The winner of the $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship was Ralph Schwartz from New York City. He is a 28-year-old money manager who works on Wall Street. He specializes in managing hedge funds.

Schwartz is a graduate of Northwestern University. He is currently single.

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Schwartz has been playing poker seriously for about four years. Prior to this win, Schwartz’ one and only in-the-money finish occurred a few weeks ago in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em competition (Event #3) in which he finished 100th. He collected $3,500. This time, his cash prize was significantly higher $275,683 for first place.

Bill Gazes was the runner up. He has a storied tournament record over the past decade, but he has yet to win a World Series gold bracelet. Gazes played remarkably well, overcoming a nearly impossible chip disadvantage at one point when play was at five-handed. He managed to survive and move up the money ladder but failed to catch the rush of cards necessary to go the distance. Gazes collected $153,408.

This was poker superstar Phil Ivey’s second final table appearance at this year’s World Series. He was the runner up in the Seven-Card Stud World Championship (Event #11) last week. His quest for a sixth WSOP gold bracelet fell short yet gain, as he ended up going out in fourth place. Robert Mizrachi has already made it to two final tables this year. Remarkably, both have been in HORSE competitions. He was sixth in the $2,500 event (#16) and did a little better this time, taking fifth place.

Phillip Campbell went out in 8th place. He is a former tennis pro.

Alex Kravchenko, from Russia, was eliminated in 10th place. He won Event #9 at this year’s WSOP, which was the Omaha High-Low championship. He now has combined for over half-a-million in winnings at this year’s World Series.

There are three H.O.R.S.E. events on this year’s schedule (and also a S.H.O.E. event). The $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship begins June 24th. Day Two played long, as 12 players were forced to return for Day Three. The final table of eight players was set after three hours. It then took seven more hours to determine the winner.

This was the second-shortest field of this year’s WSOP, to date. The 192 entries were slightly more than the 180 sign-ups for the $5,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship. This is the first time such an event with a $5,000 buy-in has ever been featured at the World Series.