back in 1991.

The Event attracted 382 runners contributing to a total prize pool of $878,600. First place paid $238,881 with the runner up, Walter Browne from Berkley, CA, receiving $131,445.

Two-time winner, Swedish born Chris Bjorin (now living in London, UK) was the third-place finisher. Bjorin’s bid for a third gold bracelet fell short.

Fourth–place finisher Tom Schneider won the Event #5 last week – the Half Omaha High-Low / Half 7-Card Stud High-Low championship. His attempt to become this year’s first multi-bracelet winner was unsuccessful. During the last two years at the WSOP, there has been a multi-event winner both times – Mark Seif (2005) and Bill Chen (2006).

Herb Van Dyke, the seventh-place place finisher, is widely considered one of the early pioneers who introduced Texas hold’em to Russia during the 1990s. He lived in Russia for five years and became a casino consultant and tournament host.

Robert Mizrachi, the sixth-place finisher, won the Master Classics of Poker in Europe in 2004. This was his 8th time in-the-money at the WSOP.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who finished in the money in this event included – David Chiu, David Grey, Cindy Violette, John Gale, David Williams, and Toto Leonidas.

This is believed to be the largest H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament in history (by number of entries), and also the longest tournament of 2007 WSOP to date. After two long days, play on the third day went 13 hours and concluded at about 3:00 am.

Final results:
1. James Richburg, Long Beach, CA, $238,881
2. Walter Browne, Berkeley, CA, $131,445
3. Chris Bjorin, London, UK, $83,249
4. Tom Schneider, Scottsdale, AZ, $54,769
5. Ali Eslami, Los Angeles, CA, $42,501
6. Robert Mizrachi, Montego Bay, Jamaica, $31,985
7. Herb Van Dyke, Virginia Beach, VA, $24,536
8. Harry Kazazian, Irwindale, CA, $17,964
9. Alexandra Vuong, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, $12,181