Registration remained open through the first level of play on Friday in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals. When the cash boxes closed for business, 242 players had registered for the $10,000 buy-in tournament, a drop of 31% from the 353 that entered last year.
In 2009, Cornel Andrew Cimpan took home $910,000 for besting the field at Foxwoods. This year, the winner will pocket $548,000, the smallest first place prize given out since the Hollywood Poker Open dished out $391,000 to its winner in March. Carlos Mortensen became the WPT’s all-time money leader in that event after besting Mike Mustafa heads-up.
Kyle Bowker, who goes by the handle “kwob20” online, leads the way after Day 2 with a stack of 260,100, or 162 big blinds. He’s barely edging out poker pro Josh Arieh, who will come armed to Day 3 this afternoon with a stack of 258,200, or 161 big blinds. Sixty-nine players remain in the hunt for the coveted WPT bracelet and a seat in the end-of-season Championship event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Foxwoods hosts World Series of Poker (WSOP) circuit events, WPT tournaments, and the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. A brief history of Foxwoods. Situated on Mashantucket Pequot tribal grounds, Foxwoods Casino debuted in 1986 as a bingo hall. In the early 1990’s it added slots and table games and, in 1995, opened its poker.
Mortensen was a late casualty of the World Poker Finals last night, as his club flush draw failed to materialize on the turn or river when he was all-in. Josh Bergman was his executioner and scooped the pot with pocket kings. Also departing was former WPT champ McLean Karr, who moved all-in with K-Q on a board of J-8-6-J for complete air. Another player called with pocket nines, which held up when the river was a 10.
Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith delivered back-to-back eliminations of Brian Lemke and Nick Schulman. The former is a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, while the latter was recently featured on MTV’s documentary series “World of Jenks.” Smith flopped a set of threes to send Lemke to the rails, while Schulman was sent home in a hand where both pros flopped top pair, but Smith had Schulman out-kicked.
Other pros sent packing on Friday included Victor Ramdin, Matt “All In At 420” Stout, and Cimpan. The defending champ Tweeted his exit for the world to read: “Out of Foxwoods. Had a chance to double for the 3rd time my AQ vs. QQ on a 10 X X K board with me having nut flush draw and over and a gutshot.” Needless to say, none of Cimpan’s draws hit and he was relegated to the rail.
Here’s how the top 10 in chips look after two days of play in the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals:
1. Kyle “kwob20” Bowker – 260,100
2. Josh Arieh – 258,200
3. Bryon Springer – 247,300
4. Gavin Smith – 245,800
5. Todd Freeman – 229,100
6. Ben Klier – 228,500
7. Besnik Ziba – 188,400
8. Ronald Lee – 187,100
9. Christopher Bonita – 184,400
10. Eli Berg – 177,200
The 69 players remain comprise a pro-heavy field. The survivors include:
Pro Victor Ramdin came out on top of the World Poker Finals opener at Foxwoods Resort Casino in October at Mashantucket, Conn., pocketing $65K and the trophy after a six-player chop ended the $600 kickoff that drew 1,079 players. But the signature event of the series was the $2,500 championship that saw 107 runners. The third stop of the 2019/20 World Series of Poker Circuit crowned a new champion at Foxwoods in the $1,700 Main Event as Justin Carey emerged victorious, denying Maurice Hawkins his fourteenth.
Hoyt Corkins – 155,400
Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania – 148,200
Barry Greenstein – 109,900
“Miami” John Cernuto – 106,300
Brock “t soprano” Parker – 105,000
Jason Mercier – 99,500
Chad Brown – 88,800
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – 81,100
Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler – 60,800
Erik Seidel – 50,500
Todd Terry – 37,000
When the action paused for the day, the blinds where in Level 11, where the price of poker is 800-1,600 with an ante of 200. The action resumes today at Noon ET. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT headlines.
A total of 353 players entered the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals, a drop of 14% from the 412 who took to the felts last year. At the end of Day 1, Todd Terry leads the way.
Foxwoods Poker Room Open
Terry made the final table of August’s WPT Legends of Poker, banking $231,000 for his third place performance. Terry holds 165,000 chips in the New England casino entering Day 2 play on Friday, when 206 survivors will resume at Noon ET. Late action on Thursday featured Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania doubling up at the expense of Gavin Griffin. Charania was all-in pre-flop holding A-Q, dominating the 6-8 of Griffin. The Team PokerStars Pro front man flopped top pair on a board of 8-3-2, but Charania hit a queen on the turn to move in front for good. Charania finished in the money three times during the WPT’s seventh season.
Among those who stood atop the leaderboard when play concluded at Foxwoods was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who gained a chunk of his chips when an opponent ran pocket kings into Mizrachi’s aces. Mizrachi owns a stack of 125,900 entering Day 2, good for sixth overall. He is in search of his third WPT title after taking down the L.A. Poker Classic during Season 3 and the Borgata Poker Classic during Season 4. Despite his early success, he has not cashed in a WPT tournament since March of 2008.
Holding the 11th largest chip stack after one day of play is Jonathan Jaffe, the runner-up in the World Poker Finals last year. Jaffe owns a mountain of 116,000 chips and is one of 18 players to cross the six-figure mark. Jaffe earned $670,000 for his second place showing in 2008, as he fell to Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little heads-up at the feature table. Also making last year’s six-handed finale were David “The Dragon” Pham, Charles Marchese, Jack Schanbacher, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.
Foxwoods Poker Room Schedule
Here are the chip counts after one day of play in the $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament:
1. Todd Terry – 165,700
2. Danny Shiff – 159,525
3. Adam Lippert – 159,000
4. Jack Schanbacher – 148,775
5. Soheil Shamseddin – 126,000
6. Michael Mizrachi – 125,900
7. Chris Moore – 123,700
8. Danny Illingworth – 121,600
8. Alan Sasser – 121,600
10. John Barucci – 119,950
Other players still in the hunt for the $910,000 first place prize include:
Matt “mattg1983” Graham – 99,175
Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp – 94,575
Christian “charder” Harder – 91,575
Poorya Nazari – 89,400
Jason Mercier – 84,750
Steve Sung – 76,275
Nick Schulman – 76,000
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 75,100
Nenad Medic – 69,150
Prahlad Friedman – 67,450
Cornel Cimpan – 65,450
John “World” Hennigan – 61,250
Matt Hawrilenko – 51,250
“Cowboy” Kenna James – 49,425
Chad “lilholdem954” Batista – 47,000
Kathy Liebert – 46,025
Gavin Smith – 42,375
Liv Boeree – 40,550
Steve Brecher – 35,675
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron – 34,475
Victor Ramdin – 32,750
Amnon Filippi – 31,675
Adam “Roothlus” Levy – 31,200
Tommy Vedes – 30,450
Gavin Griffin – 21,125
World Poker Finals Foxwoods 2020
When play ended on Thursday, the action was in Level 8 and blinds were 400-800 with a 100 chip ante.
One of the toughest draws on Friday is at Table 22, where World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier will join fellow online poker pros Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron. Also at Table 22 will be Tommy Vedes, who is fresh off winning the WPT’s Festa al Lago event in October, and John “World” Hennigan, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.
The WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals crowns a champion next Tuesday, November 10th. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.