The tournament often called the "pro's championship," World Series of Poker Event #49- the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E., is down to its last eight competitors, each fighting for not only the $1,276,802 top prize but also the chance to win one of poker's most prestigious events, on one of its biggest stages.

These final eight entrants together hold 18 WSOP bracelets, with eight of those bracelets belonging to Erik Seidel who will enter the final table seventh out of eight in chips (965,000) but still alive and with a real shot of winning.

The only player who will begin today with less chips than Erik is Finland's Ville Wahlbeck (645,000), a previously lesser known player than Seidel, but one quickly gaining notoriety having already made three earlier 2009 WSOP final tables, winning one and taking second and third in the others.  Remarkably, if Ville can somehow overcome his short stack status and win this event, he will take the lead away from Jeffrey Lisandro in the WSOP 2009 Player of the Year race, despite Jeffrey already having won three 2009 bracelets.

Just ahead of Seidel with 1,075,000 in chips sits Chau Giang, a man with three WSOP bracelets of his own, over $3 million in tournament cashes and much respect from the pros.  Chau is a common sight when big buy-in events get down to the last few tables, but surprisingly hasn't won a major title since earning his last bracelet in 2004.

Speaking of major titles, Huck Seed, former WSOP Main Event champion and current NBC National Heads-Up Poker champion, has also made the H.O.R.S.E. final table, sitting with about 300,000 more chips than Chau (1,380,000).  Seed is looking to earn his fifth WSOP bracelet today, and could potentially push his total lifetime tournament winnings to near $5 million with a win here.

To do so, Seed will have to outfox Vitaly Lunkin, the Russian force currently sitting in second place with 2,490,000 in tournament chips.  Lunkin already has two WSOP bracelets including one from this year's 40th Annual No-Limit Hold 'em Event #2, a score that earned him $1,891,012.

Of course not everyone at today's final table have multiple bracelets and millions in cashes, three of the biggest stacks starting today are still hoping to earn their first.  John Hanson (1,700,000), David Bach (2,345,000) and current chip leader Erik Sagstrom (3,675,000), are each relatively inexperienced when compared to the above mentioned players (of course who isn't) and will each easily score the biggest cashes of their live tournament careers if they can take down today's title.

Players who just missed this packed Event #49 final table include Tony G (13th), Freddy Deeb (14th) and the "Great Dane" Gus Hansen, who bubbled the final table late last night for a $123,895 cash.

The final table of Event #49- the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship, is set to begin today (6/30) at 2:00 p.m. PST and can be experienced, even without being in Vegas, numerous ways either by watching the ESPN live streaming coverage online, checking the updates and chip counts at www.worldseriesofpoker.com (powered by PokerNews), logging into the PokerRoad Nation, or by doing all three simultaniously.  Ah, the power of the internet.


Story by Mark Anderson

Sweet Tweets* from the $50K Day 4.

3 hands of O8 left. Don't like my chances in Razz
-Frank Kassela

Official bubble boy of 50k. Got slow rolled on the end as well. 1st hand of Razz. I knew it would take me out
-Frank Kassela

I think the horse made me physiclly I'll
-Todd Brunson

Played my best but went out in 14th.... Tried to regain my title... There's always next year!
-Freddy Deeb

Final Table. I have 965k. I think I'm 2nd lowest in chips. Been really fun playing this one + looking forward to tmw
-Erik Seidel

*A sampling of Twitter posts from Event #49, courtesy of the PokerRoad Nation.