Hasin Habib is the clubhouse leader at the end of Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE event.

Since its inception in 2006 the $50,000 HORSE event at the World Series of Poker has been one of the crown jewels of the poker tournament schedule. The 2009 event kicked off Friday and the talk instantly tured to the impact the economic downturn has had on the poker world.

Just 15 minutes before cards were to be in the air the registration clocks showed only 26 players registered. Some of those players began to gather in the Amazon Room and just before the schedule Noon start time. Only four minutes before the biggest buy-in event in the history of the WSOP was to kick-off tournament officials announced the start time had been pushed back an hour due to a lack of players.

Greg Mueller, who had registered for the event and arrived on time, was less than happy with the lack of players and decision to push the start time back to 1 pm. Rather than wait for more players to register Mueller unregistered himself and entered the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout starting at 5 pm.

When the tournament finally did kick off at 1 pm 62 players were registered.  Tournament officials admitted that a rule permitting late registrations to receive a full chip stack rather than be blinded off from the start of the tournament may have contributed to players not registering prior to Noon. Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack ensured that once the WSOP is over the rule would be reviewed.

In all 95 players ponied up the $50,000 to play for the bracelet and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy including defending champion Scotty Nguyen, 2007 champ Freddy Deeb and a collection of poker’s biggest names. Last year 148 players entered the tournament, one more than the 2007 field. The inaugural event, won by Chip Reese, had 143 players. After the six 90 minute levels though there was one name at the top of the leaderboard nearly by himself, Hasan Habib. The 47 year old bagged up 387,000 chips at the end of the night.

The momentum swung for Habib on a hand of Seven-card Stud 8-or-better. In a three-way pot with Justin “BoostedJ” Smith and Jason Gray, Habib caught an ace on seventh street to make the wheel and scoop the pot. The 100,000 pot put Habib in control for the rest of the night and took some momentum from the 21 year old Smith who had been near the chip lead early on.

“It was a great card for me, for sure,” said Habib. “I was trying to represent a full house to get (Smith) to lay down his kings so I bet blind on the end. As it turned out I needed an ace or a six to win anything and lucky for me it was the ace and I scooped.

Habib, who has a single bracelet to his name, admitted that coming out on top of the prestigous tournament would easily be the highlight of his career. “(Winning this) would be huge for me,” said Habib at the end of the night. “A dream for sure. It would be unbelievable and I’m shooting for it for sure.”

“Hopefully the momentum carries over.”

Other players who had strong starts were Martin Vallo (347,200), Matt Glantz (300,000), Justin Smith (295,000) and David Benyamine (262,000). Of the 95 players who started the day only four were unable to survive to the second day: Steve Zolotow, David Singer, Alexander Kostritsyn and just before play wrapped for the night, Dan Shak.

One player who was very vocal about throughout the day was Mike Matusow. The Mouth was one of the more vocal players complaining about the late start time and the perceived advantage for players registering late and receiving a full stack. However as play wrapped up for the night and Matusow bagged up 112,000 chips - 38,000 less than the starting stacks - he was more interested in talking about how great he played throughout the day.

“I won one pot and one pot on fourth street. Those were the only two hands I won in seven hours,” said Matusow. “When I won a big pot right at the end they all went berserk. Like ‘How could I have gotten there?’, ‘How could I have called this?’”

“I never gave away one bad chip all day. I played so far above the rim. Nobody in the world could have played better than I did today. Then I get lucky on a hand that they say I should’ve folded on (fifth street) but I was down to my last 50,000 and I decided I was going to hit it. And I called and I won it.”

Despite having less chips to start Day 2 with than he started Day 1 with Matusow firmly believes he’s got them right where he wants them in only a way that Matusow can.

“I’ve got 112,00 and I ran like shit and they’re all fucked come tomorrow.”

Action resumes with the first of five scheduled levels at 4 pm Saturday. Follow the Live Updates and Chip Counts throughout the day.

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