2007 WSOP Event #26 – Ralph Schwartz Wins $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.

They are still working on fitting the H.O.R.S.E. tournaments into their allotted time frames, apparently.  As was the case with the big $50,000 event last year, the players in the $5,000 event, even though the field was the second smallest of the 2007 WSOP, had to endure long days.  It did finish in three, as planned, but the second day ran as long as possible and the final table wasn’t even decided.  Twelve people had to come back for the third day, which was supposed to just be for the final table.  Thus, the final table didn’t start until almost 5:00pm, and then that even ran another seven hours.  In the end, hedge fund manager Ralph Schwartz made his first WSOP cash a memorable one, raking in $275,683. 

It was not an easy final table to navigate, as it contained such champs as Phil Ivey and Robert Mizrachi, not to mention another excellent player who has yet to win a bracelet, Bill Gazes.  Alex Kravchenko, who won a bracelet earlier this summer, just missed the final table, finishing 9^th.  Schwartz was right up there amongst the chip leaders, but possibly to the dismay of the players, Phil Ivey had the chip lead.  The blinds and betting limits were getting steep, with the first level being razz at the $10,000/$20,000 level. 

Jeff Campbell, who had two big bets in his stack, went out on the first hand of final table play, finishing 8^th.   

Thirty hands in, Schwartz’s stack was essentially unchanged, but he was virtually tied for second with Alex Jung, still behind Ivey.  Five hands later, Schwartz eliminated Thom Schultz in 7^th place during a stud eight or better level.  He then won the next pot to make his way up to $480,000.  Sixty hands in, Ivey had lost the lead to Yuebin Guo ($680,000), and Schwartz sat squarely in third with $400,000 in chips.   

At the start of the second razz level of the day, the table was down to five players , with Schwartz at $560,000, just $10,000 (two antes) behind Guo.  Ivey and Mizrachi followed and Gazes was down to just two big bets at $90,000.  Within two hands, however, Gazes grew his stack to $200,000, and within eight hands, Mizrachi was out in 5^th place. 

Guo continued to roll, taking out Phil Ivey on the 112^th hand of the final table, but a few hands later, Schwartz took down a monster pot from Guo to chop his stack back down to size.  After that, with over $1 million in chips, Schwartz had as many chips as both Guo and Gazes combined. 

Guo ran into trouble, however, on the hold’em round with $15,000/$30,000 blinds, losing two big pots in a row to Schwartz, making costly calls on the river each time.  Immediately after those two hands, Schwartz eliminated Guo on an Omaha High-Low hand, when he rivered a higher two pair. 

Going into heads-up play, Schwartz had the lead on Gazes, $1.345 million to $550,000.   

As long as the final table took, heads-up only lasted seven hands.  Schwartz won all but two hands during that stretch (he folded his button on one), and eventually scooped both the high and low on an Omaha hand in which he turned a six-high straight.  Gazes didn’t want to call all-in on the turn, but he was committed and pretty much had no choice.

Final Table Standings 

1. Ralph Schwartz -- $275,683
2. Bill Gazes -- $153,408
3. Yuebin Guo -- $99,264
4. Phil Ivey -- $65,424
5. Robert Mizrachi -- $49,632
6. Alexander Jung -- $37,901
7. Thomas Schultz -- $28,877
8. Phillip Campbell -- $20,755