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Poker Players Championship
Sport	Poker, 9-game mix
Founded	Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. (2006)
Owner(s)	Caesars Entertainment Corporation (2006–present)
Most recent; champion(s)	Daniel Negreanu
Most titles	Michael Mizrachi (3); Brian Rast (3)
Official website	Official website

The Poker Players Championship is a $50,000 buy-in event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Added in the 2010, it replaced the former $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship as the highest-stakes mixed-games event.^[1] It is considered among the most prestigious events on offer at the WSOP.^[2]

History

In 2006, the inaugural event was called the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship and was the largest buy-in tournament at the World Series of Poker until the introduction of the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop in 2012. Chip Reese defeated Andy Bloch heads-up the 2006 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship to win $1,784,640 and the event's first title.^[3]

In 2007, professional poker player Freddy Deeb defeated Bruno Fitoussi after 17 hours of final table play to win $2,276,832 and his second bracelet.^[4] Chip Reese died in December 2007; efforts were made in 2008 to honor Reese by the WSOP which created the Chip Reese memorial trophy that each champion can hold for one year.^[5] Scotty Nguyen won the 2008 tournament and received the trophy. Controversy ensued when Nguyen, intoxicated during the final table of the tournament, began berating other players, notably Michael DeMichele, without receiving any penalty.^[6]

In 2010, $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship changed to the Poker Player's Championship and became the first 8-game mix version of the event. In 2015, the Poker Players Championship changed to a 10-game mix format. Unlike the previous five-game rotation of H.O.R.S.E. and the eight-game rotation that followed,^[7] the 10-game mix consisted of limit 2–7 triple draw lowball, limit Texas hold'em, limit Omaha/8B, limit razz, limit seven-card stud, limit seven card stud/8B, no-limit Texas hold'em with antes, pot-limit Omaha, badugi, and 2–7 no-limit draw lowball. The final table was played out exclusively in no-limit Texas hold'em in 2010 and 2011 to appeal to television viewers.^[1] The event has not televised since and has been played out in a mixed-game format for its entire duration. After declining turnout for the 10-game version in 2015, the tournament reverted to the previous 8-game format and remained that way until 2021. In 2021, no-limit 2-7 lowball draw was added back to make the tournament a 9-game mix.

Michael Mizrachi became the first two-time champion after winning the event in 2010 and 2012, earning him $1,559,046 and $1,451,527 respectively.^[8] Brian Rast became the second two-time champion after winning the event in 2011 and 2016, earning him $1,720,328 and $1,296,097 respectively.^[9]^[10] Daniel Cates became the third two-time champion, and first person to win the event in consecutive years after winning the event in 2021 and 2022, earning him $954,020 and $1,449,103 respectively.^[11]

At the 2018 WSOP, Mizrachi won the event for a record third time, defeating 2014 champion John Hennigan heads up and winning $1,239,126.^[12]

At the 2023 World Series of Poker, Rast became the second three-time winner of the event and earned $1,324,747 for his efforts.^[13]

Summary of events

Year	Event name	Mix	Entrants	Winner	Prize	Second	Third
2006	$50,000 H.O.R.S.E.	5-game	143	David "Chip" Reese	$1,716,000	Andy Bloch	Phil Ivey
2007	$50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.	5-game	148	Freddy Deeb	$2,276,832	Bruno Fitoussi	John Hanson
2008	$50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.	5-game	148	Scotty Nguyen	$1,989,120	Michael DeMichele	Erick Lindgren
2009	$50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.	5-game	95	David Bach	$1,276,802	John Hanson	Erik Sagström
2010	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	116	Michael Mizrachi	$1,559,046	Vladimir Shchemelev	David Oppenheim
2011	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	128	Brian Rast	$1,720,328	Phil Hellmuth	Minh Ly
2012	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	108	Michael Mizrachi (2)	$1,451,527	Chris Klodnicki	Andy Bloch
2013	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	132	Matthew Ashton	$1,774,089	Don Nguyen	John Hennigan
2014	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	102	John Hennigan	$1,517,767	Brandon Shack-Harris	Jesse Martin
2015	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	10-game	84	Mike Gorodinsky	$1,270,086	Jean-Robert Bellande	David "ODB" Baker
2016	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	91	Brian Rast (2)	$1,296,097	Justin Bonomo	Eric Wasserson
2017	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	100	Elior Sion	$1,395,767	Johannes Becker	Isaac Haxton
2018	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	87	Michael Mizrachi (3)	$1,239,126	John Hennigan	Dan Smith
2019	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	8-game	74	Phil Hui	$1,099,311	Josh Arieh	John Esposito
2020	not held
2021	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	9-game	63	Daniel Cates	$954,020	Ryan Leng	Paul Volpe
2022	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	9-game	112	Daniel Cates (2)	$1,449,103	Yuri Dzivielevski	Naoya Kihara
2023	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	9-game	99	Brian Rast (3)	$1,324,747	Talal Shakerchi	Matthew Ashton
2024	$50,000 The Poker Players Championship	9-game	89	Daniel Negreanu	$1,178,703	Bryce Yockey	Chris Brewer