Event #22: H.O.R.S.E. championship - Jens Voertmann from Dortmund, Germany Wins!

Tournament Notes:

-- The $3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship attracted 414 entries. The total prize pool amounted to $1,142,640. The top 40 finishers collected prize money.

-- Last year, the buy-in for this event was $2,500. Despite the $500 increase to $3,000 the event still increased in size by 8 percent. In 2007, the lesser-buy-in event attracted 382 entrants.

-- 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 -- Texas 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 well in order to win. This was perhaps best illustrated at the 2006 World Series of Poker, where H.O.R.S.E. returned to the tournament schedule after a long hiatus. For more than two decades, the late poker legend Chip Reese had been widely regarded as the best all-around player in the world. Appropriately, he won the inaugural tournament which cost $50,000 to enter and became the first "H.O.R.S.E." world champion.

-- The rotation of games in this tournament goes for eight hands. In other words, after eight hands of Hold'em, eight hands of Omaha High-Low are dealt, followed by eight hands of Razz, and so forth.

-- This is the first of three H.O.R.S.E. tournaments on the 2008 WSOP schedule. The $50,000 buy-in world championship takes place starting June 25th. There is also a $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament starting on June 29th.

-- The tournament was played over three consecutive days. On Day Two ran longer than expected. Therefore, 16 survivors returned for Day Three. After playing down to eight players, final table action took place on the secondary final table, located adjacent to the main stage area, which featured the conclusion of Event #21. This year, most days at the WSOP will include two final tables.

-- This was another star-studded final table. Three former WSOP gold bracelet winner were present – Steve Zolotow, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, and Hoyt Corkins. Well-known Dutch pro Marcel Luske was also a finalist.

-- The 2008 $3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. champion is Jens Voertmann, from Dortmund, Germany. He is a 38-year-old professional poker player. He was formally involved in banking and finance.

-- Voertmann collected $298,253 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. This was the second year Voertmann has played at the WSOP and was his first final table appearance.

-- The second-place finisher was Doug "DGANG" Ganger, from Fort Wayne, IN.

-- Notable in-the-money finishers in this event included Hoyt Corkins (4th), Steve Zolotow (6th), Jennifer Harman-Traniello (8th), Farzad "Freddy" Rouhani (17th), Tom Schneider (20th), Phil Ivey (24th), James Mackey (25th), and Dewey Tomko (35th).

-- Marco Traniello added to his WSOP career cashes total, with this finish. This marked his 18th time to cash since the start of the 2005 WSOP. The leader within this time frame is John Juanda, with 22 cashes.

-- The curse on defending champions continues. James Richburg won this event last year. He entered this year, but did not cash. This brings the current streak to 22 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

-- Through the conclusion of Event #22, the "professionals versus amateurs" WSOP gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads: Professionals (16) and Amateurs (4). Note: Two events have been won by Semi-Pros (2).

-- Through the conclusion of Event #22, only one player has cashed five times to date – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. Evdakov is in serious contention to challenge the record set for "Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year," shared by four players -- Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes. Three players have cashed four times this year – Jacobo Fernandez, Craig Gray and Roland Isra.

-- The current Milwaukee's Best Light "Player of the Year" standings shows Erick Lindgren on top of the points list with one gold bracelet win and three cashes.