2008 Foxwoods Poker Classic Recap
Twice a year, hundreds of top pros venture to a 4.7 million square-foot clearing in the Connecticut forest to put up $10,000 for a chance to win millions and a WPT title. This year, three hundred and forty-six players met up at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino for the 2008 Foxwoods Poker Classic.
As is usually the case, the top of the Day 1 leader board was filled with big-name pros. Erick “Erick Lindgren” Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, and Ted Forrest all finished the day at or above $100,000 in chips, and Raj Patel, the champion of the previous year, surprised many by earning the day’s title of chip leader with $192,000.
Two hundred and eighteen players returned for Day 2, hoping to ruin Patel’s dream of a repeat victory. The field shrank quite a bit, and when the dust cleared only Paul Snead was able to overtake Patel’s chip lead. Snead bested the remaining seventy-two players with his $472,700 stack, while Patel continued his success and ended the day with $393,700.
The players played down to a field of thirty-three on Day 3, and once again Patel ended the day second in chips ($723,500), this time trailing only Allen Bari ($814,500). Big names Ted Forrest, Erik Seidel, and Paul Darden all remained in contention, each with around $400,000 in chips.
The fast pace of the previous days brutally contrasted the excruciatingly slow action on Day 4. The first elimination of the day didn’t come until forty-five minutes into play, when Ted Forrest’s 10-10 sucked out on Daniel Woolson’s K-K. The field eventually played down to the awkward number of nine (one less than a regular final table, three more than a WPT TV final table) before calling it a night. Erik Seidel and Adam Katz climbed to the top of the chip counts, each with over two million, while WPT final table mainstay Ted Forrest finished not far behind with $1.6 million. The players headed into Day 5 needing to eliminate only three players before the TV final table was set.
The WPT and their fans got their wish on Day 5 as Ted Forrest, Erik Seidel, and Adam Katz all survived to make the TV table. Play took slightly longer than expected to lose the final three players, but four hours after shuffle-up-and-deal, we had our lineup set:
Seat 1: Erik Seidel - $3,820,000
Seat 2: Frank Cieri - $403,000
Seat 3: Robert Richardson - $526,000
Seat 4: Ted Forrest - $2,347,000
Seat 5: Andrew Barta - $1,522,000
Seat 6: Adam Katz - $2,311,000
The new WPT final table structure should get credit for two things in this event. First, the final table lasted almost twelve hours and two hundred and twenty-nine hands. Second, arguably the best player at the table took home the title. In the past, the WPT has been criticized for its fast end-game blind structure, which many felt turned the final table into an all-in shove/luck-fest. Erik Seidel utilized the new slower structure to his advantage, playing small pots and waiting for his less experienced opponents to make mistakes. The table was three-handed for six hours, followed by a one-hand heads-up match (more like a one-hand blowup by runner-up Robert Richardson), and Erik Seidel took home his first WPT title en route to moving to the top of CardPlayer’s POY race.
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