When the 2008 World Series of Poker, H.O.R.S.E final started the player’s stacks looked like this…
Erick Lindgren $3,680,000.00
Scotty Nguyen $3,535,000.00
Barry Greenstein $1,955,000.00
Matt Glantz $1,445,000.00
Lyle Berman $1,430,000.00
Huck Seed $1,200,000.00
Michael DeMichele $905,000.00
Patrick Bueno $695,000.00
From the start, rate of play was steady due to the large stacks and deliberate play; eliminations came slow and steady with 20 to 30 hands between knockouts. When it came to the final four, six hours past while Glantz in 4th and Lindgren 3rd were eliminated.
When it came to the final two Nguyen had a 4 to 1 chip lead over DeMichele and soon put his stack to use and after ten hands eliminated his final opponent. The final hand looked like this:
Michael DeMichele 
& 
Scotty Nguyen 
& 
Flop 
, 
& 
Turn 
River 
Scotty Nguyen can now call himself the world best poker player until 2009 WSOP HORSE Final and took home $1,989,120 as well as his 5th WSOP bracelet and the Chip Reese Trophy.
But all is not well with the WSOP HORSE Final as Scotty Nguyen conduct during the game has caused a raised eyebrow or two. It’s even been said that the final broadcast on ESPN was an uneasy moment for tournament poker, as Nguyen time after time badgered, harassed and taunted his opponents violating a number of the WSOP’s rules, the embarrassing part is that none of the tournament officials took action on reprimanding his conduct.
This has now got the attention of the World Poke Association (WPA) who are now pushing to have uniform standards with clear cut rulings that are enforced in all circumstances during games and if there are no officials around to enforce these rules that the dealer should also be responsible for laying down the law. All in all the WPA state that “all members need to abide by the WPA Code of Ethics. And we need to eliminate the gray areas to have our game recognized as a professional sporting competition.”
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