The 2010 running of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT), wrapped up on Tuesday with 22 year old Jeff Forrest taking down the title for $548,000. He’s now one-for-one in WPT tournaments and told WPT officials during heads-up play, “I keep thinking I am going to wake up.”
The marathon final table lasted over 200 hands. The first player ousted was online poker pro Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania, who doubled up Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen with pocket sevens against pocket eights to cripple his stack to less than one big blind. On the next hand, Charania committed his slim holdings with 6-3, but ran into Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese’s full house. Charania picked up $104,000 for his run and boosted his career WPT earnings to nearly $250,000.
Despite the gifted chips from Charania, Stammen hit the rail in fifth place in the World Poker Finals. Stammen open-shoved all-in with A-10 and picked up a call from Dave Inselberg, who tabled A-Q. Both players flopped their respective kickers, but Inselberg remained out in front with a pair of queens. He rivered another queen to boot to send Stammen away $128,000 richer for his wear.
Nikolai Yakovenko was the World Poker Finals’ fourth place finisher. Yakovenko moved all-in on a flop of K-8-7 and promptly showed pocket aces for an overpair to the board. However, Inselberg flipped over K-8 for top two pair. A running 3-9 didn’t improve matters for Yakovenko, who pulled down $170,000. Marchese held a commanding chip lead entering three-handed play with a stack of over four million, while Inselberg had 2.4 million and Forrest was below one million.
Inselberg and Forrest quickly doubled through Marchese. Then, Marchese and Forrest exchanged double ups until the former finally met his match. Marchese was all-in with Big Slick and up against Forrest’s K-6 offsuit. However, the door card was a six, vaulting Forrest into the lead following the three-outer, and no help came on the turn or river for the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event winner. Marchese collected $211,000 for his run and Forrest entered heads-up play as a 5:2 chip leader over Inselberg.
Heads-up play lasted all of 10 hands. In the final pot of the WPT tournament, Inselberg called all-in on a flop of 9-8-5 and showed 9-6 for top pair and an inside straight draw. Forrest tabled pocket queens, which turned into a set when a queen hit on the turn. The river failed to fill Inselberg’s gutshot and Forrest took down the title at the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals. Inselberg qualified for the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament by winning a $250 satellite and cashed for over $325,000.
Forrest’s monster payday includes a $25,000 seat into the end-of-season WPT Championship event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Here’s how the final table cashed out:
1. Jeff Forrest – $548,752
2. Dave Inselberg – $325,608
3. Thomas Marchese – $211,759
4. Nikolai Yakovenko – $170,773
5. Keven Stammen – $128,650
6. Mohsin Charania – $104,741
Next up for the WPT on U.S. soil is the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, which will be held from December 3rd to 8th at the Bellagio. In the meantime, WPT officials will make trips to Amneville and Marrakech for events this month. Both stops will not be televised.
