Freddy Deeb Is the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Champion

The lucky shirt must have worked: Freddy Deeb is the 2007 World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Champion.

Deeb, who proudly wore one of his trademark loud lucky shirts, outlasted 147 of perhaps the toughest field of competitors ever brought together by one tournament to win $2.27 million and the specially made gold bracelet.

This is Deeb's second bracelet. His first came in in 1996 in the $5,000 deuce-to-seven lowball event. He has also cashed 22 times at WSOP events.

Many players feel that the $50,000 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. event is the ultimate test in poker. To win this event, players must have supreme knowledge of not only one version of poker, but five: hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, razz, seven-card stud, and seven-card stud eight-or-better.

The top nine finishers and their payouts follow:

• Freddy Deeb, $2,276,832
• Bruno Fitoussi, $1,278,720
• John Hanson, $852,480
• Amnon Filippi, $586,080
• Kenny Tran, $444,000
• David Singer, $337,440
• Barry Greenstein, $259,296
• Thor Hansen, $188,256
• Gabe Kaplan, $131,424

Deeb won the tournament despite being short-stacked nearly the entire 14 hours of the final table. At one point during heads-up play with Fitoussi, Deeb was out-chipped about $2 million to $14 million. The final hand of the event was dealt around 5 a.m. Friday. The final table started 2 p.m. Thursday.

Last year's champion, Chip Reese, was eliminated right near the money bubble.