Diego Cordovez wins Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E.

The Valentines Day edition of Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. brought out 139 HORSE lovers looking to take advantage of what has become a weekly overlay for this event. First place paid $9,000 and 16 players paid. A strong crop of Full Tilt red pros played in the event with recent LAPC Limit Holdem champion “Miami” John Cernuto in the field. Cernuto could not repeat his Limit Holdem feat and fell just shy of the money in 23rd.
Two Full Tilt Poker pros made the money of the event. Former champion Esther Rossi finished in 12th place. Others notables making the money were POCKET FIVE, grrrrmonsta, and her ghost. Diego Cordovez was the other red pro to make the final table. Joining him at the final table were Gary Bogdanski and former champion Ryon Nicholson. This is how the final eight started final table play:

Ryon “7cardRyoff” Nicholson 79,956

msueagles40 57,874

Diego Cordovez 50,114

Gary “gb2005″ Bogdanski 107,553

Thanks4Coming 31,349

Rbj2848 62,829

PureProfitFour 18,121

whobutme 9,564
It took a while to lose our first player. Thanks4Coming three-bet pre-flop and Ryon Nicholson made the call. On a flop of Ac-2d-7s, Nicholson bet out and Thanks4Coming made the call. Nicholson showed Ah-Kh for top pair and Thanks4Coming showed pocket fives. Presto did not come by the river and Thanks4Coming was thanked for playing as he headed out in 8th.

PureProfitFour was the next player out. He was all-in during razz on fifth street holding a pair of fives with a draw to a ten. Msueagles had a made eight. PureProfitFour improved to a seven draw but was unable to fill it. He finished in 7th place.

Whobutme started the final table with less than 10k and fought like mad to stay alive. She survived four all-in’s but never got much above 20k. After PureProfitFour’s elimination, she held just 3,159 and put it all-in the next hand. The best whobutme could draw was a nine. Her opponent Rbj2848 draw a seven and sent her out in 6th place. Considering her starting stack, she did a fine job of moving up the pay ladder.
Ryon Nicholson could not get much going and was down to his last 30k. He put went all-in on fifth street with a J-2-3-5-6. He faced the 10-9-6-2-A of GB2005. Unfortunately for Nicholson, he caught a queen on sixth and paired on the river. GB2005’s ten was good enough to eliminated Nicholson in 5th.

Rbj2848 was eventually ground down to 21,597 during the Stud 8 round and he took a stand with three spades. He was all-in by fifth holding king-high. Diego Cordovez held a pair of sixes and ran with him. Rbj2848 could not muster either a pair or a low and was knocked out in 4th place.

Two hands later, GB2005 put his last 66k to risk against msueagles40. Msueagles40 raised on fourth showing a 5-3 and GB2005 made the call. On fifth, GB2005 caught an open pair of kings and bet out. He was called. Msueagles then raised GB2005 on sixth street showing 5-3-9-A. GB2005 just called and was left with less than a bet. He then checked on the river and msueagles40 bet. GB2005 called all-in and then saw the dreadful news. Msueagles turned over a six-high straight with a wheel and GB2005 mucked. GB2005 hit the rail in 3rd place.

Msueagles40 held a slight chip lead going into heads-up play. The two players decided to chop up the money evenly and play it out for the last $1,000. Each player received $7,000 from the chop. The winner would officially walk away with $8,000.

With both stacks over 200k to start, heads-up play was a long see-saw affair that went through the remainder of the Stud 8 round and then into the Holdem round. Codovez took over during Holdem and ground msueagles40 down to just 84,057. The final hand of the match saw Cordovez raise pre-flop and msueagles40 make the call. On a flop of 3s-9d-6h, msueagles40 check-called a bet from Cordovez. The turn fell the Ks and msueagles40 then check-raised Cordovez. This left msueagles40 with just 28k. The river fell the Qs and msueagles40 bet out 16k. Cordovez then raised to put msueagles40 all-in. He made the call and Cordovez showed 7s-4s for a flush. Msueagles40 mucked his hand and Diego Cordovez is this week’s champion.

Diego Cordovez takes down his first Sunday Night HORSE title in grand style. He started the final table 5th in chips and ground it out from there. Msueagles40 deserves special attention as for the 2nd straight week he finished runner-up in this event. Perhaps next week will be his week to break through.

Diego Cordovez is our champion. He walks away with $8,000 and bragging rights until next week.