After that Erik "Erik123" Sagström got kicked out on a third place, it came to be a very long heads-up between David Bach and John Hanson. But after many hours of playing it came to be David Bach who took down the tournament. For the win he received the first prize of $1,276,802 and a gold bracelet. But that's not all, he also received the Chip Reese Trophy - something that is almost more invaluable than a bracelet.
The H.O.R.S.E World Championship tournament attracted 95 players who were willing to pay the buy-in of $50,000 and take a shoot at the first prize of over a million dollars. One after another then went out of the tournament and it didn't take long before it was time for the final table with these 8 players.
Seat 1 - Ville Wahlbeck - 645 000
Seat 2 - Erik Sagstrom - 3 675 000
Seat 3 - John Hanson - 1 700 000
Seat 4 - Huck Seed - 1 380 000
Seat 5 - Vitaly Lunkin - 2 490 000
Seat 6 - David Bach - 2 345 000
Seat 7 - Erik Seidel - 965 000
Seat 8 - Chau Giang - 1 075 000
Erik Sagström had a really big stack as the final table begun and he didn't seem to be scared of anyone at the table. He continued playing his very best poker, but then ran bad for a while and ended up on a third place. This left David Bach and John Hanson to play heads-up. David Bach all the time took down the biggest and most important hands in this heads-up, but Hanson always managed to get back into the game and even took over the chiplead for some time. But after seven hours it came to be a very tired David Bach who had all the chips.
David Bach's own words after winning the H.O.R.S.E World Championship tournament.
- "I just had to remind myself to keep fighting and play well,"
- "I could live with losing if I played my best, but of course I wanted to win"