SOURCE: The Las Vegas Sun

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Tournaments commanding high buy ins and featuring games other than Texas hold ' em have attracted manageable fields so far at this year's World Series, which runs through July 17. A $5,000 HORSE tournament that concluded Sunday drew 192 entrants, for example, and 180 players entered a $5,000 7-card stud tournament earlier.

The final table of this year's HORSE event should be loaded again because experience in each of the games in the rotation counts for so much, as Reese pointed out after his victory last year.

Reese, who earned the top prize of $1.78 million in last year's tournament, said he and his colleagues who frequently compete in high-stakes cash mixed games have a distinct advantage against players who don't. "Their weakness shows up in one game or another," Reese said.

Reese is a regular in the Strip's biggest cash games, where the form of poker played can rotate among hold ' em (the H in HORSE), Omaha high-low split (the O), razz (the R), 7-card stud (the S), 7-card stud high-low split eight or better (the E), and myriad other games.

Last year's final table also included heavy hitters such as runner-up Andy Bloch (70-1 to win this year, according to Pinnacle), Jim Bechtel (70-1), T.J. Cloutier (70-1), David Singer (60-1), Dewey Tomko (70-1) and Doyle Brunson (45-1).

The most intriguing proposition at Pinnacle asks whether the winner of this year's HORSE tournament will be any of the 99 players listed - essentially requiring bettors to decide whether the champ will be an established pro or an unknown.

The "Yes" (the winner will come from the list of 99) is listed at minus-191 (risk $1.91 to win $1) with the "No" at plus-181 (risk $1 to net $1.81). The "Yes" side has been bet up from an earlier price of minus-168, indicating bettors believe a recognized name will win the HORSE event.

Although it's generally tough to find betting value in "needle in the haystack" props that involve choosing a single winner from a sizable field, the 70-1 price on Bloch has to look attractive. During last year's memorable eight-hour heads-up skirmish - the culmination of a 12-hour final table - Bloch had Reese on the ropes several times.

Reese won five all-in confrontations heads-up, Bloch noted after . It would have been nice to have won one of them, Bloch said - "preferably one of the first four."

Several players from the final table of last year's World Series main event - the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold ' em world championship - are listed at Pinnacle, led by Allen Cunningham at 50-1. Defending champ Jamie Gold, at 150-1, is the longest shot on the board.

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