Press Release
22-YEAR-OLD JEFF FORREST BATTLES POKER'S FINEST TO WIN FOXWOODS WORLD POKER FINALS
22-Year Old Jeff Forrest Battles Poker's Finest To Win WPT® Foxwoods World Poker Finals
Young Guns of Poker Take Down Another WPT Title and Solidify Their Season IX Dominance Over Poker's Old Guard
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mashantucket, CT (Wed., Nov. 3) — Poker's youth brigade was on the march at the World Poker Tour® Foxwoods World Poker Finals this week as five of the six final table players were 26 or younger. In the end, Jeff Forrest, 22, captured the title when his pocket queens held up against veteran David Inselberg’s 9-6. Forrest takes home $548,752 for the victory and 800 WPT Player of the Year points.
Though the oldest of the group, Inselberg proved the comeback kid of the night. He was perpetually short-stacked from Day 1 on, never cracking the top half of the end of day chip counts and entering the final table with only 344,000 in chips. Inselberg ground out pot after pot against Thomas Marchese who lost a dominating lead. Marchese entered the final table with more than a million chip lead, having amassed more chips than the 3rd-6th place players combined. Amazingly, Inselberg came from behind to take control of the table and maintain chip leader status through much of final table action only to lose ground in the end to an aggressive Forrest.
"My plan coming in was to play a really aggressive style, try to play a lot of small pots and take down as many as I could," said Forrest. On his win he remarked, "It doesn't even feel real yet. I don't know when it will hit me that I'm a WPT champion. Definitely a dream come true."
Forrest's victory is even more impressive considering the Foxwoods World Poker Finals was among the toughest fields on the tour this year. Forrest weaved his way through a challenging Day 5, with a final 12 that included prior WPT Foxwoods Finals Champion Hoyt Corkins as well as Jason Mercier and Sorel Mizzi. This after climbing past an overall field of poker's best including Barry Greenstein, Kathy Liebert, Gavin Smith, Josh Arieh, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel and recent WPT Season IX champions Dwyte Pilgrim and Andy Frankenberger.
The world’s best young players, many having cut their teeth online, have been taking the WPT by storm this season. This is the third U.S.-based tournament this year to be won by a player under 30 years old.
Final Table Standings and Payouts
1st - Jeff Forrest - $548,752
2nd - David Inselberg - $325,608
3rd - Thomas Marchese - $211,759
4th - Nikolai Yakovenko - $170,773
5th - Keven Stammen - $128,650
6th - Mohsin Charania - $104,741
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Haley Jones, hjones@worldpokertour.com
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About World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour (WPT) is one of the most recognized names in internationally televised gaming and entertainment with brand presence in land-based tournaments, television, online and mobile. Leading innovation in the sport of poker since 2002, WPT ignited the global poker boom with the creation of a unique television show based on a series of high stakes poker tournaments. WPT has broadcast globally in over 150 countries and is currently filming its all-new ninth season. WPT also offers a unique online subscription and sweepstakes-based poker club, ClubWPT.com, which is available in 38 states across the U.S. WPT participates in strategic brand license, partnership and sponsorship opportunities. WPT is a subsidiary of PartyGaming Plc. For more information, visit www.worldpokertour.com.
