Esther Rossi wins SUNDAY NIGHT H.O.R.S.E.

The January 17th edition of Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. saw an increased turnout and an ending that we have not seen for a long time. 143 players turned out to take part in the weekly mixed event, and the top prize was the customary $9,000.
Cyndy Violette led the red pro contingent that included Jon Turner, WSOP H.O.R.S.E. bracelet winner Jens Voertman, Jon Turner, and Esther Rossi. Horryclutch and Bryan Micon both made deep runs in the event, finishing 18th and 11th respectively. Esther Rossi was the only red pro to make the money as she led a group of eight into the final table that included final tablist from last week, Zacpacker. The following were the final eight players:

Esther Rossi

Zacpacker

SENORSCOOP

maxinlv

sngkid

AmazingChase

acatlover

–sc–

Maxinlv and SENORSCOOP were the first two players eliminated from the final table, but we failed to catch the action. –sc– was down to his final 11k during razz and put it all-in on third with 8-7-3. Unfortunately for him, sngkid woke up with 6-4-2. –sc– made his eight, but sngkid made a seven low and –sc– hit the bricks in 6th.

AmazingChase was involved in a 100k pot against Esther Rossi and eventually was all-in with a pair of split eights. Rossi had a pair of jacks. By the river, AmazingChase made eights-up, but Rossi improved to jacks-up, sending AmazingChase home in 5th.

The sngkid was all-in a short time later on fifth street with a pair of fives and a flush draw. Acatlover held trip sixes. The turn and river brought no help for the sngkid and acatlover improved to sixes full. Sngkid was out in 4th.

Zacpacker got stubborn with a pair of threes and it cost him. Down to just 30k, he ran with those threes but was far behind the split aces of acatlover. Zacpacker never improved and finished in 3rd.

Heads-up play started with Esther Rossi behind to acatlover. A deal was never even hinted at as the two players seemed determined to play it out. Rossi was down to around 100,000 in chips before she started storming back. Eventually, she took the chip lead with some inspired stud play. She finally got acatlover all-in during Stud 8. By fifth, acatlover was all-in with split queens and Rossi had started with buried fours and improved to trip fours by fifth. Acatlover needed either a queen or some type of running full house to win the hand. Sadly, he only caught running jacks and his two pair was no match for Rossi’s trip fours. As a result, Esther Rossi is this week’s winner of Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E..

For the first time since we have covered this event on this site, a Full Tilt Poker red pro has won Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E.. Rossi held the lead in the tournament for a good portion of the day and held the chip lead for a good portion of the final table. Heads-up, she allowed her ability in stud to take over and just crushed acatlover heads-up. She wins bragging rights for the week and the $9,000 top prize.