Coming into Day Five of the World Poker Tour’s latest stop in Connecticut, the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, six men were guaranteed that they would reach the final table. Four unfortunate souls, although taking home a nice payday, would not be able to say that they officially reached that elusive WPT final table goal. Thus, play was unusually tight for much of Monday afternoon as the WPT final table was officially determined.
Full Tilt Poker’s Mike Matusow led the final ten to the table but was closely followed by several tough opponents. With David “The Dragon” Pham, former Foxwoods chip leader Jonathan Jaffe and defending WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little all on his left and holding strong chip stacks, not only Matusow but the rest of the table had to tentatively step into the day. After the opening call of “shuffle up and deal” rang at noon Eastern Time on Monday, it took approximately fifteen hands for any action to occur.
The first ripple of change at the final table happened when the previously short stacked Dmitri “Jim Dawgs” Haskaris went from the outhouse to the penthouse. In a hand that was raised three times prior to his action, Haskaris got the remainder of his stack of about 500,000 to the center. Priced into the call, Jaffe added about 40,000 in chips and rolled over only 10-4 against Dmitri’s pocket Aces. When the board only helped to improve Haskaris to a boat, he had nearly tripled up and returned to the game.
After the elimination of Tom Nguyen in tenth place ($36,826), Jaffe went about getting back the chips he had given to Haskaris. In two consecutive hands he was able to detect river bluffs from Haskaris and Charles Marchese and his stack grew back in strength.
It would be another forty hands after this until another player left the game. Henry Doiban had come to the final table with a short stack and looked to get healthy against Jaffe. Doiban held the edge pre-flop with his pocket tens against Jaffe’s A-Q and the edge got better with nothing on the flop. The turn, however, brought an Ace that ended the day for Doiban in ninth place ($44,979).
Approximately ten hands after Doiban’s elimination, Jaffe and Haskaris went to war again. Both players held significant stacks and, once they decided to play the hand against each other, it was obvious that the victor would carry the lead to the WPT final table tomorrow night. After Jaffe raised from the cutoff, Haskaris went to the re-raise and was called. A flop of K-10-9 once again sparked action with Haskaris getting the remainder of his chips to the center of the table.
Haskaris had to feel good about his set of tens but was dismayed to see that Jaffe, holding Q-J, had flopped the nuts with a straight to the King. When the board failed to pair and deliver the full house, Dmitri Haskaris was gone in eighth ($58,147) and Jaffe was sitting on nearly four million in chips.
It would take another forty hands before the valiant Anthony Newman was the WPT final table bubble boy. He held out against all the larger stacks against him, even passing Matusow at one point to get out of the basement, before he finally mixed it up with Little. The race between Little’s suited K-Q and the pocket fours of Newman ended on the flop when a Queen hit and no four showed on the turn or river. Anthony Newman would end play for the night in seventh place ($85,283) and set up this final table:
Seat 1: David “The Dragon” Pham – 2,038,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Jaffe – 4,131,000
Seat 3: Jonathan Little – 2,021,000
Seat 4: Charles Marchese – 1,718,000
Seat 5: Jack Schanbacher – 1,592,000
Seat 6: Mike Matusow – 816,000
Final table play at the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods will start at 5PM Eastern Time tomorrow afternoon. Jaffe has built a nice chip lead and has position on most of the dangerous competitors other than Little. Pham, in making his seventh WPT final table, definitely has the drive for another championship on his resume. But don’t count out Mike Matusow; in 2008, we have been seeing a very different Matusow at the tables and the new Mike could be more dangerous than ever.
Poker News Daily will keep a watchful eye on the table tomorrow night and have a full report on the latest champion that is crowned on the World Poker Tour.
