World Series of Parker · Event 1-5
Lee Ugarte Wins the H.O.R.S.E. Finale, Eric Denny Wins the Series
Five games, five events, five different winners — and the first WSOP Champion.
The series closed with H.O.R.S.E., which is all four of the games it has already played plus hold'em, rotating hand by hand: Hold'em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight-or-Better. A fair final exam. Lee Ugarte passed it — three knockouts, four hours and fifty-eight minutes, and the win.
The end was the shortest thing about it. Jeff Ferguson and Lee got heads-up and were done in one minute and forty-three seconds, and the two of them split the money evenly at $110 apiece.
Six players and three rebuys made $220 from a $25 buy-in — the first WSOP event anybody has rebought in, and it turned a six-player table into the season’s third-biggest pool.
Where the money went
| Player | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lee Ugarte | $110 |
| 2 | Jeff Ferguson | $110 |
The undercard
Charlie Drotar made three knockouts and bubbled in third, one place off the money for the second time in the series. Eric Denny rebought and finished fourth, Paul Coffman fifth in his first WSOP event, and Rick Mazza was the first player out.
The series
Five events, five games, five different winners. Nobody won twice.
| Game | Date | Field | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | Omaha Hi/Lo | June 24 | 6 | Eric Denny |
| 1-2 | Razz | August 25 | 8 | Rick Mazza |
| 1-3 | 7 Card Stud | November 3 | 10 | Josh Martin |
| 1-4 | Heads Up | January 26 | 8 | Greg Howell |
| 1-5 | H.O.R.S.E. | March 23 | 6 | Lee Ugarte |
The trophy
Eric Denny is the first WSOP Champion. He finishes on 420.44 points, nine clear of Greg Howell and eleven clear of Andrew Shier — the closest three-way finish this league could have asked for in its first year.
The table that decides it is a combined one: this season the World Series ran alongside the Canterberry league, and the standings fold in the ten CPL tournaments and the Annual as well as these five events. Eric won the opening WSOP event in June, cashed again in the Stud event in November, and did enough across the rest of the year to hold on.
| 2017–2018 final standings | Points | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Denny | 420.44 |
| 2 | Greg Howell | 411.41 |
| 3 | Andrew Shier | 409.23 |
| 4 | Lee Ugarte | 343.19 |
| 5 | Rick Mazza | 321.26 |
Greg Howell's year is the one to sit with. He was second in the Omaha event, second in Razz, fourth in Stud, won the heads-up tournament, and came within nine points of the trophy without ever leading the table when it mattered.
World Series of Parker, Event 1-5 — Friday, March 23, 2018. H.O.R.S.E., $25 buy-in, 6 entrants, 3 rebuys, two paid from a $220 prize pool. Final event of the 2017–2018 series; the WSOP Champion is decided on the combined season table.