No WSOP HORSE on ESPN

While the official coverage of the 2009 World Series of Poker begins on Tuesday on important event will not be included – the HORSE event. HORSE is an acronym, with each letter representing a different poker game, and the event has a $50,000 buy in. The game is a favorite of the pro players, who see the high buy in and complex structure as a high enough barrier to entry to keep the game a pure contest. It was not popular, however, with last year’s TV viewers, and so was dropped from the ESPN coverage schedule.